New York film festival canceled after organizer said filmmakers pressured by Chinese authorities

Many who pulled out of the independent film festival did not say why, but a few said they or their family members had been told to do so by Chinese authorities, organizer Zhu Rikun said.

Zhu Rikun spent months planning a film festival that never happened.

As the director of the inaugural IndieChina Film Festival, Zhu was set to welcome filmmakers and directors from China to New York City for a small showcase of independent Chinese films this week, but he said concerns over harassment led to the event’s suspension two days before it was scheduled to start on Nov. 8.

Every day this week, Zhu has been showing up to the empty venue he had booked for the film festival as a form of protest.

“It was not the film festival that I prepared for,” the filmmaker told NBC News on Friday morning.

In a statement ahead of the film festival’s cancellation, the organizer said he received messages saying that filmmakers, directors and producers from China set to participate in the event, as well as their relatives, were facing harassment.