The development of self-therapeutic documentary films in China

Bai Do ORCID: 0009-0007-7735-720X Postgraduate student, Department of History of Western European and Russian Culture, St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Leningrad region, Saint Petersburg, Mendeleevskaya line, 5 baiduorabota@163.com Other publications by this author

The concept of documentary films about self-therapy was proposed by Paul Arthur in 2007 ^[1]. Studying first-person documentaries ^[2] and autobiographical documentaries ^[3] that have gained popularity in the United States since the 1990s, Arthur discovered films with a clear theme of personal trauma, such as "The Sherman Expedition", "Bright Leaf" and "My Architect", and classified them as documentaries about self-therapy. A self—therapeutic documentary is a thematic offshoot of the practice of personal documentaries, which in its scope intersects with a first-person documentary and an autobiographical documentary. In the United States, the practice of personal documentary filmmaking dates back to the beginning of the equal rights movement in the 1960s ^[4]. In Europe, it can be traced back to 1948, when Alexander Astryuk promoted the idea of a "camera-stylo" ("la caméra-stylo") ^[5].

The history of personal documentary practice in China has no long-standing roots. In the late 1980s, after digital video cameras became popular, young freelance artists and directors who quit TV stations began the first practices of independent documentary filmmaking. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the films of Wang Feng, Yang Lin and Tang Danhong were distributed to a niche audience. Unlike the main documentaries of that time in China, they pointed the camera at themselves, their relatives and friends and talked about their hidden psychological problems and personal memories right in front of the camera.

The film "There are more than one Uncountable" ("More than one is unhappy", 2000, dir. Wang Feng, 45 min.) is similar to Wang Feng's personal diary. She presents her questions to her parents, an understanding of marriage and life, as well as reflections on her own position during the production of the film. In the film "Home video" ("Home video", 2001, dir. Yang Lin, 65 min.) Yang Lin is trying to find out the truth about her parents' divorce through interviews with them and with her brother in order to avoid the impact of this story on her. In the film "Nightingale is not the only voice" ("Nightingale is not the only voice", 2001, dir. Tan Danhong, 180 min.) Tan explores the problem of "how the self is formed." She believes that she has always had a nihilistic and painful attitude towards life and that childhood traumas have shaped her personality. In the film, Tan tries to find out from her parents the true reason why her father beat her when she was seven years old. She also records her conversation with a psychotherapist, which took place in connection with a relapse of her mental illness. These films not only marked the beginning of the practice of the earliest private documentary films in China, but also contributed to the inclusion of personal trauma in the selection of topics for such films. They can be seen as an early Chinese documentary about self-therapy. However, unfortunately, the early films were not distributed on the market, and some of the directors decided not to show them publicly due to the intimacy of the topic ^[6-8].

In the following decade, personal documentary works such as Nostalgia (2006, dir. Shu Longhao, 70 min.), "Springtime in Wushan" ("Springtime in Wushan", 2003, dir. Zhang Ming, 110 min.), "The Man" ("The Man", 2004, dir. Hu Xinyu) and "The Days" ("The Days", 2011, dir. Wei Xiaobo). But there were no films about personal injuries, with the exception of "Therapy" ("Therapy", 2010, dir. Wu Wenguang, 80 min.) and "Self-portrait with three women" ("Self-portrait with 3 women", 2010, dir. Zhang Mengqi 70 min.), which in recent years have sometimes been shown at film screenings organized by amateurs. And according to the existing literature, at the moment there are no more studies on the topic of personal injury. This is mainly due to the fact that, compared to the prevailing concept of "direct cinema" in Chinese documentary, personal documentary has always been on the periphery and has not been taken seriously by the theoretical community. Moreover, under the influence of the traditional concept of documentary cinema, even if the director films his relatives and friends, he consciously uses the external perspective of the narrative, showing family members as representatives of a certain social group, hiding his relationship with the characters of the film. Accordingly, there is no question of presenting himself as the main character.

From 2015 to 2017, several films appeared at the Chinese International Documentary Film Festival (Guangzhou), which is close to the author of this study, in which the directors filmed members of their families. For example, in the film "Please Remember Me" ("Please Remember Me", 2015, dir. Zhao Qing, 78 min.) Director Zhao Qing tells the love story of his uncle and aunt. The film touches on the problem of old age and shows what life is like for people with Alzheimer's disease. However, Zhao is not present in the film, and it was only in an interview after the screening that the audience learned that she was filming her own relatives. In the film "Live as He Likes" ("Live as He Likes", 2017, dir. Yang Liju, 20 min.) Yang Liju films her grandfather, whom she only really got to know when he divorced her grandmother. She complains that her grandfather was unable to realize his ambitions because of a marriage that limited his freedom. The film is built using the classic method of narrative biographies to maintain the rhythm of the narrative and give the grandfather's experience a legendary dimension. Although Yang uses first-person narration, she has not adjusted her approach to filming due to her relationship with her grandfather.

In all the films listed above, even the presence of the director's voice or his figure is unintentional. The director is placed in the film to maintain narrative coherence during editing, his embodiment does not form the basis of the narrative thread of the film. Therefore, the discussion of the film at that time did not imply the word "private" at all. The author concludes the film by adopting the traditional position of a documentary filmmaker, without developing his own relationship with the film or its characters.

The film "Small Talk" ("Small Talk", 2016, dir. Huang Huizhen, 88 min.) has truly attracted public attention to personal documentaries and has caused a surge in self-therapy documentaries in China over the past two years. Director Huang Huizhen directly appears in the film as the main character to tell the story of her estrangement from her mother, exposing the latter's lesbianism, and to reveal the psychological trauma that she received as a child in the family. This act of discussing private family matters in public contrasts with the traditional concept of keeping family secrets from the public and the establishment that family shame is not subject to disclosure. Huang's accumulated psychological problems, which arose as a result of such a traumatic upbringing, arouse sympathy from viewers who grew up in the same culture. Therefore, the possibility of resolving the conflict between Huang and her mother is not just a key thread of the narrative, but it is very exciting for viewers: will children be able to receive apologies from their parents for the wrong methods in the parenting process?

At that time, China already had a relatively well-established mechanism of film festivals and private screenings, and the film quickly spread through the media, which recommended it for viewing after the awards it received. Starting with this film, the discussion about family-themed documentaries was no longer about the function of recording documentaries, but about the intervention of the documentary in family relationships or even in therapy.

Subsequently, films about personal injuries in the family were also presented at Chinese and international documentary film festivals. The film "Get ready before jumping" ("Minding the Gap"; the Chinese title of the film is "Skateboard Boys", dir. Liu Bing, 2017, 93 min.; nominated for "Best Documentary" at the 91st Academy Awards and for the Grand Jury Prize at the 34th Sundance Film Festival) tells about domestic violence by his stepfather, experienced by Liu Bing as a child. Liu is of Chinese-American descent. Influenced by American culture, he also cast two friends with different skin colors in the film to highlight the widespread prevalence of domestic violence. Liu met them as a teenager, riding a skateboard. The film "The Beautiful Widow and her annoying Son" (Chinese title — "Addiction"; "The Lovely Widow and Her Annoying Son", 2019, dir. Wang Kai, 127 min.; the best film of the Chinese International Student Documentary — 2019) tells the story of Wang Kai, who feels especially strongly dependent on his mother after the death of his father. This addiction makes him feel constrained. He cannot live the way he wants, but must take on the role of a responsible son. In both films, the directors act as the main characters, directly telling the audience about their childhood traumas or problems that arose as a result of improper upbringing. They hope to heal these injuries and change their parents through filming.

If the appearance of personal documentaries at the beginning of the century was due to the popularity of digital video cameras, today the heyday of personal documentaries is due to three reasons.

First, the increasing availability of mobile phones and digital cinema cameras has simplified filming and reduced costs. For example, Wang Kai completed the film without any institutional support. Besides, he is not a professional director. The film cannot be called refined from the point of view of visual aesthetics, but it seems very honest and simple, since traditional documentaries do not have such a close shooting distance.

Secondly, social media has provoked a trend towards the spread of first-person narratives. After 2016, the number of short videos in China grew rapidly, and all major commercial media platforms encouraged users to create their own content and upload it. Non-fiction videos, in which people talk about themselves against the background of their personal daily lives, are the main form of video in today's social networks. A blogger is a new personality that anyone who knows how to use a mobile phone can give themselves if they want to. As a result, when the means of videography became everyday ^[9], many young filmmakers and amateurs took up telling the stories of their families and their own traumatic experiences in documentary or other non-fiction video formats. They often explain their actions by exploring their own families with the help of movie cameras, and believe that they are performing a meaningful act.

Thirdly, the emergence of new film festivals and film screening organizations has opened up opportunities for newcomers to the film industry. In China, young directors, students or amateurs still shoot mostly personal stories. Despite the fact that the old professional directors, with the development of video technology and innovative audiovisual methods, attempted to create films that went beyond the traditional concept of documentary cinema, they rarely used first-person narration, let alone the disclosure of personal stories. And the young directors secretly chose the topic of personal trauma and together formed a new direction for the development of documentaries about self-therapy in China.

In 2022, the "Grassland" master class, created by Wu Wenguang, founded the "Mother" film Festival, documentarian Gu Xue organized the "FamilyLens" master class. Both of them advocate bringing filming activities into everyday life by documenting what is happening around themselves and their family. However, there is an interesting phenomenon in such films.

The first Mother Film Festival was originally conceived to show the role of a woman in a family or society. In 27 collected films, the directors of the early 1970s either recall their mothers or express their vision of the role of women as mothers in society. The films of the directors of the early 1980s, 1990s and 2000s tell about conflicts with mothers and the traumas they received in the process of parenting.

In the film "The Millennium Bug" ("The Millennium Bug", 2022, dir. Yang Yu Ye, 55 min.) Yang accuses his parents of neglecting him because they were too busy earning a living, and of suppressing his dreams after graduation. He interviews his mother and tries to talk about those important moments imprinted in his memory, and in response he often hears: "Really? I completely forgot about it." In the movie "Face Comics" (2022, dir. Liu Yuting, 75 min.) Liu Yuting feels his own limitations after graduating from university because of his peasant background. She analyzes in front of the camera why she was filled with a passion for drawing as a child, and now has no achievements. She never talked about it with her parents, because they, as peasants, had to rush to the market early in the morning to sell leeks. Liu Yaqin in the film "When I Get Close to You" ("Close to You", dir. Liu Yaqin, 2022, 24 min) accuses his mother of controlling and suppressing her. She believes that her father's depression and suicide are directly related to her mother's strong character. Su Yuqin is one of those young directors you can rely on. You could even say that she's really brave. Su has suffered a more serious psychological trauma than those directors who accuse their parents of improper upbringing. In her own film "Days of Love" ("Days of Love", dir. Su Yaxin, 2021, 24 min.), instead of monologuing in front of the camera, she directly addresses her parents, stating that her father harassed her.

Watching the first Mothers Film Festival, it is easy to notice that most of the directors of today's documentaries about self—therapy are students or graduates of universities related to cinema or television. They have hundreds of dreams, but they are not sure that they will be able to realize them. In an attempt to resolve the conflict between the desire to become happy and successful and the lack of confidence in their own abilities and abilities, they turn to their families, trying to find reasons in the past to explain their failure, vulnerability and incompetence in the present. As Arthur predicted in 2007, the audience felt that "they would be able to apply what they had learned from watching a film about self-therapy to solve their own family conflicts." More than one director mentioned the film "Small Talk" as a source of inspiration. Laura Rascaroli's work is popular among directors. They master the methodology of personal documentary films based on the historiography of subjective cinema presented in Raskaroli's book. The directors have mastered the methods of treating injuries based on Sigmund Freud's book "Interpretation of Dreams": they returned to their families, pointed out to their parents their wrong actions during upbringing and forced them to admit their mistakes.

The "FamilyLens" master class, organized by Gu Xue, a documentary filmmaker, began in May 2022 with a collaboration with the "Meaning Creators" master class specializing in healing from injuries. The participants of FamilyLens are people aged 20 to 40 years old who live in big cities. Among them there are both working people and housewives, as well as independent artists who are just starting their career. The master class lasts two months. During this time, Gu Xue teaches participants how to find themes in their own lives, turn objects into themes, as well as shooting and editing techniques, that is, the standard production process of a documentary. After two months, the participants present their short films in the online space. Starting in October 2022, students studying in specialties related to cinema or television began to participate in FamilyLens. Thanks to the master class, many documentaries about personal trauma were created, such as "Hope" (directed by Jingxi, 18 min., was shown on August 18, 2022), "Our Invisible Scars" (directed by Lee Sing Sing, 13 min., was shown on October 31, 2022), "Let's Talk to you" (directed by Li Andi, 23 min., was shown on October 31, 2022), "Tears are the smallest sea" (dir. Liu Ting, 31 min., was shown on August 12, 2023).

The efforts of independent documentary filmmakers have played an important role in bringing Chinese personal documentaries into the mainstream. At first, the academic community of Chinese documentary films did not pay much attention to the phenomenon of personal documentaries. Usually, young scientists paid attention to him. It was only in 2022 that the authoritative scientific journal Modern Cinema published a research column on private documentary films ^[10-13]. And it was only in January 2023 that the Chinese Academy of Documentary Films (organized by the Chinese Collegiate Association of Visual Arts) selected the documentary about self-therapy "Let's Talk to You" as the best student documentary. Compared to the International Documentary Film Festival in China (Guangzhou), it is obvious that recognition from the theoretical circle came four years later. On March 19, 2023, Grassland and FamilyLens jointly organized a forum on the topic "The role of the camera in family video", inviting Fan Qipeng, a documentary film researcher from Beijing Pedagogical University, to it. Fan published the article "Changes and Challenges of Private Documentary in China" in 2007. He was one of the first theorists to focus on the subgenre of private documentary, but his subsequent research did not advance further in this area. A number of changes that have occurred to some extent symbolize that Chinese documentaries about personal life have received serious recognition in academic circles. The themes of intimate family stories and personal traumas are no longer perceived by directors as narrow-mindedness, but as social symptoms of modern youth that deserve to be studied.

And this syndrome was even more pronounced at the second Mother Film Festival in 2023. In the first two thematic sections of the festival, "Fight in the Family" and "Between Us", eight new documentaries about self-therapy were presented. This leads to further reflections: why are more and more directors making films specifically on this topic — because first the directors make documentaries about self-therapy, and then thematic sections appear at film festivals, or because the focus of interest of film festivals is aimed at the topic of self-therapy?

Although both viewers and theorists often praise the directors of such films for the boldness of their stories about personal trauma and believe that filming has a healing function, however, the author believes that the filming method used in documentaries about self-healing does not heal injuries. Since almost all directors see themselves as victims, they demand an apology from their parents. Thus, they do not have to take responsibility for their current predicament. But it is the cognitive patterns transformed by trauma that need healing. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce the methodology of perceptual phenomenology, psychology and other sciences into the practice of self-therapeutic documentary films in order to allow directors to truly achieve healing and give them inspiration to create more diverse forms of film texts.