What How Why

Ren Hang’s Models

What:

This is a short documentary of the nude models of Ren Hang who is one of the alternative
photographers in China. The focus is on the models’ state, bodies, talking, feeling and thoughts.

How:

I made the documentary myself three years ago in a period of two months. 
Every week, after confirming the models attitude of my work, I went to shoot it or not. 
During shooting, except recoding the working scene, I also interviewed them with three questions.

Why:

Photographer Ren Hang, who is very famous in the nude photography field in China, 
does not have photography strategies and knowledge, but his head are full of strange ideas.
His pictures are nude, bloody, disgusting and straightforward.  So I wonder who the models
are and why they want to be his models.

RMB100

What:

This is a short film about kids, about five minutes long. Xiao Ming, the main character steals from
his mom 100 RMB, which is a lot of money for a kid. After he shows off it in front of his friends, he
was told the adults had a theft detector.

How:

I shot this film with my sound recorder. I wrote down the story after I met a group of kids (the 
main characters) in the food market in a Beijing suburb. The whole shooting process cost only an
afternoon, because of the fully and specific preparation. In order to calm the kids down (the hardest
part), there were given a huge bag of snacks and candies.

Why:

I always avoid making something heavy, when people are looking at it. Instead, I think an easy 
atmosphere is more likely to express emotions. I even made it a kids’ western film, just to make the 
sense looked more lonely and absurd. It is a memory for childhood, we used to be stupid but cool 
before becoming normal adults.

Chemistry

What:

Chemistry is a Black & White experimental short film, no dialogue. This film is about the dream 
loop and the relationship between lovers. 

How:

In the two days shooting process, I put most of the time on talking with photographer, we were
trying to make the Black & White image with more levels. I put the story ending in the middle part, 
the starting in the last part and the the middle in the beginning.

Why:

It is the first try for me to change the style of telling story. I am attempting to show a logically
messed-up story, which means it is linear but also non-linear.