Interview with Hu Jie, Director of "Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul"

Documentary maker Hu Jie.

The Melbourne International Film Festival is in full swing, including the program curated by myself, “Street Level Visions: Chinese Independent Docos.” Tomorrow (Monday 6 August) at 11am, Hu Jie’s landmark work Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul will screen at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image on Federation Square as part of the program. A repeat screening will take place on Friday, August 17 at 6.30pm in the same venue.

To celebrate the screening of Hu Jie’s work, and the other titles in the "Street Level Visions" program, Art Space China has run the full text of an interview I conducted with Hu Jie in 2010.

An Evening with the Activist Documentary Filmmaker Ai Xiaoming

Documentary filmmaker, academic and activist Ai Xiaoming filming recently in Beijing. All images Dan Edwards.

Recently I was privileged to spend an evening with the academic and documentary filmmaker Ai Xiaoming, a key figure in China's network of activists employing digital video to put stories on screen the Chinese authorities would prefer remained out of sight.

Aticle from RealTime on China's Digital Documentary Generation

Recently I have become fascinated by China's burgeoning independent documentary sector. I've written several articles on the subject, including the one below in the latest edition of the Australian arts magazine RealTime.

You can see the article in its original context here. You can find more of my work for RealTime here.


Alternative Realities: China's Digital Documentary Generation

While China's political system remains deeply authoritarian, the country's overwhelming size and explosive growth have opened cavernous gaps in the government's control of culture, through which a new generation of DV-wielding documentary filmmakers has climbed.

“I’ve never heard an independent filmmaker in China ask themselves, ‘Can I do this?’,” comments Hong Kong-based producer David Bandurski. “Independent filmmaking is the freest avenue of expression that exists in China today.”