One in a Billion - Documentary Director

Documentaries are definitely the best tool to record the times. Zhang Tongdao, director and professor at Beijing Normal University, records the spirit of the post-2000s generation through his documentaries “Kids Kingdom” and “Born in 2000”.

Director Zhang Tongdao has been teaching students how to make, research, and shoot documentaries for the past 20 years. He had the idea to record how modern kids grow up by shooting a documentary with them. Starting in 2006, Zhang began shooting “Kids Kingdom.” He finished work on that documentary and then on “Born in 2000” in 2018. His team finished three films and about 40 episodes of TV documentaries within 13 years. His works provide a record of the times, showing the changing spirit of the Chinese people. The people they film from the post-2000s generation have the distinct characteristics of the times. They belong to the future generation of Chinese people.