With a blend of documentary and fiction, Ying roots the action firmly in a depressing cultural context: the ubiquitous official loudspeakers blaring police announcements and the television droning patriotic propaganda belie the economic and moral corruption that pervades the system and infects private life.

NEWYORKER: The Other Half

One important tangent of this discussion hasn't had much exposure in the United States: the now 25-year-old wave of new Chinese documentary (and documentary-influenced fiction), whose development has paralleled the nation's emergence as an economic powerhouse.

WSJ: Repertory Film: Mining Forgotten Gems, Finding the Real China

The show, essentially an historical-fiction style documentary on the tragedy that is Baltimore (MD), notably appealed to all sides of the political spectrum.

FORBES: Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" Illustrates the Horrors of Big Government

Blending fiction with documentary, interviewing several retired workers and scripting faux interviews with other characters, he brings huge stretches of long-repressed history to life on an intimate scale.

NEWYORKER: 24 City

The plaiting of fiction and personal documentary by now a classic mode of indie modernism lends extra poignancy and self-deprecation to the low-key romantic agonies and financial struggles of ambitious yet uncertain bohemians.

NEWYORKER: Open Five

So controversial in fact that acting CIA Director Michael Morell felt compelled to issue a note to his workforce last week reminding them that the movie was a work of fiction, not a documentary.

CNN: Relax, 'Zero Dark Thirty' is only a movie

"We've made a fiction film, not a documentary, " Ms. Daelmans said.

WSJ: Romantic North Korea | Comrade Kim Goes Flying | By Ron Gluckman