Mapping the future with Liu Wei

How do you map the future of documentary in your company?

Founded in 1993, China Intercontinental Communication Center (CICC) is a comprehensive international cultural communication organization. We have been continuously involved in the development, production, and international distribution of Chinese-themed documentaries, presenting exciting Chinese stories to global audiences and showing the world a true, all-around, and comprehensive China. The programs we produce cover a variety of aspects including history, social development, natural geography, and scientific and technological innovation, creating an all-encompassing album of Chinese stories. Our documentaries target a global audience, are well-received internationally and more colorful in terms of themes and genres. We have noticed that production organizations around the world are increasingly focusing on common and future-oriented topics such as "exploring the universe", "green development", "ecological environment" and "cultural relics protection". CICC also has been increasing its efforts to create works around these topics in recent years, including the "Neu Earth", which will be presented at this Sunny Side of the Doc, and a number of new programs and creative ideas such as "Road to Carbon Neutrality", "A Journey into Carbon", "The Great Wall with Ash Dkyes", and "MISSIONS TO THE MOON".

With the advancement of science and technology and changes in the media environment, the production methods and expressions of documentaries are also evolving with the times. The rise of online platforms, short videos, and mobile terminals has greatly influenced the way documentaries are presented and the audience community has also changed significantly. Chinese documentaries are making innovations and breakthroughs in both content creation and expression.

Now and in the future, we believe that high-quality documentaries carry significant cultural mission and social responsibilities. Documentaries can, serving as a carrier, bridge the exchange between the East and the West and provide a strong link for the world to understand China. We expect both Chinese and foreign documentary professionals to bring together more diversified, richer, and more three-dimensional means of expression in the creation of documentaries on global topics, jointly creating more high-quality audio-visual products with warmth and sentiment. In the face of the rapid development of new media, we are confident that more and more young audiences from all over the world will become increasingly fond of documentaries, and documentaries will continue to shine in international cooperation.

What do you see as the next developments and big trends in the documentary world?

From our observation of China's documentary industry, in terms of creative style, more artistic techniques, including animation, music, poetry, and performance are employed in Chinese documentaries.

With the widespread use of new technologies such as 5G, 4K, and VR, documentaries are increasingly able to achieve a perfect blend of technological innovation and artistic levels in their production. As a result, documentary viewers will have a richer and more immersive viewing experience.

At the same time, we also see more and more young film and television workers becoming the new emerging force in China's documentary industry. They are good at capturing a lot of novel perspectives and are able to flexibly apply new media technologies to create programs that are more in line with the viewing habits of young viewers.

In the context of globalization, China's documentary industry is actively seeking more international cooperation.

Looking into the future, Chinese documentaries will continue to pursue high-quality development.

As we celebrate our anniversary, what would you like to wish Sunny Side of the Doc for the next 35 years?

First of all, we wish the Sunny Side of the Doc have a happy 35th anniversary！

The Sunny Side of the Doc has become the most professional and influential documentary festival exhibition in the world, and every year, documentarians from all over the world participate in this important industry event. CICC has been cooperating with the Sunny Side of the Doc for over a decade. This is the seventh time that the China Pavilion has organized a group to participate in the exhibition.

The Sunny Side of the Doc provides an important cooperation platform for us and for many Chinese film and TV organizations, where CICC has met a number of international media partners and realized international cooperation for programs such as "Carnets de Chine", "Panda Kingdom", "Traditional Chinese Medicine", "Space Reporter" and "Neu Earth". The Sunny Side of the Doc builds a bridge to promote understanding and respect among creators from different cultures, continuously broadening everyone's horizons and thinking.

As the Sunny Side of the Doc embarks on its next 35th-anniversary journey, we believe that meeting annually at the Sunny Side of the Doc has become an important tradition for the global community of documentary program producers. We will meet more and more new friends here and will achieve more diversified international cooperation in documentary programs. It is also expected that the Sunny Side of the Doc will carry out rich activities in other countries and regions, contributing to the growth and development of more producers and production organizations, and continuously playing an important role in the development of the global documentary industry.