A poster of Chinese documentary "The Tale of Chinese Medicine." (Photo/China.org.cn)
The total investment and the total output value of China's documentary productions in 2016 was 3.47 billion yuan (U.S.$504 million) and over 5.2 billion yuan (U.S.$755 million), a year-on-year increase of 15 percent and 12 percent respectively, according to a survey.
The "Study Report of the Development of Chinese Documentary 2017" and the "Film Eye Library" were published on April 17 at Beijing International Film Festival.
Specialized documentary channels and satellite television channels broadcast a total of 77,600 hours of documentaries last year, a 1.6 percent increase year-on-year. The total broadcast programs all year round reached 24,600 hours, up 2.5 percent year-on-year. CCTV 9 and Docu TV have become the main producers. The spreading capacity of CCTV 1 and top-tier satellite televisions like Jiangsu TV and Zhejiang TV remained advantageous. Jiangsu TV broadcast "The Tale of Chinese Medicine," building it as a successful documentary brand.
The Documentary Center of Beijing Normal University (BNU) has long been committed to documentary teaching, research and production. Their "Study Report of the Development of Chinese Documentary 2017" tracks the annual dynamics of documentaries, analyzes development trends of the global documentary in 2016 from the perspectives of overall patterns, channels and programs, industry, new media and more, and provides cutting-edge information and professional insights for the documentary industry.
As an authoritative publication in history, aesthetics and industry, "Film Eye Library" is oriented towards documentary practitioners, researchers and majors. With the cooperation between China Radio Film and the TV Press and the Documentary Center, BNU, six volumes have been released for the first batch.
Professor Zhang Tongdao, head of the research group and director of the Documentary Center introduced the documentary industry development in 2016 in detail. The Report shows that the U.S. presidential election in 2016 became the core issue of documentaries and Chinese work, "Never Ending for the Anti-corruption Struggle" communicates the images of the big tigers being cracked down upon in the anti-corruption campaign to the public for the first time in the form of a documentary.
In addition, the natural documentaries created brilliance again. Jacques Perrin, a documentary master who had produced masterpieces like "Winged Migration" and "Oceans", launched a new film "Les Saisons (Seasons)" which calls on mankind to share the earth with animals. "Tomorrow" which won the César Awards, France for Best Documentary Film was released to the public in France, discussing the future of mankind. "Planet Earth II" broadcast by the BBC hit another ratings record. The National Geographic Channel launched Season 2 of "Years of Living Dangerously". Japan's NHK broadcast "A Grande Amazonia—the Final Unexplored Region".
In 2016, new media challenges and greying audiences have become common problems global documentaries are facing. BBC, NHK, Discovery Communications and the National Geographic Channel successively adopted the blockbuster strategy and opened up new media space to attract young viewers. For this, the National Geographic Channel invited James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Leonardo DiCaprio and Chen Kaige, a Chinese director, to join its documentary production team, and broadcast blockbusters like "Mars", "Years of Living Dangerously", "Before the Flood" and "China's Megatomb Revealed" in 2016. Blockbusters represented by "Planet Earth" have become BBC's hot programs.
The internationalization of documentary productions and broadcasts has become the norm, with a number of extraordinary Sino-foreign productions such as "Chinese New Year: The Biggest Celebration on Earth", "The Story of China", "Confucius", "China's Megatomb Revealed", "Silk Road Rising" and "Smart China". British Sky Broadcasting Group and CCTV 9 coproduced "Giant Pandas". SMG Pictures, Disney Pictures and Beijing Huanqiu Yidong Pictures co-produced "Born in China". The National Geographic Channel purchased "The Blind Monkey" from Continental Bridge.
