Ballinran documentary to explore how China’s auto industry could reshape our relationship with cars

Ballinran Entertainment signs a memorandum of understanding with Phoenix TV during a Canadian trade mission to China. From left in back are Tracy Diehl, Canadian consul general in Shanghai; Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture; and Francis Bilodeau, Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage. In front are Liu Qingsheng, vice president and head of Phoenix Chinese Channel, and Craig Thompson, president and executive producer of Ballinran Entertainment.

By: Galen Simmons

A Stratford-based production company is partnering with one of Hong Kong’s largest broadcasters on a new documentary examining how China’s rapidly evolving automotive industry is changing not only how vehicles are built, but how people interact with them.

Ballinran Entertainment and Phoenix TV signed a memorandum of understanding in Shanghai Oct. 13 to co-produce Driven: Inside China’s Automotive Revolution, a documentary exploring the technology, culture and global implications of China’s growing electric-vehicle industry. Ballinran founder and executive producer Craig Thompson said the goal is not to promote Chinese vehicles, but to help Canadians better understand an industry already reshaping automotive markets around the world and likely to have a growing influence in North America.

“We want to make a film that, it’s not a promotional film about the Chinese automotive industry, but it is a film to erase some misconceptions and misunderstandings about what is happening in China,” Thompson said. “Whether we like it or not, it’s going to wash up on our shores.”

The documentary will look beyond manufacturing and trade to explore how Chinese automakers are changing the cultural role of the car itself.

Thompson compared the transformation to the impact Henry Ford and mass-produced automobiles had on North American society more than a century ago, spawning everything from highways and gasoline infrastructure to drive-through restaurants and changing how people travelled and lived.

In China, Thompson said, widespread automobile ownership is comparatively recent, meaning manufacturers are developing vehicles around a much more connected, technology-driven lifestyle.

“Their approach to the car is not as a utility. It’s an extension of your life at home,” he said.

In China, cars are equipped with lidar, dozens of cameras and sensors, rotating heated and cooled massage seats, heads-up displays and artificial-intelligence systems capable of connecting with other devices.

“The car is just another device, another connected device,” Thompson said.

For southwestern Ontario and Stratford specifically, where the automotive and auto-parts sectors remain major employers, Thompson said understanding that shift is particularly important.

“It’s really a wake-up call, and how are we going to adapt to the changes that are already accelerating around the world?” he said.

The film will also examine what the growth of Chinese automakers means for consumers, workers and competing industries as those companies expand internationally. Thompson said the project will combine Ballinran’s experience producing documentaries for international audiences with Phoenix TV’s reach and knowledge of China.

Thompson said the MOU signed during Canada’s creative-industries trade mission was an important first step because securing partnerships and access is essential before filming can begin.

“Now that we have that permission and the partnership, we’re going to go ahead and start putting the team and the financing together to make the film,” he said.

The hope is to begin shooting in Shanghai in April during the city’s auto show.

For Thompson, the documentary ultimately comes back to education.

“We’re not coming out saying Chinese cars are good or bad,” he said. “We’re just showing what’s happening in China so that people watching this film can make their own decisions.”