Dorothy:text on method
This short essay sums up what I have produced in the first year at Lens-based media design course, and addresses some focus on the future research and up-coming projects.
Current Project
Currently, I am researching on history and issues in the documentary, as I have been very interested in experimental documentary and it is similar to the type of work I have in mind to produce in future. Before working in arts and moving image, I have been writing and editing a series of zines that involved lots of interviews. Very often these interviews are very enlightening and provide personal information that is not included in the mainstream historical narrative. At the same time, I also write poetry as a personal expression, or sometimes a way to interpret these encounters. Somehow moving image is a tool for me to work in these ways, like working with zines or poetry, but to know better what the genre has to offer, I have been watching films that mix abstract expression with facts or narratives (e.g. Tongues Untied (1989), or even a more playful one: Babakiueria (1986)), as well as direct cinema film, such as, The emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987). [<such as?]As a side project, I also translate related information into Chinese on Wikipedia, as a way to memorize and understand the history better.
In future, I am planning to make a new short moving image work, the film would consist long takes of displaced people’s current home, with the voice-over of them illustrating the former home they had. With this work, I wish to explore the notion of diaspora itself, as well as the interaction and signification between the image and text, when they are actually pointing at different spaces at one time. Meanwhile I am at the stage looking for potential subjects to talk and explore further on the theme of diasporic experience. As I regard this work as a collaboration as well, between me and the subject, thus I would like to develop a relationship before filming the actual work itself.
Selected Projects in 2017/18
Letter to the Outsider
The new project stems from my previous moving image work ‘Letter to the Outsider’, a film reflecting on the notion of imprisonment and perception of space, with images of few repurposed prisons in the Netherlands.
I began by working on the script reflecting on political imprisonment happened in Hong Kong last year, taking wind as a metaphor of foreignness in the Netherlands as well as the totalitarian trend at home. I also became interested in the notion of imprisonment, and prison as space; from there I researched on the repurposed prisons in the Netherlands, and then fabricated the images using the text.
During shooting I encountered a Syrian refugee who works in a former prison turned hotel, we later become friends. According to him the visitors all have different purpose, like revisiting as a guard, or satisfying certain fetish; there are also people booked this hotel without knowing its history, but later spooked by its interior.
After talking to him I became more interested in human perception on space, given in this very extreme case where the hotel was turned from Het Veer – that was the place for inmates with severe psychological issues. And I also would like to work with refugees or displaced people, and their thoughts on the foreign country that now they call home. Apart from the theme, the long takes that explored and represented the various former prisons also inspired me to work on the matter of space again.
Songs from Home
The other project I made during the year was titled Songs from Home, the title is probably borrowed from the film News from Home. The film was made during the one-week workshop with Shimon Attie. Due to the limitation of time, I started with the structure and simply have my subjects fill in the content within the framework. The structure of the film was rather simple – 5 women from foreign countries sing in their mother language in different public space in the Netherlands – street, Asian market, library and art venue. The idea was to have people occupying the public space in temporarily with their voice, and taking voice as an actual sound as well as a metaphor for identity.
Input from Others
During the process of film making I got quite a lot of input from tutors on the technical side, for example the file format and editing software etc. After that I also have discussed the script and film with many more people, also the audience, which is very fruitful, and I would certainly have more confidence to make certain decisions for the next project - lengthen the takes, or have a rather metaphorical take on things.
The Context
My works often consist both documentary aspect and a rather personal, poetic or even fiction aspect, meanwhile the actual place and person in the image are kept anonymous. I see these works as documentaries on human condition, instead of about a specific person or event. I try to relate that practice to experimental documentary and slow cinema, though my projects are rather short films.
At the same time the narrative structures of my previous projects are close to essay film tradition, where the footages are heavily interpreted by the author. My previous project Letter to the Outsider was an example where the voice over adds the element of diaspora experience to the footage. I see essay films like Blue (1993), Heart of a Dog (2015) and of course La Jetee (1962) as reference points of the genre. These films also provide examples of how non-linear and personal narratives work in moving image.
Research strands
Recently I am studying documentary history and related theories, the process helps me to see the development of the genre, its limitation and breakthroughs. That also points me to watch various films that attempt to experiment with the genre. for instance, Tongues Untied (1989), The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987). And I realise that I am very much interested in films made outside the West on identity and post-colonialism aspects – which I attempt in the previous two works – Letter to the Outsider and Songs from Home, the latter was a series of videos of non-Dutch women singing in their mother tongue in the Netherlands, temporarily occupying the space with their voice.
After this I would like to study more on ethnographic film, as well as the ethnofiction, though I do not see my next project as an ethnographic film, I am always very interested in its methodology and relation to anthology. I might start from watching several films of Jean Rouch, who coined this genre - and later move to more experimental attempts.
Bibliography
- Aufderheide, P (2007) Documentary Film. Oxford: Oxford UP
- Harbord, J (2009) Chris Marker: La Jetee. London: Afterall Books
- Renov, M (2004) The Subject of Documentary. Minnesota: U of Minnesota P
- Russell, C (1999) Experimental Ethnography. Duke: Duke UP