The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement (original) (raw)

2012, Visual Anthropology

This book is a welcome introduction to the recent and fast-developing world of independent documentary filmmaking in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The book's authors discuss a wide range of films made in the 1990s and 2000s, looking at subject matter, mode of production, relationship to major trends in documentary practice (most notably socialist realism, American direct cinema and French cine´ma ve´rite´), ethics, and viewing publics. They trace the development of Chinese independent documentary, highlighting the role played by historical events such as June 4th, 1989, and Deng Xiaoping's trip to the south in 1992, and the spread of digital video technology into China. A key concern debated throughout the book is the similarities and differences between independent documentaries of the 1990s and of the 2000s. At the start of the volume and Part One, Berry and Rofel introduce readers to the ''new documentary movement,'' sketch its historical context and characteristics, and overview the book's contents. They argue that contemporary Chinese filmmaking and television have been very influenced by the new Chinese documentary filmmakers, even though most Chinese couldn't tell you who they are. The new documentaries are characterized by ''on the spot realism'' (jishi), immediacy and spontaneity, as well as a focus on social inequality and people who are being left behind by China's market reforms. In Chap. 2, Lu Xinyu gives a history of the new documentary movement, a term that she coined to describe independent documentary in the PRC. While in some respects this movement emerged in opposition to socialist realism and state-sponsored documentaries (or ''special topics programs''), Lu points out that many of the first generation of documentary filmmakers worked in and were influenced by state media. Lu sees the main distinction of the new documentarians as being their practice of developing films from existing realities. As she puts it, ''Chinese new documentaries are responding to a reality they depict in contradistinction to dominant ideological versions of reality, which means that they are required to clarify their own ideology. This is the meaning as well as the power of the movement'' [25]. Lu sees an emphasis on observing reality in the first group