1. Watermarks - Three Letters from China (Watermarks - Three Letters from China)
Based on three different places, the film portrays the infractions to which people living in modern day China are subjected due to rapid developments: in the deceptively idyllic Yangshuo in the rainy south; in the apocalyptic coal mining site of Wuhai in the parched north; and in Chongqing, the urban behemoth on the Yangtze River. The protagonists give their accounts of the unsurmounted past, the precarious present and their tentative steps into the future. The film thus paints a complex image of the mental state of the people in this complicated country.
It has an average vote of 7.8 on TMDB.
2. The Greatest Tomb on Earth: Secrets of Ancient China
Dan Snow, Dr Alice Roberts and Dr Albert Lin investigate a series of earth-shattering discoveries at a mighty tomb guarded by the Terracotta Warriors in China.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
3. Overloaded Peking
A documentary about Peking in the dawn of the new Millenium. Contains interviews with Jia Zhangke and dj Gaohu
4. Manufactured Landscapes
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.
It has an average vote of 7.3 on TMDB.
5. Stay Awesome, China!
To really understand China, you have to get to know its people! Winston "SerpentZA" Sterzel travels across China’s first tier cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen – meeting the cities’ most fascinating people, including a racy nude photographer, a mosquito breeding scientist and a DIY maker challenging gender and tech stereotypes.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
6. The Road (大路朝天)
A highway is waiting to go through a quiet village in Hunan, a province in central China where Mao was from. Due to the high cost of construction, construction companies and migrant workers who live on road work rush to here like the tide. In the following four years, they root in this strange place for interests, paying sweat and blood, even their lives. With their arrival, local village and peasants are forced to change their lives. Many hidden interest lines and hidden rules about road construction of the nation are unveiled, together with the shocking truth and emerging secrets.
It has an average vote of 8.5 on TMDB.
7. Draussen bleiben (Draussen bleiben)
(Draussen bleiben)
8. Kung Fu: Knallhart (Kung Fu: Knallhart)
(Kung Fu: Knallhart)
9. The astonishing destiny of General Luo (L'étonnant destin du général Luo)
Born in Austria in 1903, Jacob Rosenfeld was imprisoned in Dachau. He manages to flee and takes refuge in Shanghai, like 30,000 other people. He exercised his profession there and sought to get involved in 1941 alongside the revolutionaries of the Chinese Communist Party. Rosenfeld becomes a surgeon on the war front between China and Japan. Thanks to his talents as a doctor and an organizer, he soon became close to Mao Tsé-Toung. In 1945, he was appointed general, responsible for the health of the armies and the entire liberated area. He is now called General Luo. Later, he became the Minister of Health of the first communist government. Thanks to his journal found in 2001, this documentary traces its extraordinary destiny.
10. So Long! (再见，启程)
Ran Ran is about to leave Beijing. With only ten days left, how will she decide to spend the rest of her time?
11. Heaven (Nebe)
Tomáš Etzler worked for seven years as a foreign correspondent in China. He came to know a country that was developing at an admirably fast pace, was swayed by its energy, and for a moment believed that modernity could bring about political change as well. Before long, it dawned on him that many people would continue to be severely punished, and the regime would still keep most of the nation in a state of indecision and ignorance. Without neglecting that face of China today, Etzler chose to tell a story of hope in his personal documentary. Using the example of an orphanage for disabled children, he shows that the answer to collectivist brutality and ruthlessness can be mutual assistance, tolerance and empathy.
12. The Shoe Shiner's Journey (昨日狂想曲)
(昨日狂想曲)
13. 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama
How do you reconcile a commitment to non-violence when faced with violence? Why do the poor often seem happier than the rich? Must a society lose its traditions in order to move into the future? These are some of the questions posed to His Holiness the Dalai Lama by filmmaker and explorer Rick Ray. Ray examines some of the fundamental questions of our time by weaving together observations from his own journeys throughout India and the Middle East, and the wisdom of an extraordinary spiritual leader. This is his story, as told and filmed by Rick Ray during a private visit to his monastery in Dharamsala, India over the course of several months. Also included is rare historical footage as well as footage supplied by individuals who at great personal risk, filmed with hidden cameras within Tibet.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
14. Come and dance with me. (Come and dance with me.)
An abridged history of motion pictures: In 1888 George Eastman registered the made up word “Kodak” as a trademark. In 1894 Jean Aimé “Acme” Le Roy presented the first film screening in New York City. In 1895 Auguste and Louis Lumière filmed workers leaving their factory in Lyon. In 1903 Thomas Alva Edison orchestrated and captured on film the electrocution of an elephant in Coney Island. In 2011 Anja Dornieden and Juan David González Monroy filmed dwarfs dancing on a stage at an amusement park in China. In 2012 Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy.
15. Le Baron et l'Empereur : Japon, la voie de la guerre (Le Baron et l'Empereur : Japon, la voie de la guerre)
(Le Baron et l'Empereur : Japon, la voie de la guerre)
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
16. Around China with a Movie Camera
A new film compiled from the BFI National Archive's unparalleled holdings of early films of China, features films from 1900-48 filmed across China. The cinematic journey of Around China with a Movie Camera contains many films which may never have been seen in China, or at the very least not for over 70 years. These travelogues, newsreels and home movies were made by a diverse group of British and French filmmakers, some professionals, but mainly enthusiastic amateurs, including intrepid tourists, colonial-era expatriates and Christian missionaries.
It has an average vote of 4.2 on TMDB.
17. Le Dragon de Fer (Le Dragon de Fer)
(Le Dragon de Fer)
It has an average vote of 8.3 on TMDB.
18. Parchim International (Parchim International)
A documentary showing a Chinese investor's attempts to turn a small regional airport in north east Germany into a major international air traffic hub.
It has an average vote of 6.6 on TMDB.
19. The Other Half Of The Sky (The Other Half Of The Sky)
They are four of the most successful businesswomen in China: Belonging to a generation who experienced the austerity of China's cultural revolution, followed by the subsequent economic boom, they have worked their way to the very top in a patriarchal society. Today, Yang Lan is the owner of one of the leading private media companies. Dong Mingzhu is a tenacious female CEO, heading up the world's largest manufacturer of air conditioning systems. Zhang Lan is a tycoon in the luxury restaurant business. Zhou Yi is a top manager working for a big american IT company. How were these careers built? What are the social and economic contexts in which they operate? And what do these women think about the political, social and cultural state of their country?
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
20. Souvenirs d'un singe doré (Souvenirs d'un singe doré)
(Souvenirs d'un singe doré)
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
