The Golden Tree International Documentary Festival held the special events in Beijing via the conference's online platform and under the guidance of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio and Television. The aims were three-fold: to maintain on-going contact with the international documentary industry; to better understand the role of documentaries in international cultural exchanges; and to further deepen exchanges and cooperation with international industries.
On November 19, the forum on "The Trend of Documentary Development in the Internet Era", Special Activity of The Golden Tree Festival in Beijing, was held in conference room 4 of the Beijing Exhibition Hall. This forum was held online and was hosted by Tongdao Zhang, Director of the Documentary Research Center at Beijing Normal University. Guests included: Xianliang Zhu, Senior Consultant, Bilibili Company; Senior documentary film director and producer; Lexian Zhu, Tencent Video Documentary Film Studio Director; Thomas Frickel, Executive Chairman of DOK (AG) Germany documentary association; and George Kurian, India's renowned documentary filmmaker. The dialogue was held online via remote connection. Chinese and foreign guests had an in-depth discussion on the documentary genre's development and changing trends in the evolving Internet era.
In the Internet era, the influence of network technology on all walks of life is more profound than ever, and the documentary industry is also accelerating under the impetus of information technology. The Internet is bringing three noteworthy changes to the documentary industry: the Internet has changed the way viewers watch
At the forum, Chinese and foreign guests had an intensive dialogue covering three topics:
1. What has new media brought to documentaries?
2. What changes may happen when veteran documentary makers encounter new media? What will not change?
3. Looking ahead, how can documentaries and new media be better integrated?
Xianliang Zhu, a senior consultant of Bilibili company, believes that as far as the company is concerned, all of these changes are actually bringing younger audiences more diverse topics, more creative outlets and, are at the same time, bringing more unique communication to the documentary genre. As a documentary maker, he stressed that his love of his documentary career is the only thing that remains unchanged in the Internet era, and he expects that documentary, new media and traditional media will be better integrated in the future.
Lexian Zhu, director of Tencent Video Documentary Studio, believes that new media brings more users to documentaries, changes the communication environment, and enhances the interactivity, bringing innovations in form and content narration. But the pursuit of quality content has not changed. We can look forward to productive cooperation between documentary makers and new media in the future. Through high-quality documentaries, we can convey our shared values.
Thomas Fricke, executive chairman of AG DOK, says that new media has moved rapidly in recent years and it has done so much to change our industry. Documentaries have emerged as new formats. At present, the biggest change is that we are no longer bound to the TV stations to make documentaries. Instead, filmmakers can choose their own partners. At the same time, the market also needs good stories and good producers. In the Internet era, the documentary industry is undergoing fundamental changes. From the perspective of audience behavior, more young people are watching documentaries today, and new media also means new opportunities for all of us.
George Kurian, celebrated documentary filmmaker from India, says that new media brings three main changes: new audiences, new content and new technology. New media has expanded the audience, and more young people are starting to watch documentaries. New technology has dramatically changed the way documentaries are presented, but the original intention of making documentaries -- to record real stories -- remains the same. In the era of new media, filmmakers should consider how to make documentaries with new technologies and how to protect the traditional connotation of documentaries.
The year 2020 was an extraordinary year. We need more communication, more integration and more dialogue."
Professor Tongdao Zhang concluded, "Today's forum is a dialogue between civilizations. Although new technology has brought some changes to documentaries, what will never change is human's observation of world civilization."
The Forum attracted nearly 100 domestic experts, documentary scholars and industry professionals to the site, and conducted online and offline dialogues with experts.