Analyses how independent documentaries are forging a new public sphere in today’s China. There has been an explosion in Chinese independent documentary making since the turn of the twenty-first century. How are we to understand this vibrant burst of activity? This timely study is based on detailed interviews with Chinese documentary makers rarely available in English, and insights gained by the author while working as a journalist in Beijing. Through detailed analyses of key contemporary documentary titles, it reveals the ways in which independent films probe, question and challenge the dominant ideas and narratives circulating in China’s state-sanctioned media.Key features: A detailed account of one of the world’s most active, vibrant and challenging contemporary documentary sectors * Draws extensively on first-hand interviews with filmmakers * Offers in-depth, critical analyses of China’s most challenging contemporary independent documentaries * Discusses China’s state-sanctioned film and television sectors to cast new light on how the official public sphere is shaped and guided by the state