Independent Chinese Documentary: Alternative Visions, Alternative Publics

ISBN-13: 9780748695621 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 216 str.

Dan Edwards

Opis

Since the turn of the twenty-first century there has been an explosion in Chinese independent documentary filmmaking. But how are we to understand this vibrant burst of activity? Are these films brave expressions of dissidence, or are they part of a broader, more complex push to expand the terms of public discourse in the People's Republic?
Considering the relationship between independent documentaries and China's official film and television sectors, this timely study explores the ways in which independent films probe, question and challenge the dominant ideas and narratives circulating in the state-sanctioned public sphere.
Based on detailed interviews with Chinese documentary filmmakers that are rarely available in English, the author draws on his own insights as a journalist working in Beijing to provide a detailed analysis of key contemporary documentaries. This groundbreaking book reveals a sustained attempt to forge an alternative public sphere, where the views and experiences of petitioners, AIDS sufferers, dispossessed farmers and the victims of Mao's repression can be publicly aired for a small but steadily growing public.
About the series: Edinburgh Studies in East Asian Film tackles all aspects of East Asian cinema, encompassing its major genres, its leading auteurs, links between regional cinematic traditions and the growth of transnational cinema.

Spis treści

List of Illustrations; Acknowledgements; A Note on Terminology; Introduction; Defining Independence in a Chinese Context; Engineering Hegemony in Today’s China; China’s Official Public Sphere as an Arena of Hegemonic Influence; What Distinguishes Independent Documentaries from State-sanctioned Representations?; Chapter One: From Underground Practice to Alternative Public Sphere; The New Documentary Movement as an Underground Filmmaking Practice; Independent Documentary Culture in the Digital Era; Chapter Two: A Public of Viewer-producers; U-thèque: Screening Group, Training Centre and Production Collective; Participatory Documentary Practice: Meishi Street; Participatory Documentary as Rural Reconstruction; Chapter Three: Remembering the Past, Reclaiming History; The Chinese Amnesia and Official Historical Representations; Reclaiming the Historical Subject: Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul; Reclaiming the Public Memorial: Though I Am Gone; A Growing Body of Historical Testimony; Chapter Four: The Right to be Public and a Public with Rights; Documentary and the Rights Defence Movement; Provoking an Interclass Response: Taishi Village; AIDS and Activism: The Central Plains and Care and Love; The Impact of Activist Documentaries in Contemporary China; Chapter Five: The Ethics of Encounter in Chinese Documentary; The Perceived Crisis of Values in Contemporary China; Complicity and Reflexivity: Paper Airplane; The Ethics of Portraying the Powerless: Petition; Ethical Questions as Political Threat in China’s Alternative Public Spheres; Afterword: Future Prospects for the Alternative Public Sphere of Independent Documentary; Glossary of Chinese Terms; Filmography; Bibliography; Index