China Now: Documentary Cinema and Media

4.0 credits

This course examines documentary as a critical vehicle of social change through the lens of contemporary Chinese documentary cultures. We start by revisiting the rise of the independent Chinese documentary movement since 1989, one of the most vibrant cultural movements in contemporary China. We will discuss the shifting significance of a variety of documentary films over time, while engaging with key issues in documentary studies, such as the creative treatment of reality and the ethics of documentary-making. We will also consider the expanded forms of documentary in the wider Chinese media ecology such as digital animation, short video montage, podcasting, and AI-generated documentary.