Chinese-Canadian Collaboration: Documentary, Assemblage and Public Distribution

This paper focuses on a collaborative practice between Chinese and Canadian documentary filmmakers, which is operated within the context of the international interest and discourse of “China’s Rise”. It has resulted in a series of successfully-distributed documentaries about China including Up the Yangtze (Yung Chang, 2007), Last Train Home (Fan Lixin, 2010) and China Heavyweight (Yung Chang, 2012). Through comparing two documentaries (Up the Yangtze and Before the Flood) about the Three Gorges Dam, distinct methods of documentary filmmaking between Chinese independent filmmakers and Canadian practitioners are explicitly illustrated. These distinctions including a fictional approach further bring the opportunity for Chinese filmmakers to learn from their Canadian counterparts. Last Train Home can be viewed as an example of coproduction in which individuals and entities are involved and various resources are assembled for exchange and access. I use the concept of “assemblage” to understand this collaborative but temporary relationship and various players involved with different aims. At last, attending to the strategy of Last Train Home and China Heavyweight, I argue the fictional approach Chinese filmmakers adopt is a technique utilized for domestic public distribution which contributes to circulating documentary films with social commitment and exploring the nascent niche film market.