ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author reflects on the important role that the documentary film play in queer oral history projects and queer activism. Using Chinese queer filmmaker Cui Zi’en 2008 film Queer China, ‘Comrade’ China as a case study, he delineates the strengths, constraints, and potentials of community documentary filmmaking in contemporary queer oral history projects and activism. Queer China, ‘Comrade’ China, made by queer filmmaker, writer, and activist Cui Zi’en in 2008, was one of the first publicly circulated queer community documentaries dedicated to China’s queer history. Instead of hiding queer people’s faces in shadows, blurring their faces with mosaic effects, or dubbing their voices with other people’s voices – techniques often used in mainstream television documentary to maintain the interviewees’ anonymity, Queer China, ‘Comrade’ China presents the unmasked faces of queer people in their physical, embodied form. Queer China, ‘Comrade’ China uses a traditional broadcasting technique.
