Recording transformations

The country's documentary creators are facing hardships and prospects, an annual Beijing Normal University report suggests.

They grossed 6.66 billion yuan ($940 million) in 2019, a 3.3 percent increase compared with the previous year, according to the Study Report of the Development of Chinese Documentaries (2020) initiated by Zhang Tongdao, a veteran documentary director and Beijing Normal University media professor, that's supported by scholars nationwide.

That's the slowest increase in a decade.

Zhang says documentaries' unsatisfactory big-screen performances are the greatest obstacle.

They generated only 149 million yuan domestically last year, a 72 percent decrease compared with 2018. It was the lowest amount since 2016.

Only 19 domestically produced documentaries were screened in mainstream cinemas, contributing 53.2 million yuan in box-office revenue.

Four Springs tops the list at 11.5 million yuan.

The documentary, in which the director records reunions with his parents in his hometown in Guizhou province over the years, reflects life changes through happy and disorienting moments.

It was rated 8.9 out of 10 on Douban.com, China's major film-and-TV criticism website.

A growing number of sliver-screen documentaries tackle such themes as education, traditional music and entrepreneurialism.

"Quality Chinese documentaries have broad social impacts," Zhang says.

"And diverse formats also reflect the country's social complexity and richness. Regrettably, these highlights didn't translate into box-office revenue."

Zhang attributes the letdown to the economic pressures many producers faced and a generally gloomy picture in terms of cinemas screening documentaries globally.

He points out that only two English-language documentaries worldwide earned over $20 million in 2019－the Academy Award-winning Free Solo and They Shall Not Grow Old, about the World War I. Both were shown in Chinese cinemas last year.

Zhang's team has produced the annual report since 2009. This year's report's results were first released by livestream on Sunday because of COVID-19.

The entire Chinese-English print report will be published in May.

Zhang points out many TV documentaries created for the 70th anniversary of New China's founding provide key evaluations of the county's historical development.

Some may qualify as "globally exceptional" in their respective genres, he believes.

For instance, The Journey of Chinese Plants, which follows the botanical evolution of China that influences the rest of the world, may demonstrate a major step for Chinese nature documentaries, which are often considered a short board of Chinese productions compared with humanity-based themes. It's rated 8.8 points on Douban.

And Life Matters, which captures medical patients' physical and psychological resilience, has also won acclaim.

Still, "life usually isn't easy for TV-documentary makers" today, as online platforms rise.

The report shows China's 10 most popular TV documentaries in 2019 had zero crossovers with the top 10 online productions.

"The gap between TV audiences' and online viewers' tastes is growing," Zhang says.

Still, streaming platforms provide opportunities.

Zhang's team found about 1.3 billion of the roughly 5 billion yuan in China's documentary investment came from online platforms, a more than 18 percent year-on-year increase.

Youku produced a total of 260 hours of original documentaries. Tencent made about 23 titles. And these account for about a third of their total productions uploaded last year.

"No matter how storytelling methods evolve, documentaries always deal with what is changing in our lives and what remains unchanged," says Youku's vice-president and chief supervisor of documentaries, Gan Chao.

"But formats can be creative."

Food remains the most popular Chinese online-documentary topic, research finds.

Some acclaimed productions like Flavorful Origins have been introduced to global platforms like Netflix.

Peking University media professor Lu Di says Chinese producers should look beyond stereotypical and established topics, even though these are often pathfinders for international markets.

"It's better to not rest on laurels," Lu says.

"But today's Chinese documentaries that are broadcast overseas are still dominated by the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, natural scenery and food. We can't only look for short-term returns."

Zhang also believes overemphasis on global cooperation in documentary production today may relegate some pressing social topics.

"Commercial and cultural considerations should be better balanced," he says.

"We sometimes find our emotions become shallower the more we experience wonder through screens. This excludes some lonely souls, whose stories are worth recording."

China Central Television documentary channel director Shi Shilun says: "We used to always present nature's most beautiful side on the screen. But now, all nature films are enveloped by the impacts of human activities. Reality is cruel, but it urges us to choose a different way."

The COVID-19 pandemic, although a setback for society, may offer an opportunity for documentaries. While Zhang's annual report focused on the industry's development in the previous year, the newest edition features a chapter on recent productions about the outbreak.

"Short videos with touching personal stories became especially common during the epidemic," Zhang says.

"In a pandemic, rational images telling the truth dissolve panic and prevent confrontations caused by misinformation. We are reminded again that documentaries are not only about 'recording' but also about 'thinking'."

For example, CCTV's acclaimed 34-episode series Wuhan: My Diaries Fighting Against Virus captures warm moments in ordinary people's lives during the lockdown in the hardest-hit city. Each video is around five minutes.

"Documentaries can't be absent in this event that affects everyone in the world," Shi says.

"Sometimes, we just show how people look for places to get their hair cut ... But it helps us to explore, to mix speed and depth in documentary production."

Lu estimates COVID-19's aftermath will last more than a year and reduce documentary funding.

"But new documentaries following the news (about the pandemic) have left a precious 'social album'," Lu says.

"Despite the loss and dilemmas amid the crisis, filmmakers also have many fresh angles and unexpected elements to observe in society. That may mean many more inspiring and exceptional productions can provide retrospectives and explore the meaning of life."