List Rules Documentaries about China and all things Chinese.
This list of the best documentaries about China has been ranked by the community and includes popular and recognizable titles, along with independent films. What is the best documentary about China? Vote up your favorites below.
As you vote, the order of the list will be changed to see which documentary about China comes out on top. If you do not see your favorite on the list, add it along with the titles so that others can vote on it as well. This list currently includes titles such as, Manufactured Landscapes, Petition, and Disorder.
Documentaries are nonfiction and made with the intention of displaying reality for historical purposes and to educate those watching the film. Most documentaries are driven by independent filmmakers and those passionate about the topics they are portraying.
Manufactured Landscapes is a 2006 feature length documentary film about the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky. It was directed by Jennifer Baichwal and is distributed by Zeitgeist Films.
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Petition
"“Petition – The court of the complainants”, directed by Zhao Liang, is a unique testimony about China today. Since 1996 Zhao Liang has filmed the “petitioners”, who come from all over ...more
Still Life is a 2006 Chinese film directed by Jia Zhangke. Shot in the old village of Fengjie, a small town on the Yangtze River which is slowly being destroyed by the building of the Three ...more
Please Vote for Me is a 2007 documentary film following the elections for class monitor in a 3rd grade class of eight-year-old children in the Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China. The ...more
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Beijing Besieged by Waste
Beijing Besieged by Waste is a 2011 documentary film directed by Jiuliang Wang.
When in 1998 Chilean judge Juan Guzmán was assigned the first criminal cases against the country's ex-dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, no one expected much. Guzmán had supported ...more
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DisorderDarren Kendrick, Alan Samulski, Ruthanne Gereghty
Disorder is a 2009 documentary film directed by Weikai Huang.
Umbrella or San is a Chinese documentary film directed by Du Haibin and released in 2007. The film documents the experiences of modern rural China, particularly five social groups: students, ...more
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Once Upon a Time Proletarian
"Much like the written ideograms in Chinese languages, the twelve chapters forming Guo Xiaolu's latest documentary, Once Upon a Time Proletarian: 12 Tales of a Country, transcend ...more
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Love in China
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Meishi Street
Meishi Street, directed by Ou Ning, is a 2006 independent Chinese documentary that portrays a group of Beijing residents protesting the planned destruction of their street prior to the 2008 ...more
"With this absorbing three-part epic documentary, Zhao Dayong joins the ranks of the essential Chinese independent filmmakers, led by Jia Zhangke and Wang Bing. Zhiziluo is a remote village ...more
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The Gate of Heavenly Peace
The Gate of Heavenly Peace is a 1995 documentary film, produced by Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton, about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
Platform is a 2000 Chinese film written and directed by Jia Zhangke. The film is named after a popular song about waiting at a railway platform. It is set in and around the small city of ...more
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Seoul Train
Seoul Train is a 2004 documentary film that deals with the dangerous journeys of North Korean defectors fleeing through or to China. These journeys are both dangerous and daring, since if ...more
"A first-hand account of the Great Sichuan Earthquake that shows the human face of a massive tragedy. The statistics are mind-boggling: 70,000 dead, 375,000 casualties. In 1428 filmmaker Du ...more
A Song for Tibet is a 1991 Canadian short documentary film about efforts of Tibetans in exile, led by the Dalai Lama, to free their homeland and preserve their heritage. Directed by Anne ...more
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Karamay
Karamay is a 2010 documentary film by Chinese director Xu Xin about the 1994 Karamay fire. It is largely black-and-white.
Inside Fighting China is a 1941 Canadian short documentary film directed by Stuart Legg, and narrated by Lorne Greene. The film documents China's resistance to Japan's invasion during World War ...more
not on the list? add item #37
List Rules: Documentaries about China and all things Chinese.
