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 documentary. Experimental documentary is interesting for me, and is similar to the type of work I have in mind to produce in future. I have been watching films that mix abstract expression with facts or narratives, as well as direct cinema film – for instance, Tongues Untied (1989), The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987).

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.

Projects in 2017/18
The new project is stemmed 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 Netherlands. 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.

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.

(to be continue)