Chinese Independent Documentary Cinema in the Age of New Media, from 1990 to 2020 (84369)
Session Chair: Roman Kusaiko
Wednesday, 30 October 2024 12:55
Session: Session 1
Room: Room 110
Presentation Type:Oral Presentation
Wei Dan's documentary, The Ark (2020) premiered to international acclaim in 2020 but faced censorship in China, precluding theatrical release. To reach Chinese audiences, independent documentarists like Wei Dan, turning to free online distributions. Many Chinese audiences were shocked by this, and questioned “What drives these filmmakers to share their films online for free?”. This paper tries to answer this question by exploring the historical background of Chinese independent documentary cinema at different stages.
This research will offer a non-binary perspective and insights into Chinese independent documentary filmmaking by tying film studies with media and culture studies. The research will be structured into three primary sections, with distinct historical backdrops for each section. It will employ typical case studies to illustrate the characteristics of the evolution of Chinese independent documentary at various points in time, adding to our knowledge of how new media introductions impacted Chinese independent documentary filmmaking at different times. Section one will use Wu Wenguang’s Jianghu: Life on the Road (1999) to explore how the introduction of Digital Video (DV) changed the way independent documentary filmmakers produced documentaries in the 1990s. Section two will use the Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival (known as Yunfest) to explore how the independent film festival brought ‘underground’ documentaries from ‘underground’ to the ‘public’ in the 2000s. Section three will examine relevant cases to illustrate how non-professionals used the internet to develop Chinese independent documentaries and how documentary filmmakers used the Internet to promote their works in the 2010s.
Authors:
Shiqi Li, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
About the Presenter(s)
Ms. Shiqi Li is a recent graduate of the University of Glasgow.
See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule
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