Documentarization and Amplified Realism in Jia Zhangke’s Films

Abstract

Documentary film in the PRC has become an important mode in the palate of Sixth Generation (or urban or independent) filmmaking. The recent prominence of documentary turns on the notion of indexicality and the capacity for film to present reality. Jia Zhangke, probably the most critically acclaimed of Sixth Generation filmmakers, in his film practice, though largely conforming to this long-take, observational documentary style, also brazenly deploys technologies such as nondiegetic music and CGI effects. On the face of it, these tactics may seem to undermine the indexical reality portrayed in Jia’s films, but on further consideration actually augment his historical project of capturing China’s contemporary moment.