A New Doc Set in Space Is Helping Chinese Cinema Chart New Frontiers

Zhu Yiran was aware there would be unique challenges ahead when he signed on to direct what’s being heralded as the first Chinese documentary to be shot in space.

Before and during the shoot for Shenzhou 13, Zhu and his team from the China Media Group Television Series and Documentary Center had to spend more than a month training three astronauts in the art of filmmaking. They also had to adapt 8K UHD technology in order for their cameras to function in outer space, and then there were the daily snafus that only became apparent once shooting had started.

The film — which follows the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft’s mission into space from launch on October 15, 2021 to landing on April 15, 2022 — chronicles the daily tasks undertaken by astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, including space walks and maintenance onboard Tiangong space station, all shot by the astronauts themselves on cameras specially fitted out by China Media Group.

“Filming a documentary with narrative standards inside a space station was an extremely challenging creative endeavor,” says Zhu. “The team from China Media Group’s Film, Drama and Documentary Programming Center had to break away from almost all traditional production models and faced a variety of difficulties — even the weight of the memory cards that had to be carried back to Earth became a problem.”

Zhu admits that directing the film remotely was a daunting process: “The biggest challenge was our inability to be present at the filming site, which cast a shadow of uncertainty over the entire project. However, this also made the film more authentic and closer to the true inner world of the astronauts.”

Shenzhou 13 is being showcased this week as the centerpiece of the China Film Pavilion at Hong Kong’s Filmart, which is being co-hosted by the China Film Administration and the China Film Co-production Corporation (CFCC).

As well as offering access to the more than 50 Chinese companies featured — China Film Co, CMC Pictures, Bona Film Group, iQIYI, China Film Archive, and the Shanghai International Film Festival among them — the pavilion features more than 160 Chinese movies organizers hope will reflect the diversity of content currently being produced across the country.

While the global animated hit Ne Zha 2 has captured the lion’s share of the headlines — with more than $2 billion in box office, this tale of a feisty little demon boy has become the biggest animated hit of all time in China — the pavilion is spotlighting other commercial hits, including the comedy Detective Chinatown 1900, the fantasy Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force and the martial arts epic The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero, alongside documentaries like the WWII saga The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru and the musical-drama A Tapestry of a Legendary Land.

Chinese filmmakers have arrived in Hong Kong buoyed by some positive spin on the metrics, as the domestic film industry creeps back towards its pre-pandemic levels. While China’s 2024 box office was down around 21 per cent (to $5.86 billion) year-on-year, the country’s urban movie-going community number more than one billion and 4,658 new screens opened, meaning China now has 90,968 urban cinema screens.

The Chinese industry reports “873 films were produced nationwide, including 612 feature films,” while eight films topped RMB1 billion ($138 million) at the box office.

In terms of international films reaching the Chinese market, 93 films premiered across 2024 (up 10 from 2023) — and that number included 33 from the North American market, and 20 from Japan. Figures released by official sources point to total box office for imported films at RMB9.063 billion ($1.2 billion) — or 21.32 per cent of the overall total, and up more than five per cent from 2023.

The hope coming into Filmart is that a buzz will also build around Shenzhou 13 — with both domestic and international releases still pending.

“We redesigned every part of the camera system to withstand rocket launch vibrations, simplify operation for astronauts, maintain handheld stability in zero gravity, allow fixed shooting from any angle, and enable power charging in the space station,” explains Zhu. “We were granted permission to train the three astronauts over a month before the launch of Shenzhou 13. They were highly intelligent and quickly mastered the use of these specialized equipment. To ensure the film’s completion, backup astronauts and crews for subsequent missions also received training in filmmaking.”

Adds Zhu: “Beyond cinematography training, we spent more time discussing documentary filmmaking and space aesthetics with the astronauts. This was not only to break their habit of formal news interviews but also to inspire them to passionately express Chinese-style space aesthetics while maintaining the rigor of their mission.”

The China Film Pavilion’s presence in Hong Kong follows a 12-month period that has seen similar initiatives rolled out at festivals in Cannes, Annecy and Toronto. As well as the film companies and the films being showcased, the pavilion aims to share the lay of the land in terms of the Chinese film industry overall. Seminars included the China Film Presentation, hosted by CFCC in collaboration with the China Film Association and the Xiamen Film Bureau, and featuring a number of the creatives behind the Detective Chinatown, Sheep Without a Shepherd, Yao-Chinese Folktales and Made in YIWU franchises while also sharing news about the China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival. There will also be a March 19 screening of the aforementioned documentary The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru, which pavilion organizers hoped would also give international guests to Filmart a “deeper understanding of the production standard of Chinese documentaries.”

Zhu is meanwhile hoping that potential distribution partners for Shenzhou 13 will leave suitably impressed.

“In the film, when the astronauts gaze at the golden, flame-like electric lights illuminating Earth’s night, a moment of profound self-reflection for humanity emerges,” he says. “Our original intention in creating this space documentary is to inspire viewers to pay more attention to this blue planet through the film and to protect our only home in the cosmos.”