On December 10th, the 26th Asian Television Awards were officially announced, and two Shanghai works won the grand prize, once again highlighting the international communication strength of Shanghai documentaries. Among them, "Witness A New Dawn" won the "Best New Media Documentary Series" award; "Asia-Pacific War Trial" won the "Best Documentary Series" award, which is also the second international award won by the film after the Gold Award in the History Category of the Terley Television Awards in the United States.
Stills of "Centennial Party - Foreigners Telling Stories: Shanghai Liberation Special"
From the perspective of Shanghainese and Westerners, tell the history of Shanghai city
"Centennial Party - Foreigners Telling Stories : Shanghai Liberation Special Edition" is directed by the Information Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and produced by the Documentary Center of Shanghai Radio and Television Station. The special edition consists of six episodes, from the perspective of Westerners in Shanghai, including diplomats, journalists, doctors, businessmen and other representative groups, positive, objective and exclusive to tell the story of the Chinese Communist Party taking over Shanghai, managing Shanghai, and withstanding the initial test of ruling the big city. It is worth mentioning that the series of short films uses all-English historical materials, including the reports of the New York Times and the Daily Mirror at that time, the Associated Press and Reuters cables, and for the first time concentrated on the use of news reports from English newspapers and periodicals issued in Shanghai, such as the Zilinxi Newspaper and the Miller's Review, as well as the memoirs, diaries, and unpublished oral histories of diplomats and witnesses stationed in Shanghai at that time.
"Each episode of the short film cuts from a Shanghai landmark, such as Shanghai Tower, Minsheng Wharf, Yangshupu Power Plant, Xujiahui Library, Nanjing Road, etc. After the story is told, let's go back to the present. Wang Xiangtao, director of the Documentary Center of Shanghai Radio and Television Station, introduced. Each landmark corresponds to six episode stories: "Liberation", "The End of Old Shanghai", "The Purple Quartz Incident", "For the Bright Shanghai", "First Impression", and "Shanghai's New Life".
As a short video work for international dissemination, the biggest feature of the "Shanghai Liberation Special" is to adopt the perspective of "Westerners in Shanghai" to tell the most important changes in Shanghai's urban history. Andrew Field, an American with a background in East Asian history and who has lived in Shanghai for more than 20 years, is the guest host of the film. He told the audience a special history of Shanghai, clarifying that the basis of the RULING of the Communist Party of China lies in the support of the people and is the choice of history and the people.
"This third-party perspective is very valuable." Wang Xiangtao said. The inspiration for the work dates back to 2015. At that time, Wang Xiangtao was preparing to shoot a documentary on the theme of the War of Resistance, "Siege of the City by Fire", so he made a special trip to the United States to interview Thomas Powell, the grandson of John Benjamin Powell, the chief writer of the famous Old Shanghai weekly magazine "Miller's Review". "Grandpa was dead when Thomas was born, and there's not much he can say about Grandpa." But from the information Thomas brought, Wang Xiangtao saw an old photo of the Suzhou Riverside Building. He said his father, Bill Powell, who arrived in Shanghai after the victory of the War of Resistance, inherited the Miller's Review until his return to the United States in the 1950s, where he lived in the Riverside Building. Moreover, Bill experienced the Battle of Suzhou Creek in the Battle of Shanghai. This old photograph touched Wang Xiangtao, and this hidden history related to westerners in Shanghai also tore a hole in front of him. Following this thread, the episode theme of "Shanghai Liberation Special" was born one by one.
"Asia-Pacific War Trial" won the "Best Documentary Series" award.
Travel 90,000 kilometers to pursue the truth of history
If "Centennial Party - Foreigners Telling Stories and Shanghai Liberation Special Edition" interprets the charm of Shanghai from the perspective of "foreigners" in Shanghai; the documentary "Asia-Pacific War Trial" is a Shanghai documentary who takes the initiative to use the search road of 13 countries and regions such as Australia, Russia, the United States, Britain, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, etc., to return to the scene of history and uncover the history that should not be forgotten.
Chen Yinan, the general director of "Asia-Pacific War Trial"
"Asia-Pacific War Trials" is the world's first large-scale documentary focusing on the trial of Japanese BC (B C) war criminals by various Allied powers after World War II, showing the atrocities committed by the Japanese army in the Pacific Theater and the history of the post-war international community punishing war crimes in a legal spirit, filling the film and television gap in this field. Together with the previously released seasons of "Tokyo Trial", the three works together recreate the history of the Pacific War trial in World War II.
"Asia-Pacific War Trial" won the "Best Documentary Series" award
"The production of the eight-episode documentary 'Asia-Pacific War Trials' is a journey for the team to cross thousands of mountains and rivers to pursue the truth." Looking back on the filming journey, director Chen Yinan still remembers the set of unforgettable figures: the film crew browsed the relevant courtroom video materials scattered around the world, equivalent to the length of 900 films; consulted 20 million words of trial records in various languages; identified 15,000 photos of war criminals, trial personnel and participants; and also read 160 related academic works in different languages, covering English, French, Russian, Dutch, Japanese, Malay, etc., many of which are orphan books on Amazon's website. And all this is to ensure that every historical fact is well documented.
Nominees for the 26th Asian Television Awards
Compared with the Tokyo trial of Class A war criminals, the Asia-Pacific war trial, which focused on the Class B and C trial, has a longer time span, involves a wider geographical scope and personnel, and to some extent, can better reflect the overall picture of the Trial of Japan after World War II. However, international academic research in this field is very limited, and historical materials are extremely scarce, which brings great difficulties to the research, contact and interview shooting of documentaries.
"To search the world for witnesses and people who have experienced this history of more than 70 years ago is to find a needle in a haystack." Chen Yinan introduced that in the process of filming and production, the film crew spanned 4 continents and 13 countries and regions, traveled nearly 90,000 kilometers, interviewed nearly 50 international experts and scholars, and more than 40 witnesses and descendants of historical events, including rescue interviews with many centenarians.
In Chen Yinan's view, the perspective of "Asia-Pacific War Trial" is international, and the main tone of the documentary is also peaceful, rational and objective, "The documentary responds to the initiative of the community of human destiny, recreates the historical truth with rich lens language, reflects on the present by telling history, and calls on mankind to cherish peace and work together to move towards the future." ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Shi Chenlu Photo Editor: Xu Jiamin
Source: Author: Zhang Yi