China's bustling economic reforms are well known to the world thanks to a barrage of media coverage, but the country's legal system--a key area for reforms with a huge impact on the country's society--remains an area that is still relatively unknown to most foreigners. Now a new documentary has debuted to show Westerners what's really going on in China's legal system: The People's Court--China's Legal Revolution.

The film profiles itinerant judges, law students, lawyers and ordinary citizens in their legal disputes in China's southwest Sichuan Province. After the documentary premiered on U.S public television program Wide Angle on July 3, Beijing Review North America Bureau talked to Maggie Still, producer for The People's Court, about her experience of making the film.

Beijing Review: Are you a journalist or a film producer? Was this the first time that you made a documentary based on China?

Maggie Still: I'm a TV documentary producer rather than a journalist so I like to use documentary to get behind issues. Xanadu Productions is unique in the UK in that we only make films about China. The company came about because I lived and worked in China way back in the early 1990s and it was then that I realized how important China was going to be in the world. So together with some colleagues we started the company.

So no--not the first film we've made on China! As you can see we've made many films about China and certainly it's our aim to use our knowledge about China to make sure we reflect accurately what's really going on there.

How did you come up with the idea of making a documentary on China's legal revolution? And how many of you were involved in making this documentary?

We looked at some of the most important issues facing Chinese society today to find a subject that most people wouldn't be aware of and thought that a film on the law would be good to tackle.

We came across this idea of mobile courts in China taking justice out to the rural areas. Instead of the courtroom being inside a building, the judges travel to some of the more remote villages and set up their courtroom outside in the open air. They take a table and plastic stools and make it as formal as possible but it has exactly the same function as if they were inside their county courthouse. So all the villagers get to see what's going on.

Usually it will be the first time any villager will have come into contact with the legal system. After all, only 30 years ago there really wasn't a legal system in place at all. Many Chinese are only now understanding that as individuals they do have rights. Not long ago, the emphasis was on society and the idea of the individual didn't count. As Professor Wang from Sichuan University says in the film, "We're changing the habits of thousands of years." So it's a big task--to put in place a whole legal system from scratch.

In fact, it's the only society in history that's developed an entire legal system so quickly. So even though it's early days and there are still many problems--it has still been a real achievement. The real challenge lies in the people believing it's all relevant to them.

We were a small team. The director is Bruno Sorrentino, who also shot the film. The rest of the team were Chinese: my associate producer Zhang Yongning and our sound recordist Wang Dong. Bruno has worked in China before and certainly brought a pair of "fresh eyes" to the subject, which was important as I had been so immersed in the subject for such a long time.

China's legal revolution is really a huge topic. Why did you choose Sichuan Province, the law students in Sichuan University and the specific rural cases that were featured? What messages did you try to convey to the audience through the film?

One of the reasons we chose Sichuan Province is that we really like it for our films to feel that Chinese people are having their own say and sometimes in China that's not always easy to achieve. We knew that as in many other parts of China the people in Sichuan are great talkers--always with an opinion!

Also, many films are made in Beijing and Shanghai, but most of China is rural and there have been a lot of films about Chinese people making money. Contrary to some media reports, most aren't millionaires!

So, we'd rather make films about what life is like for ordinary Chinese people. We made the film for the award-winning series Wide Angle--the only series of its kind in the United States. Wide Angle concentrates on human [interest] stories. We also believe that it's by human [interest] stories that you get to understand the bigger picture.

We wanted to film the law students to see the caliber of the next generation of judges and lawyers, because really it's going to be down to them how relevant they can make the idea of law to Chinese society.

I think if there was one message we were trying to convey it was what daily life is like for most people. The truth is that many don't feel they are getting a fair deal. Many of the migrant builders, for example, feel that they are second class citizens. So the film worked on two levels: the development of the law, but also a chance to see what issues are important to most Chinese. Not all Chinese people see the law as relevant to them. Many see Chinese society with one law for the rich and not much law for the poor. So the government has a big task on its hands.

It took many years for you to get approval to film the documentary. Had you ever thought of giving up? Did you need to get the content approved after you finished filming and before you took it overseas?

We never give up here at Xanadu! After all, the best things are worth waiting for. As to why we finally got the approval, I would like to think it was because the authorities believed we would reflect accurately this very important subject. The subject of the law is certainly sensitive and we didn't get to film everything we wanted to. Things are becoming more open in China, so maybe that's why we finally got permission. We didn't need to get content approval before we left China.

Some Chinese officials are reluctant to be interviewed or to appear on TV, but in The People's Court, the judges and other officials in the film are all very open. How did you get them to participate in the documentary and what were their initial reactions?

I think it depends very much how you approach officials in China as to how open they are. We didn't set out with any kind of agenda. We just filmed what we saw and some very surprising things happened.

Certainly in China the media are considered a way of people getting their message publicized. It really didn't matter whether we were a Western or Chinese film crew, many people just saw our camera and used it as an opportunity to come and talk to us.

There is a real strength of feeling in the countryside and people in the rural areas want to tell the rest of China what's going on--whether it's about corruption, injustice or the environment.

Any unusual or interesting anecdotes from making the film?

We did have some fun and interesting times. I think for me, the best moment was all the quacking ducks waddling across the mobile court when the judges were trying to listen to the plaintiff and the defendant.

Is this film going to be shown in China?

There are no plans yet to show the film in China, but that's not to say it won't happen.

Are you going to make another documentary about China?

I hope so. There are many other interesting subjects we'd like to make films about. I hope that with the level of interest that the world's media are now showing in China that we'll soon have that opportunity.

(Reporting from New York)