Kickstart This: King of Peking

Would you like to see a heartwarming story about juggling fatherhood and movie piracy set against the backdrop of late 1990s China? If so, you should seriously consider backing King of Peking through the popular crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.

Set in 1998, King of Peking will follow a traveling film projectionist who, with the advent of DVD, starts a small pirated movie business from home in order to keep custody of his son. China is now widely thought of as the movie piracy capital of the world with DVDs of the latest blockbusters available from independent shops, street vendors, or via various websites, but King of Peking goes back to the 1990s to show how technological change has impacted ordinary people as much as studio shareholders.

King of Peking will be directed by Sundance labs alumnus Sam Voutas, who has drawn on his experience of being raised in Beijing to write the screenplay. Voutas looks set to continue his exploration of Beijing’s ever-changing landscape through crowd-pleasing storytelling: his first feature Red Light Revolution took a broadly humorous look at the proliferation of sex shops in the capital and received a rave review from VCinema blogger John Berra, who more recently placed it on his list of 10 great films set in Beijing for the British Film Institute. Red Light Revolution was released theatrically in Canada, the U.K and Singapore. It became a viral sensation in China when it was purchased by video-sharing site Tudou and racked up over 6 million views.

Check out the Kickstarter campaign for King of Peking for more details of the project’s very talented crew and the rewards on offer to backers, which include DVDs, HD digital downloads, T-shirts, posters, set visits, the chance to have your name in the credits, and professional consultation sessions with the filmmakers.

VCinema believes in putting its money where its mouth is, so we’ve made a pledge and wish the team all the best with completing King of Peking on schedule for release in 2016!