Rossiya TV Channel To Air Unique Color Footage About Birth Of People's Republic Of China

The Rossiya 1 and Rossiya 24 broadcasters will for the first time air a documentary based on unique color footage filmed by Soviet documentary makers back in the days of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), a documentary film director and the editor-in-chief of the VGTRK "Istoriya" TV channel, Alexey Denisov, told Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2019) The Rossiya 1 and Rossiya 24 broadcasters will for the first time air a documentary based on unique color footage filmed by Soviet documentary makers back in the days of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), a documentary film director and the editor-in-chief of the VGTRK "Istoriya" tv channel, Alexey Denisov, told Sputnik.

The release is timed to the 70th anniversary of the PRC's founding and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the young republic. A news story based on the unique archive footage will be aired in the Vesti Nedeli program on Rossiya 1 on Sunday, on the eve of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Russia.

The Soviet Union and the PRC established diplomatic relations on October 2, 1949, just a day after the latter's proclamation. The USSR became the first country to recognize the republic.

According to Denisov, in 1949, the Soviet Union sent a group of 17 documentary cameramen to China. For several months, they were making a documentary about the victory of Chinese Communists over the Kuomintang government.

The footage was shot in color, which was unprecedented at the time. Afterward, some of the footage was used in the black-and-white documentary "The Chinese People's Victory" (1950).

The lion's share of the material shot in color, Denisov says, was not used in the 1950 documentary and since the death of Joseph Stalin was sent to the state archive's special storage.

"When we were making a documentary about the youth of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who had been sent to a village to undergo seven-year re-education during the Cultural Revolution, I worked in the Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive on footage filmed in China over years. Back then, I learned that there are boxes containing colored footage, about 200 of them. When I discovered that no one had watched it in full for a long time, that the positives had faded, I decided to study this material in greater detail," the film director said.

Soon a great deal of material has been discovered - the one that no one has ever seen or aired, according to Denisov.

Apart from shooting the staged scenes of fighting for their movie, the Soviet documentary cameramen filmed a huge amount of other footage - such as views of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou; as well as newsreels from daily life, showing what people wear, what they eat, how street vendors and peasants live, and what their homes are like.

"Certainly, it is an absolutely fantastic footage because it features China from 70 years ago, which has disappeared, which does not exist anymore," Denisov stressed.

A part of footage, meanwhile, is fully dedicated to the proclamation of the People's Republic of China.

"In black and white, some episodes of the footage have been known [to the public], but, as it turned out, there are also episodes that were not aired before. One can see a lot of footage of [PRC founding father] Mao Zedong: how he talks with his colleagues, fellow party members, including informally. There is footage of his speech about the proclamation of the PRC," the film director said.

He noted that the unique footage also featured the city wall that used to surround Beijing. It was dismantled back in the mid-1960s during the ring road construction. Only three sections of the city wall have survived to the present day.

In addition, the footage features Soviet Ambassador to China Nikolai Roshchin's arrival in Beijing.

Next to him is legendary Soviet diplomat Sergei Tikhvinsky, who sent a secret telegram to Moscow on the republic's proclamation; received a dispatch on the recognition of the PRC and the establishment of diplomatic relations; and handed it to the Chinese leadership on October 2.

The viewers will be able to watch the documentary dubbed the "The Second Birth of the Celestial Empire" based on old colored newsreel on Rossiya 24 and Rossiya 1 channels. The work on the documentary took one and a half year.

"In order to show more materials, we made six mini-episodes. They will be aired on the Russia 24 channel beginning from September 16, then, on September 29, a documentary summarizing the most valuable colored shots will be aired. The series is titled "The Second Birth of the Celestial Empire," as the proclamation of the People's Republic of China marks the beginning of the new epoch. Back then, the country became united again following hundreds of years of challenges turning into a completely new state," the film director told Sputnik.

According to Denisov, many shots, which have been included in the documentary, were unknown to the public.

"This is, for sure, a sensational piece. I have not seen anything alike in my whole career on television. The shots are absolutely unique and of perfect quality. Moreover, they have been filmed by our great cameramen, many of whom went through the Great Patriotic War," Denisov noted.

The film director added that the documentary was a symbolic memorial to Soviet documentary cameramen, and a present to the viewers and Chinese people, who will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China and the establishment of the diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

Director of the Russian State Archive of Documentary Films and Photographs Natalia Kalantarova, in turn, told Sputnik that the archive footage made by the Soviet documentary makers and filmmakers and used in the film about China, dubbed "The Second Birth of the Celestial Empire" were not open to the public for a long time.

"Only experts were allowed. Those were the renowned directors, of course, whom the whole world knew. They used those materials. But since the relations with China were once friendly and then they cooled down, this footage was never released. They were kept with a 'limited access' label on them," Kalantarova added.

Now, according to the director, all the archives of the Russian State Archive of Documentary Films and Photographs are open to the public.

In her opinion, the unique color motion-picture newsreel that was used in "The Second Birth of the Celestial Empire" would be of great interest to many.

"I think that these materials would be in demand. Firstly, Alexei Denisov turned to it [footage], he picked it up, revived it. I think that after he makes it public, it would pave a way to it," Kalantarova said.

She also noted that so far no one has contacted the Russian State Archive of Documentary Films and Photographs regarding the possible transfer of some of the color newsreels as a gift to China for its 70th anniversary and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"You know, no. Such things have not been discussed with us. If the government decides to transfer the copies [to China], then the presidential administration or our management will let us know and ask to digitize certain materials for transmission to the Chinese side," the archive director explained.