An ever-expanding list of volumes dedicated to documentary in East and Southeast Asia (mainly in English, but also Italian, French, Korean etc.).
In English
The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (Jeffrey Ruoff and Kenneth Ruoff, Flicks Books, 1998)
A short volume dedicated to the analysis of Hara Kazuo’s most famous documentary.
Japanese Documentary Film – The Meiji Era through Hiroshima (Abé Mark Nornes, University of Minnesota Press, 2003)
Among Asian countries—where until recently documentary filmmaking was largely the domain of governments—Japan was exceptional for the vigor of its film industry. And yet, Japanese documentary remains largely unstudied outside of Japan. The first English-language study of the subject, this book provides an enlightening look at the first fifty years of documentary film theory and practice in Japan.
(more here)
Forest of Pressure – Ogawa Shinsuke and Postwar Japanese Documentary (Abé Mark Nornes, University of Minnesota Press, 2006)
A critical biography of filmmaking collective Ogawa Pro, Forest of Pressure explores the emergence of socially committed documentary filmmaking in postwar Japan. Benefiting from unprecedented access to the collective’s archives and interviews with former members, and analyzing Ogawa Pro’s films and works by other Japanese filmmakers, Abé Mark Nornes addresses key issues in documentary theory and practice.
(more here)
Camera Obtrusa – The action documentaries of Hara Kazuo (Hara Kazuo, Kaya Press, 2010)
A translation of Hara’s writings on his life and his documentaries. (more here)
The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement: For the Public Record (Edited by Chris Berry, Lu Xinyu and Lisa Rofel, Hong Kong University Press, 2010)
The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement is a groundbreaking project unveiling recent documentary film work that has transformed visual culture in China, and brought new immediacy along with a broader base of participation to Chinese media. As a foundational text, this volume provides a much-needed introduction to the topic of Chinese documentary film, the signature mode of contemporary Chinese visual culture. (more here)
Asian Documentary Today (Edited by Jane H. C. Yu, Busan International Film Festival, 2012)
Published by the Busan International Film Festival, the book is divided in two parts: “Part 1. The Landscape” (essays on contemporary documentary in Asia) and Part 2. Viewpoints, featuring interviews with filmmakers. (more here)
Documenting Taiwan on Film: Issues and Methods in New Documentaries (edited by Sylvia Li-chun Lin and Tze-lan D. Sang, Routledge, 2012)
This volume seeks to conduct a systematic analysis of the genre in Taiwan. Each contributor to the volume investigates the various aspects of documentary by focusing on one or two specific films that document social, political and cultural changes in recent Taiwanese history. (more here)
Hong Kong Documentary Film (Ian Aitken, Michael Ingham, Edinburgh University Press, 2014)
A comprehensive study of the lost genre of Hong Kong documentary film. (more here)
Of Time and Struggle – Four Films by Ogawa Productions (compiled by Ricardo Matos Cabo for the Courtisane Festival 2017)
A booklet with texts from different regions of the world, and written during different periods, about Ogawa Pro. You can read it online here.
Of Sea and Soil – The Cinema of Tsuchimoto Noriaki and Ogawa Shinsuke (edited by Ricardo Matos Cabo for the Courtisane Festival 2019).
A booklet with text by and on Tsuchimoto and Ogawa, a jewel. You can read it online here
In Italian
Wang Bing – Il cinema nella Cina che cambia (Edited by Daniela Persico, Agenzia X, 2011)
A collective work entirely dedicated to Wang Bing.
In French
Wang Bing : Un geste documentaire de notre temps (Antony Fiant, Warm Editions, 2019)
more coming
Asian Docs 