Will a Chinese State-Backed Film Distort Our Expedition’s Story?

I’m part of a four-person team planning a unique adventure expedition. A Chinese film company—backed by the Chinese government—approached us to make a documentary. One of our team members is Chinese, and it seems both he and the production company see this as an opportunity to create a film that highlights his role.

Initially, they presented themselves as an independent production, with about $500k budget for the movie, claiming they planned to submit the film to major festivals and platforms like National Geographic, Discovery, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and BBC. But after researching their background, I found no evidence they had ever worked with these platforms or attended international festivals. Despite being in the film industry for over 15 years (with the people behind the company having more than 20 years of experience), all their past work is government-funded, with a clear Chineese focus.

A major red flag was when they requested our passport details for their film release paperwork, explaining that this information would be provided to the Chinese government, which is funding the project. That was never mentioned in our initial discussions before.

My biggest concern: What are the chances they will fairly represent our international team, acknowledging everyone’s contributions, instead of turning this into a one-man hero story about the Chinese participant? From what I’ve seen, their past work follows a pattern of portraying Chinese figures as exceptional while downplaying others.

From a legal perspective, I see no way to enforce our rights once the film is made. If they misrepresent us, we have no real control over the final cut, and challenging a state-backed production from outside China would be nearly impossible. If any conflicts arise during filming, they could easily be used to shape the narrative in a way we don’t want.

Given that we not signed any agreements, what would be the best way to handle this? Should we distance ourselves now, or is there another way to mitigate the risk of being misrepresented? Looking for comments from those with experience in Chinese State funded documentary productions.