How to make documentaries intervene in history

In recent years, some historical documentaries have been forced by ratings pressure to dig up graves and rob tombs, making fictitious stories, lacking historical information to support them, and turning them into third-rate TV dramas, but at the same time, there is also no lack of excellent work that has found a delicate balance between historical discourse and public acceptance, which has expanded a new space for historical documentaries to be full of life

The 5,000 years of history of China have produced a lot of rich and twisted stories, from the fate of individuals to the rise and fall of nations, from the sorrows of life to the change of dynasties, which are full of drama and legends. The five thousand years of Chinese history have produced many rich and twisted stories, from the fate of individuals to the rise and fall of the nation, from the sadness and joy of life to the change of dynasties, full of drama and legends. The recently aired 5-part, 26-episode documentary "Turning Points of History" is different from the way it focuses on the selection of materials for one generation and one person, as it extracts 5 nodes from the history of China and recreates them in a dramatized way, presenting a novel creative concept and aesthetic form, which triggers some thoughts: how can documentaries intervene in the history?

The way documentaries intervene in history can be roughly divided into three ways: first, restoring history, trying their best to restore history according to its original nature, without playing with it or judging it arbitrarily; second, expressing history, using historical figures and stories as carriers, interpreting human nature, expressing emotions, and interpreting legends; and third, reflecting on history, reexamining history from today's point of view, and judging history, so as to enlighten the contemporary world with history. The third is to reflect on history, to revisit it from today's perspective, to judge it, and to enlighten the present.

The Inflection Points of History is a reflective historical documentary that interprets the five inflection points of Chinese history in a scenic way, namely, the change of the law by Shang Yang, the battle of Han-Hungary, the alliance of Still Waters, the Western voyage, and the Sino-Japanese War. The film delves into the nodes of history, the nurturing moments, in an attempt to reveal the inner dynamics of China's historical changes. As the director puts it, the purpose of making this movie is "to grasp the direction of our nation and the future of the world in a more powerful way, and hopefully to inspire the audience to find the wisdom of survival in the mysteries of history." This documentary is not only intended to be a masterpiece, but also to inspire life and enlighten the present. People may have different interpretations of the choice of these five nodes, but there is no denying the discursive character of this movie. In his elaboration, the writer-director said, "The narrative is cut from a unique perspective, while adding thought-provoking arguments. It avoids a running historical record, and instead sublimates a discursive point of view in a mixture of narrative and discussion."

As a mass media product, documentaries cannot ignore the audience's desire for dramatic storytelling and visual spectacle. Scenario reproduction has therefore become an important method of expression for documentaries, especially historical documentaries. The Tipping Point of History is a full-length reenactment documentary, in which the main scenes are performed by actors, and the earlier the film, the more performance-oriented it is. The first four episodes of The Sino-Japanese War, for which there are still accurate historical sites, archives and photographs, are virtually reenactments plus interviews. Although historical documentaries can tell stories like TV dramas, the most important thing is truthfulness. Even if the dramatic moments are amplified, the materials used must be based on documents and cannot be fictionalized arbitrarily. This is the fundamental difference between documentaries and TV dramas, and also the irreplaceable value of documentaries, which cannot distort history for the sake of entertaining the audience. The Turning Point of History is based on historical documents, with historical records, expert explanations, sites and folklore passed down to the present day endorsing its historicity. Among them, the documentary passages add a sense of life to the documentary. In "The Changing of the Law", it is said that the descendants of the massacre survivors used to cook tofu in water as if it were Baeki's meat, and mashed garlic and ginger as if it were Baeki's brains, in order to curse the Qin general Baeki for his massacres and atrocities. The oyster shell house in Quanzhou, known as the Oyster Shell Alley, is a product of Zheng He's voyage to the West - these oyster shells were picked up by the fleet when they returned home from Africa to pressurize the empty compartments. These documentary scenes not only activate history, but also connect history and reality.

In addition, even if it is the scene reproduction of documentary passages, the aesthetic principles followed by historical documentaries are also different from those of TV dramas. From the viewpoint of audience psychology, TV drama pursues immersive communication, allowing the audience to enter the historical scene, treating the actors as historical figures; historical documentary pursues the interstitial effect, extracting the audience from the historical scene through interviews, documents and documentary passages, and the scene reenactment is only a means of expressing history. From the perspective of narrative, TV dramas pursue the dramatic structure of ups and downs, complex and full characters and complete and continuous storylines; historical documentaries focus on setting the atmosphere, and reproduce the main outlines and details of the historical story in a fragmentary and non-continuous way, instead of reproducing them in a complete and continuous way. From the point of view of audio-visual expression, the TV drama narrative adopts multi-scene, and shapes a closed illusory space and time through dialogues, music, sound and other audio-visual elements; while the historical documentary scenario reproduction highlights the use of lenses, replaces the characters' dialogues with voice-overs, and creates an open space by accentuating the atmosphere with music and sound. Therefore, the whole documentary is a fusion of ideas and aesthetics, giving the audience a humanistic shock or truth revelation, rather than just entertaining the audience.

Expert interviews are an indispensable element in historical documentaries. It is both a guardian of authenticity and an expression of ideas. The Turning Point of History interviews renowned experts such as Bao Kunshan, Li Shan, Sassou and Mao Peiqi, whose research and interpretation of basic historical materials are convincing and inspiring. For example, when talking about Li Hongzhang's signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, interviewed guest Li Honggu said, "The process of getting such a huge empire to move towards a modern state was very difficult. ...... At this point in time, sympathy for our understanding becomes especially important, and when you reconcile yourself with history, rationality goes a lot further than confrontation further." Li Honggu's quote tells us that going deeper into historical situations, understanding history and drawing inspiration is far more important and valuable than pointing fingers.

Historical texts are also the soil on which historical documentaries are based. While TV dramas can draw heavily on folklore, history and legends, documentaries can only find stories in serious historical texts, and must not play around with them, jeopardizing historical truth for the sake of drama. Although the stories told in Turning Points of History also have climaxes and twists and turns, they are all taken from historical records such as the Records of the Grand Historian, the Book of Han, and the Classic of History. Of course, real history does not lack drama.

In recent years, some historical documentaries have been forced by ratings pressure to dig up graves and rob tombs, make up stories and scenarios to recreate the proliferation of the lack of historical information to support the lack of costumes and props to prove that the serious historical documentaries have been shot into a third-rate TV series. The scenario is not a "Dream of the Red Chamber" in the Wang Daoshi a stick of spirit, if overstepped the boundaries, the use of inappropriate, will certainly damage the aesthetic principles of the documentary.

The long history has given us rich human resources, and it is the civilization tradition that supports us. Since the new century, historical documentaries have constantly challenged the new boundaries, extending from modern and modern times to ancient times, from "The Forbidden City", "The Yuanmingyuan", and other partial reproduction of history, to "The Tipping Point of History", the whole reproduction of history, scenario reproduction for the documentaries to construct a new way to intervene in the history of the world, to find a delicate balance between the historical speech and public acceptance, to expand a new space for the history of the documentaries to a new space of vigor and vitality.