Going Global: Chinese Independent Documentary

Gresham College

May 27

This lecture focuses on independently-produced Chinese documentary cinema, as it has entered the Anglophone market. Using “Plastic China” by award-winning director Wang Jiuliang as a case study, Dr Luke Robinson explores how cross-border collaborations impact documentary form and content, and how this may encourage particular viewer responses. He locates the documentary form in relation to broader liberal arguments about China’s place in the world and assesses the limitations of this approach to “going global” for independent Chinese documentary.