(Ecns.cn)--Zheng Qiong, the founder of China's first private documentary film company, is currently busy preparing for the Third iDOCs International Documentary Forum in Beijing, which will be held from December 12 to 16. For years, Zheng has struggled against many obstacles to organize the forums and achieve success for her company, yet this labor of love has often been far from satisfactory.
Since 2004, Zheng has had opportunities to work with Chinese directors and foreign film crews from Canada and the Netherlands. With exposure to so many different styles of documentaries, Zheng felt that it was necessary to share such works with others who might not have to access to them.
In 2009, Zheng began to make her dream a reality by registering a private company named iDOCS, but the operation did not proceed as smoothly as expected.
With no private funding or financial support from the government, the company was soon paralyzed. Moreover, documentaries have a small audience in any market, but in China the industry is still relatively undeveloped. "China may be behind the Western world by more than 100 years in terms of documentaries," said Zheng.
Yet Zheng persevered through long waits for government approval, questionable funding and tedious contract negotiations, all of which nearly drove her out of her mind as she prepared for the first forum.
"I would be happy and confident in the morning, thinking that I might sign a contract with an investor, but in the afternoon I would be deeply disappointed after failing to close the deal," recalled Zheng.
She also had to deal with problems caused by inexperienced employees. "Some of my employees had never engaged in work like this, and they thought they had done something out of kindness, but the result would turn out to be a mistake."
There were many times when Zheng thought she could take no more, but "there is always hope when things become desperate," she said. Once, when she thought she would have to stop preparations for the forum due to a shortage of money, she received 1,000 yuan (US$157.17) with a letter, which read "buy yourself a drink, but do not give up on your dream."
Though a small amount, the donation helped Zheng recover from her despair.
With the help of many friends, the first forum was held on time in 2009. Although the end result was less than satisfactory, the holding of the forum reassured Zheng that it was what she wanted to do.
However, in the first half of 2011 Zheng was drawn into a lawsuit by one of her top team members, who resigned just three months before the third forum. This misfortune pushed Zheng and her already small team into a tough situation, as much work was still left to be done.
"At that moment, I just felt hopeless," Zheng said.
But the following day, a stranger came into her office and insisted on donating 200 yuan (US$31.43). Once again a person's seemingly random offer of assistance inspired Zheng to continue.
"We may be crazy to do this," she said, "but this is what we want to do – to expose more people to good documentaries and help them learn more about foreign cultures."
The future is hard to predict – even Zheng herself cannot guarantee how many more forums she will organize – but she says she will continue to work as long as she can.
