Iran: Cinematic Defiance From a Prison Home, RealTime 107, Feb-march 2012
A review of Jafar Panahi's This Is Not a Film, shot while the director was under house arrest in Tehran and recently released in Australia.

Visions of a Life Constrained, RealTime e-edition, November 22, 2011
A review of Granaz Moussavi's Iranian-Australian film My Tehran for Sale, and the sentence handed to actress Marzieh Vafamehr for her role in the film.

Ghostly Tales from Our Northern Neighbours, RealTime 105, Oct-Nov 2011
A review of The Fourth Portrait by Taiwanese director Chung Mong-hong, and Eternity by Thai director Sivaroj Kongsakul, which both screened at the 2011 Melbourne International Film Festival.

A Nation Slipping Under the Sea, New Matilda, 28 Sep 2011
A look at Tom Zubrycki's new documentary The Hungry Tide, and its protrait of a nation suffering the effects of a warming planet.

A Nation Slips Under the Waves, RealTime 105, Oct-Nov 2011
A look at The Hungry Tide, the new documentary by Tom Zubrycki, about the low-lying Pacific Island nation of Kiribati, which is slowly succumbing to rising tides.

Beyond the TV Frame – Antenna International Documentary Festival, RealTime, 104, Aug-Sept 2011
Preview of the inaugural Antenna documentary festival, coming to Sydney's Chauvel Sydney in October 2011.

You Can't Build on an Emptiness, RealTime 103, June-July 2011
In China's southern Jiangxi province, filmmaker Jian Yi and his wife Eva have set up IFChina Original Studio, a brave experiment in Chinese civil society that train young people in film, photography, theatre, and oral history. Dan visited the studio earlier this year and spoke to Jian Yi about his pioneering work.

China's Divided Screen Culture, RealTime 103, June-July 2011
A look at some of the Chinese films screened at the 2011 Hong Kong International Film Festival: The Ditch by Wang Bing, Bachelor Mountain by Yu Guangyi, and the omnibus film Yulu produced by Jia Zhangke.

CinemaTalk: A Conversation with Ou Ning, dGenerate Films blog, March 1 2011
Interview with the Chinese artist, writer, curator and documentary filmmaker Ou Ning, director of the acclaimed Sun Yuan Li and Meishi St.

Who's Using Who? Zhou Hao's Hall of Mirrors, dGenerate Films blog, Feb 22 2011
An essay on Using and The Transition Period, and pair of documentaries by one of China's most sharp-eyed documentary makers, Zhou Hao.

Fear, Loathing and HIV, The Beijinger, January 2011
An article on Zhao Liang's documentary Together, which looks at the plight of HIV suffers in China - reproduced here on the Screening China blog.

The Vicious Circle of Justice: Zhao Liang’s Crime and Punishment, deGenerate Films blog, November 4, 2010
A review of Crime and Punishment, a film by the Chinese documentary filmmaker Zhao Liang, looking at life inside a Chinese police station in the country's far northeast.

Shanghai: Fractured Memories, Contested Histories, RealTime, 99, Oct-Nov 2010
A review of the new documentary I Wish I Knew by Chinese director Jia Zhangke, which delves into Shanghai's fractures historical consciousness.

China’s Blockbuster Propaganda, The Diplomat, September 9, 2010
A discussion of China's recent state-sponsored blockbusters Aftershock and The Founding of a Republic, and the protectionist measures in place to make sure these films achieve maximum exposure in China.

From the Dark Side of Economic Success, RealTime 97, June-July 2010
Reviews of two Chinese documentaries screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival: Petition, Zhao Liang's disturbing look at the brutality, violence and intimidation surrounding those seeking justice in contemporary China; and Once Upon a Time Proletarian, Gu Xiaolu's series of snapshots of life in China's interior.

Alternative Realities - China's Digital Documentary Generation, RealTime 96, April-May 2010
While China's political system remains deeply authoritarian, the country's overwhelming size and explosive growth have opened cavernous gaps in the government's control of culture, through which a new generation of DV-wielding documentary filmmakers have climbed with relish. Dan Edwards looks at some of China's key independent documentary makers.

A Film Master on the Big Screen: Xie Jin Retrospective at MOMA BC, theBeijinger.com, 4 March, 2010
Beijing’s one and only arthouse cinema, MOMA Broadway Cinematheque, is proving a godsend for film fans who love the big-screen experience, but want something more challenging than multiplex spectacles. Recently MOMA BC kick off their first “Great Masters Retrospective” with a season of eight works by Xie Jin, the exemplary representative of China’s “third generation” of filmmakers. Although not well known in the English-speaking film world, here in China Xie Jin is revered as one of the nation’s great directors.

Family Life One Moment at a Time: Liu Jiayin on Oxhide, theBeijinger.com, 24 February, 2010
Oxhide by Liu Jiayin is one of the  most acclaimed and innovative slices of recent independent Chinese cinema. Beijing audiences recently had the chance to see Liu’s film, and its sequel Oxhide II, on the big screen at the famous 798 art zone. Dan Edwards spoke to Liu on the eve of the screenings.

Where the Truth Lies, RealTIme 94, Dec-Jan 2009
Jia Zhangke's most recent feature, the documentary-drama hybrid 24 City, considers China’s dramatic economic transformation through the story of factory 420—once a state-owned industrial showpiece now being knocked down to make way for luxury apartments. His 19-minute short drama Cry Me a River is a more conventional portrayal of the disillusionment and ennui of middle age, but with a particularly Chinese historical inflection.

Merely Floating in the World, RealTime 94, Dec-Jan 2009
A look at Zhao Dayong's extraordinary documentary Ghost Town, about a forsaken town on the Chinese-Burmese border. Includes interview comments with the director.

Coming Soon to a Broadsheet Near You, New Matilda, 6 Jan 2009
In propagating misconceptions about the Australian film industry, mainstream media pundits are sabotaging the national conversation about screen culture.

Buried Truths, Hidden History, Realtime 88, Dec-Jan 2009
A review of Australian documentary Whatever Happened to Brenda Hean? by Scott Millwood. Hean disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1972 while campaigning to save Lake Pedder in Tasmania. Dan wrote about Millwood's earlier films here.

Tasmania's Culture of Abuse, New Matilda, 15 December 2009
Another look at Whatever Happened to Brenda Hean? by Scott Millwood, including a discussion of the book that accompanies the documentary, and the critical reception to the film in Australia.

You Just Want Us to Look Bad, New Matilda, 21 November 2009
Dan Edwards discusses some unexpected reactions to depictions of China on screen he's encountered while living in Beijing.

Family Ties, review of Cherries, Time Out Beijing, July 2008
A harrowing family tale from China's countryside by director Zhang Jiabei.

Review of The Park, Time Out Beijing, May 2008
A moving meditation on the complexities of familial relations and the corrosive effect of time on people's dreams and expectations.

Art, Commerce, Action!, RealTime 84, April-May 2008
A look at the ambitious 10-film Yunnan New Film Project produced by Lola Zhang, and the first two titles in the series: The Case and The Park.

From Chinatown to China, RealTime 82, Dec 07-Jan 2008
The story of the first Australian-China animated co-production, Sweet and Sour. Includes comments from the film's producer Barry Plews.

The Secret War: Remembered and Repressed, RealTime 80, Aug-Sept 2007
It's hard to imagine two films more diametrically opposed in their portrayal of America's secret war in Laos than Rescue Dawn (Werner Herzog) and documentary Bomb Harvest (Kim Mordaunt).

World Without Bearings, RealTime 79, June-July 2007
An examination of the style and thematic concerns of Jia Zhangke, one of China's most important contemporary filmmakers.

Cinemas of Possibility, RealTime 78, April-May 2007
An overview of the Asian films screening at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2007, including documentary Please Vote for Me by Chen Weijun, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone by Tsai Ming-liang, Syndromes and a Century by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, documentary Feet Unbound by Khee-jin Ng, and How is Your Fish Today? by Guo Xiaolu.

Of Profits and Prophets, RealTime 78, April-May 2007
A report on the Australian Documentary Conference (AIDC) in Adelaide, February 2007. UK PACT Council Chair Alex Graham managed to ruffle feathers with his keynote address, while other sessions at the conference revealed some of the internecine conflicts that prevent coherent lobbying by the Australian film sector.

Michael Riley: Photographer & Filmmaker - part 2: the films - Buried Histories, RealTime 76, Feb-March 2007
In 2007 the National Gallery of Australia staged a retrospective of the work of Indigenous Australian filmmaker and photographer Michael Riley. This is the second section of a two-part article on the exhibition, focusing on Riley's films. Part one, focusing on Riley's photography, can be found here.

Iraq's Shattered Dreams, RealTime 74, Aug-Sept 2006
Ahlaam by Mohamed Al-Daradji depicts a contemporary Iraq of almost unimaginable misery, while also making a more general point about the nightmarish consequences of arbitrary, absolute power.

Meticulous Compositions in Time, RealTime 73, June-July 2006
A preview of the Jean-Pierre Melville retrospective at the 2006 Sydney Film Festival. Melville was a master of the crime film and its film noir variant, best known for his features Le Samouraï (1967) and Le Cercle Rouge (1970).

A Telling Silence, RealTime 73, June-July 2006
A look at the disappointing Australian tele-movie The Silence directed by Cate Shortland. Although it was hoped this production would resusitate the ABC's reputation as a producer of quality television drama, it was fatally undermined by a ridiculous plot and poorly developed thematics.

Africa's Problem: Europe, RealTime 72, April-May 2006
 Darwin’s Nightmare by documentary maker Hubert Sauper paints a disturbing picture of life around Tanzania's Lake Victoria, where 500 tonnes of Nile perch are caught every day, filleted in factories around the lake, and flown in vast Russian cargo planes to supply European dinner tables.

Dylan's 60s Revisited, RealTime 71, Feb-March 2006
Dylan's seminal 60s work reconsidered through the books of Greil Marcus and the Martin Scorsese documentary, No Direction Home.

Australian Western: Fear on the Frontier, RealTime 70, Dec-Jan 2005
Dan dissects The Proposition, directed by John Hillcoat and written by Nick Cave, and finds a brutal, sweat-soaked, insightful Australian genre film with one foot in the American revistionist Westerns of the 1970s, and the other in the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone.

Activists' Argentina, RealTime 69, Oct-Nov 2005
The Take sees filmmakers Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein journey to Argentina, to document the worker-run co-operatives that got Argentina's factories going  following the country's stunning economic collapse in 2001.

Somersault: Beauty and Turmoil, RealTime 62, Aug-Sept 2004
Australian director Cate Shortland developed her distinctive style across four short films made over the course of a decade, before her debut feature Somersault, a study of alienation set in the Australian winter resort town of Jindabyne.

Animating War, RealTime 62, Aug-Sept 2004
A review of Birthday Boy, a short animation by Australian filmmaker Sejong Park, about a young boy caught up in the destruction of the Korean War.

The Bad Dream Machine, RealTime 61, June-July 2004
Edifice—VW in Dresden, by Thomas Tielsch, follows the building of a transparent VW factory in the depressed German city of Dresden, and in the process illuminates how class and philosophical outlook crucially inform the way we read the spaces around us.

Scott Millwood: Documentary Poet, RealTime 60, April-May 2004
An overview of the career of Australian documentary filmmaker Scott Millwood, including his first documentary Proximity (1999) and his AFI Award-winning second film Wildness (2003), as well as details of some unrealised projects and a video installation in Melbourne. Includes comments from Millwood.

An Ark Floating Over the Surface of History, RealTime 55, June-July 2003
Russian Ark by Aleksandr Sokurov is a deeply conservative and ahistorical piece of reactionary nostalgia, argues Dan Edwards.

Profile of Sergio Leone, Senses of Cinema, September 2002
An appraisal of the legendary "Spaghetti Westerns" director Sergio Leone from the Great Directors Database compiled by Senses of Cinema.