Anthropology is a subject focusing on human being. The first full-length documentary in history ‘Nanook of the North’ which made in the 1920s was an anthropologic/ ethnographic film. Meanwhile, anthropologist Malinowski established an academic norm by his filedworks. Afterwards, some anthropologists move their sight from remote ethnics to urban communities, so the category of anthropology is larger than our impression. As an objective recording form, documentary(especially ‘direct cinema’) was adopted by anthropologist to write their ethnography; In parallel, as a humanistic perspective, anthropology influenced a lot of documentary and fiction filmmakers. Such as Frederick Wiseman, his direct cinemas in half century were also some kind of ethnography.
The history of ethnographic documentary in China dated to the ‘Chinese minor ethnics social historical science documentary’, shot by Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Yunnan Province, 1950s~1960s. However, the documentaries with relatively complete cinematic consciousness was initiated later. The real beginning was the ‘New Chinese Documentary Movement’ in 1990s. During this time, there were some documentary works manifested some anthropologic characters, e.g. ‘No. 16, Barkhor South Street’(1996), ‘Fading Reindeer Bell’(1996). Meanwhile in Taiwan, Taili Hu made a series of documentaries, and then became an academic authority on visual anthropology in Taiwan.
Among the Chinese independent films in the 21st century, we can see countless works on anthropology. As a platform dedicate spreading independent films, CathayPlay presented anthropologic documentaries by Zhang Huancai, Gui Shuzhong, Guo Hengqi, Xu Xin, Gu Tao, and other filmmakers. We are willing to reflect ourselves by observing other communities, as well as to build a China panorama in the future.