Research On The Status Quo And Development Of Documentary Film About The Elderly In China

China has the largest population of elderly people in the world. Not only the large number, but also the problems in aging society will be the focus of public attention.Media will play an important role in the dissemination of the elderly, however, the elderly is not the favored target by mass media. Whether in news or artistic works, the illustration of the elderly is often stereotyped and emblematic.As an objective record,documentary presents the most real aspects of the elderly. It is a good way to make the public pay attention to and understand the elderly. Though in China, the development of the elderly documentary is not promising,and even in a predicament. The elderly theme works are not highly valued by the country, and creators are discouraged by various factors. As a result, the development of such documentary is arrested and the development of the whole documentary market becomes imbalance.This paper identifies four chapters to demonstrate the research in current situation and future development of the elderly documentary. Based on published documentary, the paper makes a comparison among China mainland, Taiwan and other regions. Chapter One summarized the current situation of the elderly documentary under the background of aging population. Starting from the aging audience and market, this chapter observes the development of the elderly documentary from the perspective of quantity and quality.In the second chapter, the features and communication values of the elderly documentary are explored. The ethics reflected in stories of the elderly are presented, followed by the prominent concepts of life and time showed in their lives and the expression of humanistic concern to the social vulnerable groups. The dilemma and caused reasons for this kind of documentary are discussed in Chapter Three,mainly include documentary market, propagation channels and platforms, production team, and content presentation. The last Chapter raises recommendations for the plight of the elderly documentary, and then explores the future prospects of it.