“Sino Philes” is a co-production between Slate Takes Limited, a boutique visual media production company, and Helan Online, the Chinese multimedia platform of Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW).

Besides “Sino Philes”, Slate Takes Limited has a slate of Full- and Ultra-HD productions under its belt. They include web and TV corporate promos, live broadcasting at events, and production management, with a clientele of such brands as Nissan Infiniti, Credit Suisse, Red Bull, Jones Lang LaSalle, De Beers, Asia Tatler, Cosmopolitan, SKII, Macquarie, and Jack Morton. Other involvements include feature film production work and documentaries that have been selected for screening at film festivals, with the travel web series, “The Vagabond Project“, having garnered an award.

Slate Takes joined forces with Helan Online / RNW on this production for the main reason that RNW promotes free speech through independent journalism and the use of new media. Founded as the Dutch international public broadcaster in 1947, RNW is currently an independent media organisation that is active in China and 17 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Arab world, where freedom of expression is severely restricted. RNW offers information that is unavailable in local media due to legislation or taboo. It strives to create thought-provoking content for change-makers around the globe, and to provide a safe platform for them to tell their stories and exchange ideas.

The co-producers see “Sino Philes” as a different form of news reporting and documentary filmmaking, in hopes of finding a way around China’s “Great Fire Wall”, and exposing issues that are normally censored in China. While all eight webisodes were published on Helan Online’s YouTube channel, only six were published on Helan Online’s Tudou channel, with webisode 4, “The Tourist”, being blocked by Tudou unexpectedly. Unfazed, the co-producers hope to gain exposure for the film through other media platforms and channels.