Before the 1980s, documentary films in China were mostly propaganda made to serve the ideological purposes of the Communist Party. Views critical of the party were prohibited. Only one official voice could be heard: that of the government. Film-makers obeyed Mao Zedong’s dictum that artists’ works should reflect the lives of the masses — the … Continue reading The Geneva Film Festival & Censored Chinese History: The Story of Chi Xiaoning and His Smuggled Camera 池小寧和他偷運得來的攝影機