An independent film festival due to start in New York this weekend has been cancelled after several film-makers pulled out due to harassment from the Chinese authorities, raising concerns about transnational repression.

The inaugural IndieChina film festival was planned to take place between 8 and 15 November. But on 5 November, the festival’s curator, Zhu Rikun, posted on Facebook that he had been forced to cancel 80% of the planned screenings because film-makers had pulled out.

Zhu said that the requests primarily came from directors based in China, who cited “personal reasons” for changing their mind about screening their films. Directors based outside China said that their families back home had been contacted by the Chinese authorities, a common way of applying pressure to people beyond its borders.

The film festival was due to launch in New York this weekend. Photograph: IndieChina Film Festival

Zhu, who is based in New York, said that a colleague at his studio in Beijing had been taken away for questioning by the authorities and told not to work with him.

One of the festival’s venues received an anonymous letter claiming to be from a group of Chinese students living in New York who wanted the screening to be cancelled, Zhu said.

On Thursday, Zhu said that he had been forced to cancel the festival. “Given the current circumstances, if I do not suspend this edition of the film festival, anyone involved in the festival – whether directors, forum participants, associated staff, volunteers, or even audience members – could potentially face threats or harassment,” he said in a statement.

“This situation places me in a difficult ethical position. As both an organiser and an individual, I have no intention of putting anyone in danger, whether such danger is real or fabricated as a means of intimidation.”

“The Chinese government reached around the globe to shut down a film festival in New York City,” said Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This latest act of transnational repression demonstrates the Chinese government’s aim to control what the world sees and learns about China.”

Zhu Rikun said he felt that anyone involved could face threats or harassment if he did not cancel the event. Photograph: Marion Curtis/StarPix for NYFCCA/Shutterstock

Zhu is a renowned film-maker who was involved in China’s once active indie film scene. But the community has been pushed underground as the country’s authorities have cracked down on cultural activities that take place outside the Chinese Communist party’s control.

In 2014, China’s most prominent independent film festival was shut down and the curator’s archive was seized by the authorities.

In January, Chen Pinlin, a documentary film-maker, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after releasing a documentary about the 2022 “white paper” protests.

Several people associated with the festival have come under pressure from the Chinese authorities, with many choosing not to publicise their experiences, for fear of generating a further backlash.

Activists have said that China’s transnational repression efforts, particularly in the arts, have been ratcheting up. In August, an art gallery in Bangkok reportedly complied with requests from the Chinese embassy to censor details of an exhibition that referenced Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, places that the Chinese government deems sensitive.

The Chinese embassy in Washington has been approached for comment.

Additional research by Lillian Yang