Postcard: New York
"Chinese Realities/Documentary Visions", a 28-film series on show at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) until June 1, shows the mainland's documentary filmmakers have been producing interesting, often provocative works for more than 25 years.
"Chinese Realities/Documentary Visions", a 28-film series on show at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) until June 1, shows the mainland's documentary filmmakers have been producing interesting, often provocative works for more than 25 years.
Programmed by distributor dGenerate Films' Kevin Lee and MoMA film curator Sally Berger, the series features a selection of works that cover a wide range of subject matters and, also, demonstrate an unexpected degree of formal experimentation.
Among the works are Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers (1990) by Wu Wenguang, considered the father of China's modern documentary movement, and Wang Bing's three-part West of the Tracks (2003). The recent trend of merging documentaries with fictional drama is highlighted in Jia Zhangke's 24 City (2008) and Pema Tseden's Tibet-set Old Dog (2011). Also screening: Zhang Yimou's The Story of Qiu Ju (1992), to show the influence of documentary techniques on feature filmmaking.
Documentary filmmaking didn't properly arrive on the mainland until 1988, when China Central Television (CCTV) made and screened Presenting River Elegy. The six-part series was broadcast in June 1988 - a time of relative media and intellectual freedom - and provoked debate because its makers said traditional customs were an obstacle to progress.
But the documentary was labelled "anti-communist" in the media crackdown which followed the June 4 incident the next year, and even blamed for helping to incite the student revolt; some of the filmmakers were arrested, and some fled to the US.
"There was an openness in the arts and the media during the era of the economic reforms, and River Elegy illustrates that," says Lee. "It really caused a sensation, and there was a lot of discussion about the way it was describing China's future. It was remarkable to see that playing out in the state-sponsored media, on national broadcast television, and to see it generate the amount of discussion - and controversy - that it did. I don't think anything since has reached that level."