Ian Aitken was a chair professor, and is now an Emeritus Professor, affiliated to Hong Kong Baptist University. His areas of expertise lie in British documentary film studies, the British official film in South-East Asia, and theories of cinematic realism. His most recent book publications include World, Time Film (Edinburgh University Press, 2026), Cinematic Realism (2020), The Major Realist Film Theorists (ed.), The British Official Film in South-East Asia (2016), and The Colonial Documentary Film in South and South-East Asia (2016). Camille Deprez is Research Assistant Professor, Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. A specialist of Indian documentary cinema and French colonial documentary in Asia, she is the co-editor of Post-1990 Documentary: Reconfiguring Independence (Edinburgh University Press, 2015).

A powerful book that addresses the relationship between documentary films and postcolonialism in South-East Asia...the book’s attempt to push the reflection on the relationship between visuality and colonial legacies beyond pre-determined styles and discourses is noteworthy.

• Table of ContentIntroductionPart 1. Issues of Colonialism, Late Colonialism and IndependenceChapter 1. The People’s Action Party Government of Singapore and Berita Singapura (Ian Aitken)Chapter 2. Merdeka for Malaya: Imagining Independence Across the British Empire (Tom Rice)Chapter 3. The Language of Counterinsurgency in Malaya: Dialectical Soundscapes of Salvage and Warfare (Peter J. Bloom)Chapter 4. Figures of Empire: American Documentaries in the Philippines (José B. Capino)Part 2. Missionary Films and Christian EvangelismChapter 5. Two Films and a Coronation: The Containment of Islam in Flores in the 1920s (Sandeep Ray) Chapter 6. Paradoxical Legacies: Colonial Missionary Films, Corporate Philanthropy in South Asia and the Griersonian Documentary Tradition (Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes)Chapter 7. Conversion, Salvation and the ‘Civilising Mission’: Christian Missions and Documentary Film in India (1900-1960) (Emma Sandon)Part 3. Documentary representations: Projections, Idealised and Imaginary ImagesChapter 8. Screening the Revolution in Rural Vietnam: Guerrilla Cinema across the Mekong Delta (Thong Win)Chapter 9. Ho Chi Minh in France: An Early Independence Newsreel (Dean Wilson)Chapter 10. Archives of the Planet: French Elitist Representations of Colonial India (Camille Deprez)Chapter 11. ‘Sufficient Dramatic or Adventure Interest’: Authenticity, Reality and Violence in Pre-War Animal Documentaries from South-East Asia (Timothy P. Barnard)List of ContributorsIndex

Ian Aitken was a chair professor, and is now an Emeritus Professor, affiliated to Hong Kong Baptist University. His areas of expertise lie in British documentary film studies, the British official film in South-East Asia, and theories of cinematic realism. His most recent book publications include World, Time Film (Edinburgh University Press, 2026), Cinematic Realism (2020), The Major Realist Film Theorists (ed.), The British Official Film in South-East Asia (2016), and The Colonial Documentary Film in South and South-East Asia (2016). Camille Deprez is Research Assistant Professor, Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. A specialist of Indian documentary cinema and French colonial documentary in Asia, she is the co-editor of Post-1990 Documentary: Reconfiguring Independence (Edinburgh University Press, 2015).

A powerful book that addresses the relationship between documentary films and postcolonialism in South-East Asia...the book’s attempt to push the reflection on the relationship between visuality and colonial legacies beyond pre-determined styles and discourses is noteworthy.

• Table of ContentIntroductionPart 1. Issues of Colonialism, Late Colonialism and IndependenceChapter 1. The People’s Action Party Government of Singapore and Berita Singapura (Ian Aitken)Chapter 2. Merdeka for Malaya: Imagining Independence Across the British Empire (Tom Rice)Chapter 3. The Language of Counterinsurgency in Malaya: Dialectical Soundscapes of Salvage and Warfare (Peter J. Bloom)Chapter 4. Figures of Empire: American Documentaries in the Philippines (José B. Capino)Part 2. Missionary Films and Christian EvangelismChapter 5. Two Films and a Coronation: The Containment of Islam in Flores in the 1920s (Sandeep Ray) Chapter 6. Paradoxical Legacies: Colonial Missionary Films, Corporate Philanthropy in South Asia and the Griersonian Documentary Tradition (Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes)Chapter 7. Conversion, Salvation and the ‘Civilising Mission’: Christian Missions and Documentary Film in India (1900-1960) (Emma Sandon)Part 3. Documentary representations: Projections, Idealised and Imaginary ImagesChapter 8. Screening the Revolution in Rural Vietnam: Guerrilla Cinema across the Mekong Delta (Thong Win)Chapter 9. Ho Chi Minh in France: An Early Independence Newsreel (Dean Wilson)Chapter 10. Archives of the Planet: French Elitist Representations of Colonial India (Camille Deprez)Chapter 11. ‘Sufficient Dramatic or Adventure Interest’: Authenticity, Reality and Violence in Pre-War Animal Documentaries from South-East Asia (Timothy P. Barnard)List of ContributorsIndex

Ian Aitken was a chair professor, and is now an Emeritus Professor, affiliated to Hong Kong Baptist University. His areas of expertise lie in British documentary film studies, the British official film in South-East Asia, and theories of cinematic realism. His most recent book publications include World, Time Film (Edinburgh University Press, 2026), Cinematic Realism (2020), The Major Realist Film Theorists (ed.), The British Official Film in South-East Asia (2016), and The Colonial Documentary Film in South and South-East Asia (2016). Camille Deprez is Research Assistant Professor, Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. A specialist of Indian documentary cinema and French colonial documentary in Asia, she is the co-editor of Post-1990 Documentary: Reconfiguring Independence (Edinburgh University Press, 2015).

A powerful book that addresses the relationship between documentary films and postcolonialism in South-East Asia...the book’s attempt to push the reflection on the relationship between visuality and colonial legacies beyond pre-determined styles and discourses is noteworthy.

• Table of ContentIntroductionPart 1. Issues of Colonialism, Late Colonialism and IndependenceChapter 1. The People’s Action Party Government of Singapore and Berita Singapura (Ian Aitken)Chapter 2. Merdeka for Malaya: Imagining Independence Across the British Empire (Tom Rice)Chapter 3. The Language of Counterinsurgency in Malaya: Dialectical Soundscapes of Salvage and Warfare (Peter J. Bloom)Chapter 4. Figures of Empire: American Documentaries in the Philippines (José B. Capino)Part 2. Missionary Films and Christian EvangelismChapter 5. Two Films and a Coronation: The Containment of Islam in Flores in the 1920s (Sandeep Ray) Chapter 6. Paradoxical Legacies: Colonial Missionary Films, Corporate Philanthropy in South Asia and the Griersonian Documentary Tradition (Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes)Chapter 7. Conversion, Salvation and the ‘Civilising Mission’: Christian Missions and Documentary Film in India (1900-1960) (Emma Sandon)Part 3. Documentary representations: Projections, Idealised and Imaginary ImagesChapter 8. Screening the Revolution in Rural Vietnam: Guerrilla Cinema across the Mekong Delta (Thong Win)Chapter 9. Ho Chi Minh in France: An Early Independence Newsreel (Dean Wilson)Chapter 10. Archives of the Planet: French Elitist Representations of Colonial India (Camille Deprez)Chapter 11. ‘Sufficient Dramatic or Adventure Interest’: Authenticity, Reality and Violence in Pre-War Animal Documentaries from South-East Asia (Timothy P. Barnard)List of ContributorsIndex