INDEPENDENT FILM MOVEMENT AND DOCUMENTARY FILMS IN CHINA

INDIE FILM MOVEMENT IN CHINA

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Zhao Liang Chris Berry said: Independent cinema in China not the same as independent film in the U.S.. In China, independent films are films the filmmakers do not send to the Chinese censors because they know they will not be passed. As a result, they cannot be screened commercially in China. This means that the style of format of most of the films is not related to a need to sell tickets. Sometimes people feel the films could have been edited more tightly. But that would only make sense if you were trying to sell them to TV stations, which is impossible in China. So, I think a whole new aesthetic based on sharing DVDs and viewing on computers has developed, in which viewing is an altogether more flexible practice. [Source: Chris Berry, professor at Kings College, London, dGenerate Films, November 14, 2013]

Wu Wenguang’s “Bumming in Beijing” (1990) is considered to mark the birth of independent cinema in the People’s Republic of China. To some the movement is defined as meaning production without government permission, China’s first film law in 2017 was understood by many to mean that such practices were illegal. which by some reckonings could be interpreted as meaning the movement is over, dead or moribund. The movement was at its peak in the 2000s before Xi Jinping came to power. The broader film culture associated with with independent cinema includes, the films, filmmaking, film festivals and film criticism.

According to the New York Times, "Few national cinemas are as vibrant as that of contemporary China. Similarly, there are few places in the world today where art and media practice share such an important role in addressing national memory and societal issues. For these and other reasons, some of the most important work being made in China today is made by independent artists, with techniques that challenge the conventions and boundaries of both documentary and fiction film."

Chinese independent films tend to focus on aspects of day-to-day life in China. They are usually low budget and often feature slow pacing, long takes and primitive editing, making some difficult to enjoy.Describing what have become cliches in independent Chinese films Shelly Kraicer wrote in dgeneratefilms.com: “Long-haired village boys, out of school, drifting aimlessly... grainy, dusty, brown-grey village-scapes... populated by said drifters being filmed” using “3 minute, 10 minute, even 20 minute-long takes” taken “from at least 50 meters from the subject” For close ups are — little DV cams, with the proviso that, held close to the subjects, they be shaken as vigorously as possible. The dialogue...threadbare... [Lots of] prostitutes.” [Source:Shelly Kraicer, dgeneratefilms.com]

La Frances Hui wrote in ChinaFile: Chinese documentaries have gained global attention in the past decade or so, thanks partly to the creative originality of young filmmakers and partly to a rapidly changing China that fascinates viewers from around the world. Wang Bing’s nine-hour epic "West of the Tracks" (2003), which chronicles the decline of state-owned industries in the city of Shenyang, garnered multiple international awards. Hu Jie’s "Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul" (2004), which details the gruesome experience of one young woman speaking out against Mao Zedong, led to its director’s becoming the subject of two chapters in Philip P. Pan’s acclaimed book, "Out of Mao’s Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China". Zhao Dayong’s "Ghost Town" (2009), about ethnic minorities in a small town in Yunnan province, received a major premiere at the New York Film Festival. More and more viewers rely on these documentaries to gain access to a real China, which is often obscured by the fanfare surrounding the country’s growing economic stature. [Source: La Frances Hui, China File, chinafile.com/china-through-independent-lens, 2012]

Websites: Chinese Film Classics chinesefilmclassics.org ; Senses of Cinema sensesofcinema.com; 100 Films to Understand China radiichina.com. dGenerate Films is a New York-based distribution company that collects post-Sixth Generation independent Chinese cinema dgeneratefilms.com; Internet Movie Database (IMDb) on Chinese Film imdb.com ; Wikipedia List of Chinese Filmmakers Wikipedia ; Shelly Kraicer’s Chinese Cinema site chinesecinemas.org ; Modern Chinese Literature and Culture (MCLC) Resource List mclc.osu.edu ; Love Asia Film loveasianfilm.com; Wikipedia article on Chinese Cinema Wikipedia ; Film in China (Chinese Government site) china.org.cn ; Directory of Interent Sources newton.uor.edu ; Chinese, Japanese, and Korean CDs and DVDs at Yes Asia yesasia.com and Zoom Movie zoommovie.com

Chinese Independent Filmmakers and Audiences

Xin Zhou wrote in Film Comment: “Largely because of the advent of digital cinema, the number of indie film productions in China has grown annually, but indie film festivalshave been forced to go underground. Indie music festivals once encountered similar challenges, gaining success as part of the local tourist economy but with the understanding that politically sensitive content would be removed. The same situation holds in indie film production today, with compromises necessary in order to have a commercial theatrical release. [Source: Xin Zhou, Film Comment, No. 28, 2014]

Known in Chinese as xianchang — or being "on the scene" — Chinese documentary-making involves shooting live and on location and abandoning studio-based filmmaking, dominant during the Maoist era, Evan Osnos of the New Yorker wrote in the early 2010s, "Film makers t use low-cost digital equipment to make films on controversial subjects and never bother to get government permission for their work that are considered at the vanguard of producing challenging films, The films are show overseas and in little publicized events in China like the YunFest film festival in Yunnan. Among these films are Zhao Laing’s “Crime and Punishment”, about rough interrogations at a remote police station, and Zhao Daying’s “Ghost Town”, which records the poverty in a remote mountain town far from the economic boom. [Source: The New Yorker ]

The audiences for these films in China are so small they are not really bothered with by authorities. The indie director Jian Yi said, “Independent documentaries do not reach a wide audience. A lot of the times, independent filmmakers could only show their works to one another. It is a closed and limited circle of people. “ But that is not always the case. “Though I’m Gone”, about a schoolteacher beaten to death by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, was scheduled to be screened at the Yunfest, which was postponed at the last minute because of the film. The maker of the film, Hue Jie, told The New Yorker that state security agents have visited him but he continues to be allowed to make films. “Though I’m Gone” was shown when the YunFest was later held in another Yunnan city.

History of New Chinese Documentary Films

On the evolution of Chinese independent cinema, and documentary in particular, Chris Berry said: 1) First, the new realism that appears in 1990 is observational documentary, which implies access to truth on the basis of empirical observation rather than Marxist analysis of visible reality. The “on the spot” and spontaneous quality of this kind of documentary aesthetic has not been superceded yet — it is the new normal. 2) Second, after the arrival of the mini-DV camera in the late 1990s, the field of independent cinema booms, and with it we have the age of the “individual filmmaker.” As any naïve faith in pure observational film drops away, a great number of different ways of working with on-the-spot material emerges. So, the second point is diversification. 3) Third, as the number of independent filmmakers grows, new issues emerge. People are less concerned about how to represent reality. Instead, the related questions of ethics and access become more crucial — the ethics of the relationship between the filmmaker and his or her subjects, and the question of who gets to make films, and who gets to speak on camera and about what. [Source: Chris Berry, professor at Kings College, London, dGenerate Films, November 14, 2013]

Up to the late 1990s, the independent documentary movement in China is small. It consists mostly of people working in TV stations who can borrow equipment. Amongst themselves, there is considerable emphasis on pure observational filmmaking and debate about what representational aesthetic can deliver a truth about reality. They police each other. But in 1997, mini-DV cameras become available in regular stores, and the potential population of filmmakers expands to the entire middle-class population. With the mini-DV camera, it is possible to work alone. This is what Wu Wenguang has called “individual filmmaking”. From this point on, all kinds of people can start making films and they do not have to follow any particular style. In practice, most of the people who start making independent documentaries after 1997 are not ordinary people like woman farmer Shao Yuzhen. For the most part, they have some kind of media and arts background. But the numbers boom and the styles proliferate. The only thing that stays the same is that they are still working with “on the spot” aesthetics (See Below). It is taken for granted that this is the way to observe the world, but it is also accepted that this material is always being shaped by the filmmaker, or the TV station, and so the emphasis moves to different ways to work with the material.

La Frances Hui wrote in ChinaFile: Chinese independent documentaries emerged around 1990. Some of the early works include Wu Wenguang’s “Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers” (1990), a film about struggling artists in Beijing; Duan Jinchuan and Zhang Yuan’s “The Square” (1994), which documents mundane daily activities in Tiananmen Square, just a few years after the crushing of the student movement of 1989; and Jiang Yue’s “The Other Bank” (1995), about the production of a theater performance. Rejecting the top-down, authoritative tone dominant in state-approved newsreels and propaganda, independent documentarians have adopted strategies to present the world they observe from the bottom up, often paying attention to society’s underclass using vérité techniques such as handheld camera and long uninterrupted takes. The stripped-down aesthetic captures the immediacy and authenticity of what is in front of the camera with minimal interference. [Source: La Frances Hui, China File, 2012]

Now decades later, independent documentary filmmaking is still evolving. Few early practitioners received formal training in filmmaking; some were associated with the television industry and had access to equipment. The proliferation of economical digital technology in the late 1990s allowed many more aspiring documentarians to join the ranks. Today, young people often seek to hone their skills at major films schools. They now have the means and education to reflect on their approaches to making documentaries. Increasingly, filmmakers are also widening their subject choices by moving beyond their immediate environments. Although there are still many challenges at home, this trend of documentary filmmaking is unstoppable, and will continue to go hand in hand with the rise of China.

Early Independent Chinese Films and the "On the Spot" Style

An important idea in understand early Chinese independent film is the emergence of an “on the spot” style. Chris Berry said: The Chinese word for this is “xianchang.” Originally, it meant “live,” as in “live TV.” So, it carried the idea of being present, spontaneity, absence of script or rehearsal, and so on. This on the spot quality is the style you see in early independent fiction feature films, like Zhang Yuan’s “Beijing Bastards” (Beijing Zázhong, 1993)or Jia Zhangke’s “Xiao Wu” (1997), which use a lot of location shooting, natural light, amateur actors, improvised scripts, and handheld camerawork. “On the spot” realism derived its power from its contrast to the older styles of filmmaking from the Mao era and its aftermath. In feature filmmaking, this older style was a lot like Hollywood studio filmmaking. On-the-spot realism also stood out against the historical fables favoured by the Fifth Generation in films like Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum. [Source: Chris Berry, professor at Kings College, London, dGenerate Films, November 14, 2013]

"There are at least three different words for “realism” in Chinese: xieshizhuyi; xianshizhuyi; and jishizhuyi. This is important, because each of them marks the kind of cosmological shift I have been speaking about. Only two of these are important for today’s talk. Xianshizhuyi refers to a Marxist realism, in which truth is understood as a dialectical analysis of reality. In other words, the world should be depicted in a way that shows its underlying but invisible truth of class struggle and historical materialism. This is the “realism” in “socialist realism,” for example, and it explains why it is a much more schematic and glossed up vision than the world as we see it. Jishizhuyi, on the other hand, is the observational style that appears in the 1990s, and which I argue marks a profound shift in thinking. This is a neologism that first appears around this period.

“One of the signs of the depth of this shift in thinking is the fact that it is not confined to independent cinema. In fact, mainstream television was also moving towards this style at the same time. Today, if you watch Chinese television, you will often see reporters going to interview people on the street in a seemingly spontaneous fashion. So, the “on the spot” style marks a new way of understanding the world that runs across the whole of society. The command economy has given way to one of spontaneous initiatives not only from would-be entrepreneurs but also from citizens, who do not believe what they are told by those in power but only believe what they can see with their own eyes.

Mitch Moxley wrote: “Independent cinema in China emerged in the 1980s, when underground films were made outside of state funding. Some were screened at international film festivals. In the 1990s, national control of distribution was opened up, allowing filmmakers to cooperate with private businesses to see their films distributed. Notable films representative of this period, according to Beijing Film Academy Cui, include Wu Wenguang 1990 documentary “Bumming in Beijing”, considered one of China first independent documentaries, and Zhang Yuan 1993 film “Beijing Bastards”, one of China first independently produced films.” [Source: Mitch Moxley, IPS, August 27, 2010]

Ying Qian said, “I think that new documentary did start within the system in the 1980's. The models at that time, in the 1980's, came from a number of sources. A lot of them were from outside of China. In 1980, there was collaboration between Japanese television crews and Chinese television crews. They went on to make landscape documentaries about the Silk Road, the Yangtze River, and the Yellow River. Through these collaborations, Chinese documentary TV producers were able to see how the Japanese producers worked. Development of documentary film also grew from re-watching past films. For example, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Chung Kuo was made in 1972, and was banned and criticized. There was a mass campaign against this film in China. Nevertheless, re-watching this film provided a lot of inspiration for documentary filmmakers in the 1980's.

When independent Chinese documentary cinema developed in the early “90's, there wasn’t a recognizable standard for what was considered a “good” documentary. Film festivals became a crucial standard-setter. The Hong Kong film festival screened Wu Wenguang’s first film "Bumming in Beijing", and the Yamagata Documentary Film Festival in Japan bestowed awards upon it. This gave lots of impetus to documentary making in the 1990s. Suddenly this genre was considered equally promising as feature films, which were also getting prizes in international film festivals at the time. Wu Wengguang also brought back from Yamagata works by Ogawa Shinsuke and Frederic Wiseman. They subsequently became prototypes for documentary film in China.

Bumming in Beijing: the First Chinese Independent Film

“Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers” (Liulang Beijing), directed by Wu Wenguang in 1990, is regarded as the first independent Chinese film. La Frances Hui of the Asia Society wrote: Wu Wenguang documents the life of struggling young artists in Beijing. This film provides insights into how contemporary Chinese artists whose works now fetch millions at international auction houses might have begun their careers.

Chris Berry wrote: Everything is hand-held camera, muddy sound, stumbling interviews that are clearly not rehearsed, and so on. The most notorious “on the spot” moment in the film is when Wu accidentally comes across his friend, a painter, having a psychotic episode. Imagine that for 30 years, you have seen only glossy films about bumper harvests and the achievements of socialism. Then you see this. So, as you can imagine this was quite shocking for viewers in the 1990s. [Source: Chris Berry, professor at Kings College, London, dGenerate Films, November 14, 2013]

“The adoption of this “on the spot” style by the mainstream media also gets rid of any naïve idea that it is a guarantee of truth or even absence of manipulation, because people don’t trust the mainstream media and realize that an observational style can be faked. Let me give you my favorite example. Wu Wenguang also worked with ordinary farmers to train them so they could make documentaries about their lives. One of them is a woman in her fifties called Shao Yuzhen, and in a remarkable scene from one of her “My Village” annual films, she films a local TV crew as they interview her husband. The style the TV crew uses appears to be a spontaneous interview. But, in fact, we see that the TV crews films the interview again and again until her husband says the politically correct thing they hope that he will say! It’s a remarkable expose.

Wu Wenguang is considered by many to be the godfather of Chinese independent cinema. Jonathan Kaiman wrote in the Los Angeles Times: He plays the role with gusto: Gruff and gregarious, he wears John Lennon glasses, blue jeans and a T-shirt that reads "100 percent life, 0 percent art" above a crude sketch of a video camera. [Source:Jonathan Kaiman, Los Angeles Times, October 14,2105]

“Wu moved to Beijing in 1988, abandoning his hometown in southwestern China's Yunnan province for a job at CCTV, China's state broadcaster, but quickly became disillusioned by the station's propagandistic bent and gravitated toward the fringes of society. He read Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He fell in with a few young artists, writers and photographers trying to eke out a living in the nation's capital; using a Betacam borrowed from the CCTV studio, he began to film their lives. Two years later, in 1990, the footage became his first film, a searing, stripped-down documentary called "Bumming in Beijing.

“Although Chinese television stations and cinemas ignored the film, the international festival circuit swooned. Festival organizers flew Wu to London, Bali and Los Angeles. As the years went by, he continued to make films and show them around the world, but once again, he found himself disillusioned. "I've been to all these places," he said, "but after I went, I discovered I wasn't satisfied with just going, with making movies just so that other people would like them." As for the recent crackdowns on activists and film festival organizers, Wu remains undeterred. "You can't simply say things are worse now, and they were better before," he says. "When were things better? I can't think of the time." “Wu spent the early part of his career ensconced in cinema verite, finding subjects, telling stories and showing his films at festivals around the world. Then, about a decade ago, weary of the form and exhausted by the constant travel, he tried something unexpected: He let his subjects do the filming themselves.

Rise of Independent Film in China

While Hollywood blockbusters and state-funded historical epics continue to dominate China box office, a vibrant independent film scene is quietly growing. Lacking distribution channels that lead to wide audiences, these films...are finding a home at the few independent cinemas that exist here and at film festivals dedicated to independent and documentary filmmaking at home and abroad. [Source: Mitch Moxley, IPS, August 27, 2010]

“Although these kinds of films aren’t allowed to be screened at most theaters, independent film is developing well in China,” Cui Weiping, a film professor at the Beijing Film Academy, told IPS. “You can find people talking about them at university lectures, in art salons, etcetera. Independent film is an influential part of China film industry.” “The growing number of big-budget films playing in China multiplexes is not necessarily a bad thing for independent cinema in the country,” said Wu Jing, an independent cinema in Beijing. “As the audience for big-budget films grows, an interest in independent films will emerge accordingly,” Wu told IPS. “Cinema is growing very fast in China,” she said. “As the audience grows, they become eager to find other things to see.”

The weakened international film market, meanwhile, gives little incentive for Chinese directors to make controversial films that skirt the censors in order to appeal to an international audience, Wu said. For some filmmakers, however, China is the land of opportunity. Qiao Li, 24, was born in Jinan, Shandong province, raised in Melbourne, Australia, and in 2006 moved to Beijing, where he co-wrote and co-directed a feature film called “Ring Roads” and has maintained a constant stream of work since then. He says the low cost of entry and the freedom he has as an independent director working outside the mainstream Chinese film industry have given him opportunities that do not exist in Australia.

“The reason I decided to work in China were the many, many opportunities available to a filmmaker here,” Qiao told IPS. “China to me seemed like a land of potential and where there didn’t seem to be many rules and for me, that was all I needed to know to make my mind up to be based here. The overall industry here is thriving and it free enough to let me do my thing and still be able to pay the rent, and that something I would have had a hard time doing back home.”

In a country where all movies must obtain official approval to be exhibited commercially, independent Chinese directors are forced to operate in a peculiar gray zone. “You have to have an awful lot of energy and passion to make films with no funding and no prospect of having them seen in public in your home country except under the radar and off the grid,” said Sally Berger, the curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art film festival. Told the New York Times. “These are sophisticated, experimental filmmakers with a strong aesthetic sense, making films filled with a sense of urgency and change, even though they know they have a better chance of having their work seen abroad than at home.” [Source: Larry Rohter New York Times, February 18, 2011]

Chinese Documentary Films: Different Than Conventional Documentaries

Larry Rohter wrote in the New York Times, “Though the bulk of independent films produced in China are described as documentaries, some of them... do not follow the conventions of the form as practiced in the West. Instead they mix in experimental technique, sometimes eschewing narrative altogether.” “The borders between documentary, fictional and experimental films are very blurred for me,” said Huang Weikai, 38, who trained as a landscape painter before turning to cinema.

Shelly Kraicer of dGenerate Films wrote: New documentaries is where heart and soul of Chinese indie filmmaking lives today. There is what one could call a mainstream school of Chinese “realistic” documentaries — let’s call them ultra-realistic docs — that dominates today, both in film festivals in China and overseas, and that preoccupies the academic, theoretical, critical discussion that has flourished around Chinese documentary filmmaking. [Source:Shelly Kraicer, dGenerate Films]

Briefly, this school is derived from direct cinema, under the aegis of the cinemas of Frederick Wiseman and Ogawa Shinsuke. These filmmakers strive for a seemingly transparent, so-called direct representation of “truth” and “reality”, unmediated by authorial (i.e subjective) intervention. Their inspiration can be historical, archival or ethnographic, with filmmakers immersing themselves for months or even years in the lives of their subjects, then emerging with often very long documentaries that transform their experiences into cinema with minimal ‘subjective’ distortions. Issues of ethics then emerge: the relative positions of the filmmaker and subject (are filmmakers intellectuals looking down on grassroots subjects from a position of ‘superiority’; issues of consent and (mutual, explicit, endorsed) exploitation; the ethics of representation of the other; and the rights of audiences, directors, subjects, and so-called experts to challenge all these things.

A refreshingly different school, recently activated in Chinese indie doc circles takes documentaries as strictly personal, autobiographical, even prima facie solipsistic texts, and films and edits accordingly, highlighting the presence of the filmmaker and the interaction between what’s in front of and who’s behind the camera. This obviates a host of problems outlined above, but introduces its own very different issues of aesthetic criteria, social relevance, and moral obligation.

Jia Zhangke and Chinese Documentary Films

Filmmaker Jia Zhangke is regarded as one of the major figures in Chinese independent and documentary film. Duke professor Guo-Juin Hong told dGenerate films, “One can argue that Jia Zhangke’s films borrow from documentary or certain kinds of neo-realist aesthetics. How do we separate that? I do see your point in that the idea of the visual and aural apparatus and its engagement with “reality” vis-a vis “fiction” is a murky distinction. That’s why I think it’s very important to think about documentary only as a mode of representation, not as a certain kind of fact or statement. To see the stylistic influence on each other, between narrative and documentary film, is a very insightful way to engage. On the other end of the spectrum, can we say the films of Jia Zhangke are really so undecidedly fiction or documentary or is it aesthetically both?

On whether Jia Zhangke has become that prototype for new narrative and documentary filmmakers, Ying Qian said, I would also say it’s a prototype for independent fiction cinema. You see a lot of new filmmakers making fiction in a very similar way to Jia Zhangke. But you know Jia Zhangke’s recent documentaries, for example I Wish I Knew and 24 City, are mostly interview-based, but we don’t see a rush to imitate that in the documentary community.

In fact, I would say Jia Zhangke in his early years learned a lot from documentary filmmakers. In Jia Zhangke’s Xiao Wu / Pickpocket, TV crews from the county’s television station were shown to make interviews with people on the streets. A similar setup was in a documentary film entitled The Square, made in 1993 byZhang Yuan and Duan Jingchuan. InThe Square, the documentary lens showed a television crew from the CCTV orchestrating interviews at the Tiananmen Square. The documentary camera of Zhang and Duan was filming the “documentary camera” of the CCTV, exposing the apparatus of official media in a comic way. Jia Zhangke most likely had seen this film as the film community in the 1990s was quite tightly knit, and Zhang Yuan is a fellow Sixth Generationer. In that case, Jia Zhangke was actually influenced by early to mid 1990's documentary. dGF: Chinese filmmakers are usually quite deeply embedded in the communities they are documenting. Do you think there are any ethical implications that arise from this relationship in terms of how subjects are portrayed and images are presented?

Documentary Makers as Portrayers of Chinese Reality

Calum MacLeo wrote in USA Today: “Their subjects include people living at the margins of society, fighting property demolition, tracing the death of relatives persecuted under Chairman Mao, and even a government official discussing the corruption and bullying rife in his City Hall. As China's Communist Party boosts efforts worldwide to soften its image, a determined and growing band of independent filmmakers documents the complex, often uncomfortable realities of China's past and present. [Source: Calum MacLeo, USA Today, February 8, 2012]

The number of independent documentary makers has passed 100 over the past two years, Zhu Rikun, a veteran documentary producer and supporter, told USA Today. The digital age has slashed equipment costs, while the Internet and pirated films, commonplace in China, offer cheap inspiration to budding directors, Zhu says. Foreign film festivals provide crucial support, he says.

Gritty reality is in plain view in the films of director Xu Tong, whose "Vagabonds" trilogy documents people at the bottom of Chinese society. "I want to show the complexity of society," he says. "These are real social situations. Even if I can't show the films in cinemas, or not many people can see them now, I don't care. I have the duty and desire to record their stories." Xu is proud of the independent film community's perseverance in the face of censorship. Director Zhang Bingjian is still smiling even though police hassle him when he shoots, and censors block his films.

"China is such an exciting place now; it's too interesting a subject," says Zhang, 52, who spent a decade in the USA. His film Ready Made follows two ordinary people, including a woman whose resemblance to Mao leads her to a double-life impersonating him for money at nightclubs and malls. Films such as Ready Made, which offer plenty of laughs, show that "Chinese documentary" does not always mean bleak and political, says He Zhong, founder of Trainspotting, a film-themed restaurant in Beijing that shows independent, unapproved films. Police have never interrupted a screening, which "shows more that I am careful, rather than that the authorities are tolerant," says He, who did not show sensitive films such as Karamay and Zhao Liang's Petition, which follows desperate citizens in their futile search for justice. "We don't want confrontation," says film festival organizer Zhang Qi, "we just want to be able to express our own voice."

Types of Independent Chinese Documentaries

On the different types of independent Chinese documentary films Chris Berry said: 1) First, there are diary films and first person or private films. These are not huge in number, but they are markedly different from the sort of social issue films we have seen up to this point. Kiki Yu Tianqi has produced a PhD on this topic. Examples include Yang Lina’s “Home Video”, in which she tries to probe her parent’s divorce. The corresponding example in independent feature films would be Liu Jiayin’s Oxhide (2005), although there is no divorce. In recent years, Wu Wenguang himself has moved in this direction with his 2010 film, “Treatment”, which is all about his mother’s final days and his relationship with her.[Source: Chris Berry, professor at Kings College, London, dGenerate Films, November 14, 2013]

“2) A second type of film would be a more artistic, stylized use of on-the-spot materials to make a sort of visual essay documentary. The most well-known example is Wang Bing’s 2003 film “West of the Tracks” (Tiexi Qu), a 9-hour Tarkovsky-style trek through the rust belt of North-East China as it fades away. 3) Third, we could point to a kind of relaxation of the strict observational aesthetics of the 1990s. In those days, inspired by Fred Wiseman and other earlier observational filmmakers, the Chinese documentarians tried to avoid adding voiceover narration or music. But these elements have gradually made their way back in all over the place.

“4) Fourth, I would give the example of the intersection of experimental video and documentary. Here, filmmakers working in the gallery also move into documentary. Cao Fei’s “i.Mirror” is an example of this. In it, she records her experiences in Second Life at a world she built for herself. In a certain sense, the Second Life materials in the film are the observational materials, but they observe a constructed online world, not the world offline. The film is part art and also part first-person documentary. However, the “first person” is her Second Life avatar, China Tracy. So the result is also an experimental documentary. Another example that pushes the boundaries of “on the spot” documentary and crosses into the world of experimental video is Huang Weikai’s Disorder (2009). In this film, he uses all kinds of found footage to create a kind of dystopian and crazy city symphony film in the tradition associated with Walter Ruttman’s Berlin, Symphony of a City and Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera.” “This crazy film is one of my all-time favourites.

5) “That fifth type of film is the oral history film, dominated by interviews. In these films, the filmmakers are concerned to record an alternative archive of materials they know will never make it into mainstream media. A good example would be Xu Xin’s 2010 film, Karamay . In this 9-hour epic, he goes to the oil industry city of Karamay in Chinese Central Asia. A number of years ago, a terrible tragedy happened there. During a performance for children, the new city theatre caught fire. The children were told to stay seated while the Communist Party leaders and city officials in attendance were allowed out first. Many of the children perished in the inferno that followed. No one has ever been held responsible, and the event has been suppressed. Xu Xin simply allows the parents of the children who died to speak, and he and we act as witnesses and listeners for them.

Problems Faced by Chinese Documentary Filmmakers

Chinese police have raided independent film festivals, and authorities and the strict censorship system blocks many films from being seen by mainstream Chinese. Still, the independent documentaries reach a tiny audience within China, and their directors insist the stories are so good and important that they will keep on shooting. "The authorities believe these films, and the people who make them, are all problematic," Zhang Qi, an independent film festival organizer,told USA Today. "Officials fear it's a big land mine that could explode at any time." [Source: Calum MacLeo, USA Today, February 8, 2012]

Ben Tsiang, CEO of Taiwanese production company CNEX, told the Taiwan News: "It’s hard for Chinese-language documentaries to penetrate the global market due to the language barrier and Chinese filmmakers’ unfamiliarity with the rules of an international pitching session,” he said and suggested that the CCDF could function as a platform for these films to tap into international markets. [Source: Yali Chen, Taiwan News, December 29 2010]

“Chinese independent nonfiction filmmakers lack funds and channels of broadcasting and distribution,” Yali Chen wrote in the Taiwan News. “Only directors from the mainstream television stations controlled by the Chinese government could obtain funds, said Zong Bo, a Beijing-based editor for Phoenix Weekly based in Hong Kong. In some cases, films directed by Zhang Yiqing, Hubei TV Station, and Liu Xiangchen, Xinjiang TV Station, are allowed to run on television.

"The political challenges are greater than the financial, so filmmakers must still be careful in choosing their topics," says Zhu Rikun, a veteran documentary producer and supporter. Last May, authorities canceled a documentary film festival Zhu was directing and banned his Fanhall Films website, a forum for debate. State broadcaster CCTV launched a channel for documentaries last year, "but they are not independent, they are still propaganda," Zhu says. So many contemporary issues are considered sensitive that directors who seek official approval and thus the right to screen in movie theaters often set fictional films "in the romanticized, dynastic past," he says. Instead of becoming a culturally strong nation as Beijing plans, China risks becoming "a nation of cultural relics," David Bandurski, a Hong Kong-based film producer and China media analyst, says

Amy Qin and Chang Chen wrote in the New York Times’s Sinosphere: "The Chinese government has imposed increasing constraints on filmmakers and film-related events operating outside state-sanctioned channels. In 2014, the authorities shut down the Beijing Independent Film Festival, confiscating documents, computers and films. Although screenings of nonmainstream films still take place, they are held on a smaller scale, often in private homes or cafes, making it far more difficult to reach new audiences. [Source: Amy Qin and Chang Chen, Sinosphere, New York Times, May 29, 2015]

“Government censorship is a constant issue. Despite the rapid growth of the film industry, independent filmmakers say it is still difficult to find funding for projects, especially those that might touch on topics deemed sensitive by the government. For example, Mr. Jia’s “A Touch of Sin,” a critically acclaimed compilation of four vignettes portraying modern social woes in China, never made it onto domestic screens even after undergoing several rounds of edits with state censors. This was because the government feared the film would inspire viewers to engage in antisocial behavior, Mr. Jia told The Hollywood Reporter this month. “The hardest thing is deducing where the line is,” said Vivian Qu, the producer of the 2014 independent film “Black Coal, Thin Ice,” which won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014. “Over the years, as the Chinese film market grew bigger and bigger, the words ‘art house’ and ‘independent’ and ‘underground’ seem to have become much more sensitive than before,” said Ms. Qu, speaking at a roundtable discussion this month on independent films in China.

Commercial Pressures on Independent Films in China

Many prominent independent cinema figures in China say they are getting squeezed out by the increasingly commercially driven market. ““This may be the best of times for commercial films, but it is also the worst of times for art house films,” wrote the director Wang Xiaoshuai in a letter to moviegoers that was posted on Sina Weibo on April 30 and re-posted more than 20,000 times, including by other prominent “Sixth Generation” directors, such as Jia Zhangke and Lou Ye. Amy Qin and Chang Chen wrote in the New York Times’s Sinosphere: “In the letter, Mr. Wang, implicitly called out cinema managers for their lack of support for his latest film, “Red Amnesia.”[Source: Amy Qin and Chang Chen, Sinosphere, New York Times, May 29, 2015]

“In an interview with the Chinese-language website of The New York Times, Mr. Wang said he believed many people wanted to see his film but were unable to because of the low number of screenings, often at inconvenient times. “Logically speaking,” Mr. Wang said, “as people who have been accustomed to one flavor for a long time enter into a more prosperous era, they should have the choice of many different flavors.” Citing “Red Amnesia” as an example, he characterized the general environment for less commercially minded films as “cruel.” “The bigger the market gets,” he added, “the more money is made and the greedier people become.”

“Mr. Wang pointed out the impact of Hollywood’s overwhelming dominance in the domestic market. “Every month you have American films coming in and occupying most of the space, so how are Chinese films supposed to compete?” he said. “It’s not even about competing. It’s about having the space to survive.” Director Lu Muzi Lu said she felt that the interests of her generation have been overlooked by the film industry. “They only show films for the younger demographic, like romantic films or action films,” she said. “Why don’t they show films that my generation wants to watch as well?”

“But Mr. Wang, who like most prominent independent filmmakers in China, has made films with official permission (including “Red Amnesia”), said in the interview that the increasing demand for commercially successful blockbusters had created a form of market-driven self-censorship that had rendered political censorship irrelevant. “Everyone is becoming more commercially oriented and making money is a lot easier, so no one really wants to touch sensitive topics anymore,” Mr. Wang said. “The film bureau doesn’t even have to censor the film afterwards, because there’s nothing left to censor.”

“Independent filmmakers have called on the government to adopt policies to support independent cinema in China, particularly as the Chinese film authorities raise the annual quota on imported foreign films. “The government has exhibited mixed feelings on the issue of independent filmmaking. On one hand, independent films bring prestige at international film festivals and can help the domestic film industry compete against foreign imports. On the other, the government has remained wary of films that are too “artistic” and are outside the mainstream — as well as possibly subversive. “Mr. Wang said these concerns were overdrawn. “Don’t be scared of art house films,” he said. “Most creators are really more interested in talking about our feelings, our lives, our families.Give the creators back the ability to create.”

Chinese Government Welcomes and Crackdowns on Independent Documentaries

Louise Watt of Associated Press wrote: China is wooing filmmakers at the same time as it’s cracking down on them. Authorities are handing more slots to documentaries, giving even independent filmmakers a chance to be shown on state television. But while China is avidly pursuing what it considers serious content to replace popular dating, reality and game shows, it is also stifling material with any whiff of challenging the Communist Party line. A weekend crackdown by authorities on an independent film festival in Beijing was the worst in its eight-year history, with police confiscating hundreds of films and briefly detaining two organizers. [Source: Louise Watt, Associated Press, August 28, 2014]

“China’s broadcasting authority has been offering awards and an unspecified amount of financial support to domestic documentaries to boost their production, according to its website. In October, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television ordered provincial satellite channels to broadcast at least 30 minutes of domestically produced documentaries a day. In addition to state broadcaster CCTV’s documentary channel, two documentary channels run by local broadcasters in Beijing and Shanghai became available nationally in June.

“Independent filmmaker Hao Wu was one who benefited from the push — sort of. His 80-minute feature documentary “The Road to Fame” was shown on state TV, but edited down and at midnight in half-hour parts over two consecutive nights on the national Hunan Satellite TV in May. The film, also shown at festivals in the U.S. and Europe and broadcast on the BBC in December, follows a group of students at Beijing’s prestigious Central Academy of Drama over eight months as they prepare to stage the American musical “Fame.”

“Wu, who now lives in New York, said he was angry when he saw how much Hunan had cut at first, including any social commentary and most of the character backstories. He said that after he resisted, the broadcaster restored some of the character stories, but left out scenes such as a parent talking about growing up in the Cultural Revolution, which meant he had limited chances to improve his life. Also deleted were scenes with a teacher calling the students fragile and spoiled because they were only children — which might be seen as casting China’s birth limits in a negative light.

“Wu said it is sometimes difficult for independent filmmakers to know whether their content is too sensitive for authorities. “Taiwan issues, Tibet and Falun Gong, these are the big no-nos,” he said. “Then beyond that, things get a little bit murkier. Social unrest, minority-ethnic tensions in China, these are the issues that … the government may or may not censor.”

“Since Xi became chief of the ruling Communist Party in late 2012, the already strict controls on freedom of expression have been further tightened, targeting public discourse that could potentially undermine the party’s monopoly on power. These have included the arrests of bloggers who post sensitive material and activists who have accused officials of corruption, and limits on who can disseminate news on mobile instant messaging services. At the same time, government agencies have proliferated their presence on social media to get their own messages out.

“Authorities are keen to encourage documentaries such as “A Bite of China,” a successful, well-polished documentary looking at regional food cultures to the backdrop of beautiful landscapes. It has been exported to dozens of countries, and its second season was broadcast on the flagship CCTV1 channel at prime time on Friday nights. It was produced by CCTV. The government approves of such documentaries that “accord with the view of China as being a magical place full of interesting customs, traditions and good food,” said Michael Keane, an expert on China’s creative industries at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. “Li Xiaofeng, a documentaries expert at Nanjing University’s School of Journalism and Communication, said the government was encouraging documentaries to help boost China’s reputation abroad and to counter the trend of “too many” variety and other entertainment shows on local TV stations.

Independent Filmmakers Seeking Chinese Government Help and Approval

Gabrielle Jaffe wrote in the Los Angeles Times: Yang Jin shot his first film, "The Black and White Milk Cow," in his hometown in 2004 for $1,600. He asked villagers to be his actors, paying them only in cigarettes, and his main expense was $320 spent renting the titular cow. The tale of poor, rural China won him a $5,000 prize at Switzerland's Fribourg International Film Festival, but it had no chance of being seen or making money in his homeland. Because it touched on the subjects of AIDS and Chinese Christians, Yang knew it wouldn't get past the censors, and thus could never play in Chinese theaters, on TV, or even be sold legally on DVD. Yang's second film was a similarly shoestring, underground affair. When it came time for his third, he wanted to do something more sophisticated — and reach a wider audience. [Source: Gabrielle Jaffe, Los Angeles Times, December 9, 2012]

“In the past, Yang's choices would have been to try to move into much more commercial fare with a Chinese studio, or look for financial backing abroad. “But in the last few years, more and more filmmakers like Yang have been trying to carve out a new middle ground: They are developing scripts for art house-style movies that can win a "dragon seal" (Chinese censors' official stamp of endorsement). As the number of these government-approved indie films grows, a nascent Chinese industry — production houses and exhibitors — is emerging to support them.

“For "Don't Expect Praises," a charming, Tom Sawyer-esque story of two naughty little boys who spend their days fishing and plotting to run away, Yang raised 30 percent of his $160,000 budget from Heaven Pictures, one of a growing number of companies supporting art house cinema within China. He recently cleared the censorship process and is excited to see one of his movies released in a Chinese cinema for the first time. “"For my first two films, I had to buy props myself. Now, I am working with 36 professionals," said Yang, 30. "I have an art team, photography team, and costume team, so I can concentrate on directing and go on set with only a script in my hand." “Though "Don't Expect Praises" received a dragon seal, Yang Jin says his next film will "touch on sensitive matters" and he thinks he will have to "shoot it secretly." "Independence," he said, "means shooting whatever I like in whatever way I want."

“The trend is not without its detractors, who fret that a new generation of filmmakers may be sacrificing its artistic integrity. But Yang and others say independent filmmaking in China can be broader than just underground cinema. "With the dragon seal, I can sell in China. I haven't had to compromise, because to begin with the film's subject matter is not dark. It's a simple story about a child's adventure."

“Heaven Pictures was established in 2010 and supports both films sanctioned by the censors and productions that have not applied for government approval. "Our fund was set up because there are lots of young people with the talent and the passion, but who weren't getting the chance to make films," said general manager Yang Cheng.

“While non-dragon seal films can be sold only overseas or online, Yang said applying for a dragon seal, so that a film can be screened domestically, does not necessarily mean making a deal with the devil. "It's the director's choice," he argued. "A film with a dragon seal doesn't have to be mainstream, praise the government or be middle-of-the-road. It also can be pointed, experimental and exploring."

“Even if a film does receive a dragon seal, a wide theatrical opening is hardly guaranteed. Without a big-name star or a blockbuster story line, the chances of a film's being shown in China's megaplexes are bleak. Until recently, a low-budget art house film's best bet for making a return domestically was to be sold to a television station dedicated to movies, such as state-run CCTV6. But three years ago, the first art house cinema in mainland China opened in Beijing: Broadway Cinematheque Moma.

China Independent Film Festivals

Up until the early 2010s there were several film festivals for independent films. The The Nanjing-based China Independent Film Festival (CIFF, late October and early November ) was the most important event on China's indie film circuit, drawing buyers and festival programmers from the US and Europe. Launched in 2003, it was one of the few opportunities for independent filmmakers to show to large audiences. Many did not have a "dragon seal." Only films that have received the "dragon seal" after clearing the State Administration of Radio Film and Television approval process can normally be shown in commercial theaters, sold or broadcast on television. The approval process is both cumbersome and often entails compromise.[Source: Chris Hawk, Global Times, Los Angeles Times 3, 2011]

In the later 2000s and early 2010s, there were festivals dedicated to independent and documentary films in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Chongqing, and some of China independent films were finding a small audience abroad. Another big festival was the Beijing Independent Film Festival, which was moved to Songzhuang, an artists’ village in the suburb of Beijing. Gabrielle Jaffe wrote in the Los Angeles Times: “Since its inception in 2003, BIFF — which shows movies that have not been approved by government censors — has faced government pressure and last-minute cancellations from venues wanting to avoid trouble. When the festival moved out of the city center in 2007 to Songzhuang film buffs had hoped that it would enjoy more freedom. However, in the last three years organizers have had regular visits from police and have been threatened with arrest and even demolition of their property. [Source: Gabrielle Jaffe, Los Angeles Times, September 4, 2013]

The Nanjing-based China Independent Film Festival was held in October. Shelly Kraicer wrote: Unlike the Beijing Independent Film Festival, benefits from a substantial degree of official and semi-official “cover”. Unlike BIFF, there is a certain amount of practical compromise with official bodies and officially approved cinema: purity isn’t such an issue. Co-sponsors include the Nanjing University School of Journalism and Communication, The Communication University of China (Nanjing) and the RCM Museum of Modern Art. [Source: Shelly Kraicer, dGenerate Films]

Independent Film Festivals in China Shut Down

In 2020, the China Independent Film Festival (CIFF), one of China’s longest-running and largest independent film festivals, said it was suspending operations “indefinitely”, with the organisers saying it was “impossible” to organise a festival with a “purely independent spirit”. Reuters reported: “It did not provide more details of what pushed it to such a decision, but the move comes amid growing media censorship in China, which has seen regulators crack down on content they believe to violate “socialist core values”. “We believe, that under current local organisational conditions, that it is impossible to organise a film festival that truly has a purely independent spirit and which is effective,” the CIFF said on its official WeChat account. “Of course, to those grassroots film festivals that under the mask of security still try to encourage independence, we express our respect.” [Source: Reuters, January 11, 2020]

“CIFF showed around 1,000 films and documentaries since its founding, according to the South China Morning Post (South China Morning Post) newspaper. A number of them touched on topics considered sensitive in China, such as homosexuality and the relocation of residents under the Three Gorges dam project. “Zhang Xianmin, a professor from Beijing Film Academy who has been the CIFF’s core organiser, told the South China Morning Post the closure was “normal”. “We are just back to the usual rule under the Party. We just went back to 20 years ago, when there was no room and opportunity for independent films.” “If we had promoted the commercialisation of CIFF, that might have made it safer and we could have had the chance to survive.”

In 2013, the Beijing Independent Film Festival was shut down as it was beginning. The festival’s artistic director Wang Hongwei and administrator Fan Rong were arrested (later released) and threats were made about tearing down fences and cutting off electricity. Gabrielle Jaffe wrote in the Los Angeles Times: The Beijing Independent Film Festival has a long history of absurd run-ins with the Chinese authorities, but this year's edition opened in such a Kafka-esque manner it could have been penned by an indie scriptwriter. It began in mid-August with festival director Wang Hongwei announcing to the audience assembled in the Fanhall Center for Arts that "due to unforeseen circumstances," the opening film could not be screened. "Of course we all knew what those circumstances were," said Jenny Man Wu, a director whose short feature "Some Sort of Loneliness" was on the festival roster. "It was ridiculous. There were plainclothes policemen in the audience, so conspicuous with their cameras, leather shoes and serious looks." [Source: Gabrielle Jaffe, Los Angeles Times, September 4, 2013]

In 2012, after power was cut to the festival venue during the opening film, private screenings were organized in nearby artists' homes. This time festivalgoers stuck around too, hoping a similar approach would be taken. By 10 p.m., as they gathered at the nearby Li Xianting Film Foundation, the atmosphere was one of a sit-in, with cross-armed and cross-legged festivalgoers squaring off against policemen.Wang then announced that a bizarre compromise had been reached: Panel discussions would continue, but the films could be watched only by groups of two to five people. It would be a film festival — just without the mass screenings. One disappointed attendee staged an impromptu funeral march, with a festival poster standing in for the corpse.

Taking the place of the closed festivals to some degree is the Pingyao Film Festival, which opened in 2017 and was launched by renowned filmmaker Jia Zhangke on his home turf in northwestern Shanxi Province. The aim of the festival is to showcase independent films. Jia would like it to be China’s version of Sundance, America’s biggest independent film festival. But participants have been careful not to anger the Chinese government to prevent their films from banned and festival organizer have tried to avoid controversy to keep the festival from being canceled. See Separate Article on the Pingyao Film Festival factsanddetails.com

dGenerate Films and Chinese Indy Film Scholars

For distribution in the United States many Chinese independent filmmakers have turned to dGenerate Films, a company founded in 2008 by Karin Chien, a Chinese-American film producer whose credits include American indie movies like “The Exploding Girl.” It was after attending a screening of “San Yuan Li” — in which a group of painters and visual artists, Mr. Huang among them, combined to create a vivid depiction of urban sprawl overwhelming traditional village life — at New York University, which sponsors the biennial Reel China festival, that she decided to branch into Chinese film. [Source:Larry Rohter New York Times, February 18, 2011]

dGenerate Films stands as an important cultural pipeline, distributing independent cinema from mainland China within North America and Europe. It carries several dozen titles available for online streaming at five dollars per film, and for purchase, at varying prices. Larry Rohter wrote in the New York Times in 2011, “Ms. Chien’s company now distributes independent Chinese films abroad, mostly to film societies and universities and for showings at festivals. In some cases, she said, to get the films out of China, “we end up inventing some very creative routes of transmission” involving networks of couriers to evade export licensing and other controls.

The community of scholars who work on Chinese documentaries is quite small. Among them are Professors Yingjin Zhang (UC San Diego), Carlos Rojas (Duke), Eileen Cheng-yin Chow (Duke), Claire Roberts (Australian National University), Qi Wang (Georgia Tech), Luke Robinson (Nottingham, UK), William Schaefer (U. Rochester) and others from Harvard (Winnie Wong, Eugene Wang, Jie Li and Ying Qian). Ying Qian is professor at Columbia who got her PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. Her area of focus involves examining the evolving documentary visions in 20th century China. She is interested in the social processes and “film thinking” that have enabled and shaped the making of documentary images, and the ways in which these images have provided framings, interventions and agencies to historical change.

Stanley Rofel, Professor of Anthropology from the University of California Santa Cruz, and Chris Berry, film professor from Kings College, London, first received a grant from the University of California’s Pacific Rim Research Program to do research on independent Chinese documentaries in 2003. Back then (and as still is the case), the state film archive of China, China Film Archive/ China Film Art Research Institute, did not bother building a collection of independent Chinese documentaries [http://www.cfa.gov.cn/]. In order to get their hands on these undocumented works, the two professors relied entirely on the close-knit community of independent filmmakers and a few film enthusiasts for second-hand copies.

Chris Berry is a professor of Film and Television Studies at Kings College, London. He is also a Co-Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre. He obtained his MA and PhD in Theater Arts (Film & TV) from the University of California, Los Angeles. In the 1980s, he worked for China Film Import and Export Corporation in Beijing. Since then, he has been teaching about film and media in various universities in Australia, the US, and the UK, and his academic research is grounded in work on Chinese cinema and other Chinese screen-based media. In September 2012, he will become Professor of Film Studies at King’s College, London. [Source: La Frances Hui, China File, 2012]

La Frances Hui is Film Curator at Asia Society New York. She has curated film series featuring contemporary Chinese documentary and fiction films, New Wave Japanese cinema, Japanese documentaries, Thai cinema, and Iranian cinema. Yingjin Zhang is Professor of Chinese Literature at University of California, San Diego. His English books include Encyclopedia of Chinese Film (1998), Screening China (2002), Chinese National Cinema (2004), From Underground to Independent (2006), Cinema, Space, and Polylocality in a Globalizing China (2010), and A Companion to Chinese Cinema (2012).

Karin Chien is an independent film producer and distributor based in New York City. Karin has produced ten independent feature films, including most recently Circumstance, the winner of the 2011 Sundance Audience Award. Karin is also the 2010 recipient of the Independent Spirit Producers Award. Karin is the president and founder of dGenerate Films, the leading distributor of independent Chinese cinema in North America.

Zhang Xianmin is a film producer and critic, an organizer of the China Independent Film Festival, and a leading figure of the independent film scene in China. Since 2005, he has produced feature films such as Raised from Dust and Fujian Blue (best film in the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2007). He is the author of two books — All About DV and Invisible Images. An actor since 1994, he has starred in Rainclouds over Wushan, Summer Palace and Raised from Dust. Zhang is also executive officer of the Heaven Pictures Indie Cinema Fund.

Image Sources: YouTube, dGenerate Films

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated December 2021