Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

Interactive documentary film, emerged in 1980s and thrived in past decade under the growth of digital media technologies, is a new genre that narrates and the real and enables audience interact with reality through interactive digital technologies. There is increasing concern on this genre from vast western film agencies (e.g. the National Film Board of Canada, the Irish Film Board), international film forums and festivals (e.g. International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Sundance Film Festival) and broadcasters (e.g. Arte, BBC, The Guardian, France 24), facilitating the interactive documentary film making practice and spreading the trend all over the world. Researchers from varied fields engage in this promising territory as well (e.g. MIT’s Open Documentary Lab, the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam’s Doc-Lab). Chinese interactive documentary film practice came to the stage in a relatively late time, but it expanded in past decade and brought about artworks and projects unremittingly. Many questions are not yet clear like the features and making practice situation of Chinese interactive documentary film. As a profound segment of jigsaw picture mapping the global interactive digital art practice, the investigation about Chinese interactive documentary film should not be absent. To remedy the gap, this research offers some insights into two aspects: the historical procedure in which Chinese documentary started to employ and be reshaped by emerging digital technologies; the current situation and features of Chinese interactive documentary film. For methodology, a systematic literature review in relevant field and case studies of Chinese contemporary representative artworks and projects will be conducted.