Beyond Asian? Beyond cinema? Intermediality, the performative and the cosmopolitan in the recent documentary films of Evans Chan
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Asian Cinema : A Publication of the Asian Cinema Studies Society
Publication Date
10-1-2014
Volume
25
Issue
2
First Page
139
Last Page
152
Publisher
Intellect Ltd.
Keywords
intermediality, theatricality, documentary, performance, form and reform
Abstract
In Evans Chan's latest documentary Datong: the Great Society (2011) on the life of would-be Qing Dynasty reformer Kang Youwei and his daughter Kang Tongbi in China, the United States and in exile in Sweden the device of theatrical performance is foregrounded, as it has often been in other documentary films by Chan. To those less familiar with Chan's signature style the decision to employ stage actors rather than film actors, and to eschew the typical drama-documentary's recourse to mimetic pictorial realism can defamiliarize. In this essay it will be argued that the notions of performance and theatricality that permeate much of this auteur director's work, are congruent with both his film-making aesthetic and his intellectual pre-occupations.
DOI
10.1386/ac.25.2.139_1
Print ISSN
1059440X
E-ISSN
20496710
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2014 Intellect Ltd
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Ingham, M. (2014). Beyond Asian? Beyond cinema? Intermediality, the performative and the cosmopolitan in the recent documentary films of Evans Chan. Asian Cinema, 25(2), 139-152. doi: 10.1386/ac.25.2.139_1