David：
I come from Philadelphia, United States of America, and I would stay here in Taiwan for three-month residency program. Most of my films are in the form of documentary, but there are also some experimental approaches or mixing up with different subjects. With different narrative viewpoints, my documentaries focus on observing interaction between the locals and the environment as well as different life experiences created by such interaction.
I recently finished a project (The Pine Barrens, 2019) which had last for seven years. It is related to the Pinelands, located in the east coast of the States. Around the north-east side near New York, there is a state called New Jersey. Although it is the most populated region in USA, there is an over-one-million-hectare preserved forest park, which is surrounded by different sizes of cities. The dialogues in the film are in English, but you could feel the images and the triggered emotions with your bodies and eyes.
In the past seven years, I have edited the footages I shot into more experimental sequences and screened them in different forms. In particular, I invited an orchestra to do a live performance with the film screened. After the documentary feature was finished, with the length of ninety minutes, I showed it in a three-thousand square feet cranberry farm, while inviting fifteen artists to perform there.
This film, in my opinion, would tend to be classified as a traditional documentary. For example, we would see interviews in the beginning and then shots of the surrounding environment and the creatures within. In addition, he also recorded the spectacular scenes of the burning pine forests.
However, what interested me the most was the opening of the film, where everyone was chatting around the bonfire. It resonated with familiar scenes of American southern culture which could be commonly seen in American films, and perhaps, reminded me of the resembling concept of camping realized by those early explorers and pioneers, who would also surround the bonfire, talking about interesting topics such as local myths. At first, I found the film more like a television documentary, with similar ways of looking and narrating. Then, I realized the subject matter was actually more mysterious. Therefore, I would like to ask David to talk about the myths and the legends within, and how did he deal with them and make such decisions?
David：
Though the bonfire, I would like to highlight the relationship between people and fire. The forest fire we just saw in the film performs specific functions. Firstly, there are several insect pests in the environment, which fire would eliminate. Secondly, the bonfire itself could be a metaphor, implying the reborn of the culture. In the film, you would see people surround the bonfire and told the myths and the stories. By word of mouth, the elder’s personal experiences or others’ description would be passed on where each individual might add his or her interpretation and recreate some new ones. The stories may scare the children, merging fantasies with real experiences. In fact, it was my intention to challenge the existing ideas and concepts of "environmental documentary".
On the other hand, the reason why I invited the orchestra was also because I found a great distance between environmental documentary and the audience. I try to discuss about how people respond to the environment in the film. Although I was filming the environment with a camera, I focused on the interaction between people and the environment as well. If we would like to make some changes to it, there should be more connection between humans and the damaged environment. Many writers have been doing a better job discussing such issues with writing than documentaries, use the form of writing to discuss the environmental issues and I think the works done by the writers are much better than the documentaries.
Documentary is not just about recording the environment, it also pays attention to the relationship between the director himself/herself and the environment and the interaction between the characters and the environment we see in the film. Therefore, I hope the audience and I could both find certain initiative in the film. From a creative perspective, I distanced myself and the camera from the film to separate the creativity and the reality. I would like to invite the audience to immerse themselves into the dreamlike, imaginary space, witness what has happened to the environment and make connections with the scenes on their own instead of being dictated by the director’s viewpoint.
Joe Huang (Host)：
David just mentioned an interesting term called “cinematography" which is somehow hard to explain or define as well. I would say that although there is a certain sense of realism in the scenes, with no dialogue but only scenery, the camera actually captures something that may not exist, lying beyond the screen, which brings a surrealistic touch to the film. The project might now be that surrealistic, but perhaps, later when he introduces the film shot in Iceland (Lopi: A Traveler's Saga in Four Divinations/Lopapeysa, 2014), with a more surrealistic approach, we would find it more related to magic realism. Regarding to the style and the narrative, the film intends to challenge our perception of traditional documentary.
David：
Another short film (Nights and Days of Assumption, 2016) of mine was shot in a small village located in the mountain of Sicily. The length is only 15 minutes. I aim to deal with the alone and lonely experience one would have while first arriving in such unfamiliar environment. When I was out at night, I would have more surrealistic senses, which made me feel like dreaming. The films shot in Iceland beforehand and this particular film could be seen as a series, since both of the locations brought such surrealistic and dreamlike experience to the film. It is also the reason why that I am in Taiwan now, to search for such a similar subject. Besides such surrealistic materials, my works have constantly focused on how people interact and connect with the environment for sure.
Yu-Jui Lu：
Now, when we come back to reality from surrealism, the huge gap might cause a sense of falling. Therefore, it would be better if I start by introducing this film as a cushion. It took place in a ruin in Kaohsiung. Many buildings have been torn to down throughout the years, which have brought me and others there to do several recordings. The film is more experimental and length of it is relatively short. It is an old cement factory built under Japanese rule and has been confirmed that it would be preserved. The film recorded the process of the bulldozers’ retreating. Another film recorded the demolishing process of Kaohsiung Big Stage Theater’s vestige instead. David mentioned that he would like to visit a surrealistic place. Taiwan is the perfect place to come.
Yu-Jui Lu：
From now on, I would introduce three of my documentary films from 2005 to 2015. They all took place in certain working places along the coast of Kaohsiung, including North Embankment, Cianjhen Harbor and deep-sea. The first one (Waiting for Fish, 2006) was shot on an embankment where the unemployed fishermen and labors would come fishing. Then, I went into narrow freeze storage in Cianjhen Harbor and filmed the workers within (Freezing Point, 2008). After shooting, I met an indigenous sailor whom I followed on board to record the operation of offshore fishing (Squid Jigging Fishing Boat, 2017). All of these films were closely shot in a limited space.
Although the space shared the same characteristics, from unemployed labors in the harbor to the offshore fishing crew members with multiple nationalities, there were different complex situations. On the other hand, I shot all three films with hand-held camera. I had no idea what would happen and just randomly collecting the stories. You could see some lively dialogues and the characters’ emotions through a scene from Freezing Point, for example.
After finishing the films, I would select some beautifully-shot footages which were not put in the the documentary feature and create a video installation, one of which were exhibited in Kaohsiung Photo. I placed the video within the porthole and it looked quite vivid to me.
I guess there are only few people that have had experiences of offshore fishing. Therefore, many audiences would stand still and watch the whole film in the exhibition, and perhaps, felt tricked afterward, since they might expect to see something actually happen. However, it is in fact, a film without narrative.
Joe Huang (Host)：
I think David has created one similar installation as well.
David：
There were some similar installation works exhibited in Iceland indeed. There was a one-hundred-square-feet screen in the exhibition. I tried to bring the audience to the real shooting environment as there was also bonfire and several chairs made of fake sheepskin where people from the island normally sit in another venue. I would like to invite the audience to experience the mundane daily life on the island by themselves.
Joe Huang (Host)：
You could see the installation he mentioned on his website. There were four projectors projecting the images on four screens in horizon scroll. It was almost in one-to-one scale, showing the whole environment in the big venue.
Back to Yu-Jui, I found that where you were shooting Waiting for Fish, the camerea could not help but get closer and closer to the subjects, almost sticking to the faces. However, when it came to Freezing Point, the audience would notice that you were actually stepping back. Could you please talk about the differences between these two films, which were published within two years from 2006 to 2008.
Yu-Jui Lu：
When I was shooting the embankment in Waiting to Fish, I could only afford and equip myself with low-level camera and a non-directional microphone. In order to better record the sound, I could not stay away from the subjects. Otherwise, the sound effect would be problematic. Therefore, the result was actually caused by the production value. When it came to Freezing Point, the film received more funding from the government, so I could buy a tripod to assist the shooting, and the interview could be done in a steadier condition.
