The Night of Filmmaking: Chan Hau Chun
Date: 5th August, 2022
Venue: Jao Tsung-I Academy Theatre
@Camp 2022
Mentor: Chan Hau Chun (Director)
Moderator: Jill Li (Documentary Director)
Chan Hau Chun is a videographer and independent filmmaker who graduated from the School of Creative Media of the City University of Hong Kong. Her 32+4 was shortlisted in the documentary category of the 2015 Golden Horse Festival and Awards and won the Principal Prize in the International Category of the 61st International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.
影像之夜：陳巧真
日期：2022年8月5日
地點：饒宗頤文化館演藝廳
@創作營 2022
作品放映及分享：陳巧真（導演）
主持：李哲昕（紀錄片導演）
陳巧真畢業於香港城市大學創意媒體學院，現為攝影師及獨立電影工作者。作品《32+4》曾入圍2015年金馬獎最佳紀錄片和榮獲2014年德國奧柏豪森短片影展(國際競賽單元)Principal Prize。
32+4 | Cantonese and Teochew dialect | 32 mins
The director spent her childhood living apart from her family and knew very little about its history. This changed when she graduated from college and decided to face her parents with her camera in a search for answers to questions about her past.
《32+4》 | 粵語及潮洲話 | 32分鐘
導演童年一直與家人分開生活，對於家庭歷史，一直不敢多問。大學畢業那一年，毅然拿起攝影機面對父母，希望填補過去的空白。
Heatroom | Cantonese and Putonghua | 76 mins
In an old part of Hong Kong lies an old building, and within it countless little rooms. Demarcated merely by wooden panels, each room houses one family: a subdivided flat, with shared toilet-kitchens, sultry, impermeable, where hundreds live.
The film weaves together images taken over the last few years, documenting residents of subdivided flats within one building. After the social movement in Hong Kong and in coping with the global pandemic, the seemingly mundane everyday lives of these residents are in fact full of underlying tension. Within the cramped and rundown building, some people move out after just half a month, some stay for thirty years; some have grown up here, some have passed away in the rooms… What does our society look like when seen through these steady long takes?
《熱室 Heatroom》 | 粵語及普通話 | 76分鐘
在香港的舊城區，有一棟老舊的大廈，劏了無數的細房間。一戶人一間房，圍起木板，叫板間房，共用廚廁，悶熱不透風，住了幾百戶人。
影片以群像形式，記錄了過去幾年間這棟大廈的板房住客的生活。經歷過社會運動和肺炎，板房住客的日常似是重覆不變卻又充滿暗湧。在細小的空間和老舊的大廈中，住戶來來去去，有人住了半個月便搬走，有人住了三十年，有人在這裡長大，有人在這裡死去。在固定長鏡的凝視底下，會折射出一個怎樣的社會鏡像？
In the evening of imagery, we screened Chan’s 32+4 and Heatroom.
32+4 was created when Chan was trying to develop an idea for her final project at the school. 32+4 is divided into several chapters that tell the story based on the director’s relationship with her family. Her narrative voice out of the lens, her calm and thorny questions to her mother, and the collage of words, old photographs, and drawings, and voiceless narrations through subtitles are extraordinarily impressive. There were also sounds of her mother chopping up meat in the kitchen and the knife marks on her bedroom door that her angry father left behind. The shots with a feeling of peeping at an “uncle,” her mother’s second husband living in the same building, are also outstanding.
In contrast to the closeness in 32+4, Heatroom features a distant visual effect. The cameras were left in the subdivided units to record every speck of the resident’s life. The residents have their own spirits and pleasures. Some endure the pains in their bodies; some are satisfied with their life; others are interested in the meaning of life and philosophical musings. The cameras in the cramped units record people coming and going and their ever-going life.
Chan had a post-screening dialogue with documentary director Jill Li who spent eight years producing her Lost Course. After the dialogue, the two documentary directors had an in-depth discussion with the campers.
影像之夜放映了導演陳巧真（阿真）兩條敘事風格迥異的紀實電影。
第一部《32+4》，是導演在學期間，思考畢業作品該拍攝甚麼題材時誕生的作品。作品分成幾個章節，娓娓道來導演和原生家庭的關係。鏡頭後她敘事的聲音，對母親聽上去很冷靜卻尖銳的提問，利用文字、舊照片、畫作等等的拼貼風格，有時沒有人聲的字幕敘述就像日記一樣。母親在廚房煮飯的剁肉聲音；剪接導演敘述父親有一次怒火中燒，拿刀劈門留在自己舊房間的痕跡。還有那些即使已經隔著鏡頭，仍然只能夠透過近乎偷窺的視覺，去拍攝、紀錄叔叔——那個住在同一棟大廈、母親第二任丈夫的部分，特別令人印象深刻。
而對比《32+4》的貼身，第二部放映的作品《熱室 Heatroom》，就選擇了係較抽離的視覺，有一種任由攝影機放在各間劏房裏，紀錄住客一點一滴的感覺。每個住客都是獨一無二的靈魂，有的有自己獨樂樂的興趣，有的承受著身體上的病痛，有的滿足於生活現況，有的喜歡談論生存意義等等的哲學問題⋯⋯在這擁擠的空間內放置鏡頭，折射來來往往、似乎可以永續下去的眾生相。
放映過後，配合留在心坎裏的影像和對白，兩位紀錄片導演李哲昕（Jill）及陳巧真，與各位營友進行了一場深入對談。在紀錄片路上探索的大家，或者這些回答能夠提供一些參考。
The Night of Filmmaking Q&A Session
1. How and why were Chan choose to film with gazing and collaging your scenes in 32+4?
After Chan decided to film about her family, her father accepted the camera, her mother rejected, while her uncle always kept his distance. Chan’s questioning behind the camera was mild but deep down in her heart there’s full of fear, especially when facing her uncle whom she absolutely knew nothing about. She reflected herself not mature enough in facing all these by the time she filmed. Therefore, those gazing and silent subtitling picked from diaries were the way she kept herself with distance to her own experience.
2. In the progress of filming Heatroom, did the director ever think of what’s the meaning of life? Why could people in the subdivided flats still live under such a worse condition?
As filmmakers sometimes we can’t avoid the sense of privilege when we film. Before look into the core on why these people think that they live well and what truly supporting them, we’d better keep an open mind, throw away all the judgements and social phenomenon and look into people only.
3. What is the purpose of filming documentary, reflecting the fact, satisfying audience, or self satisfactory?
When filming 32+4, Chan reflected that besides its final year project purpose, to a large extent it’s also a journey in self-healing and self satisfactory. 32+4 has influenced her family so much that her filming started with the feeling of unfairness, hatred and revenge. However, it gradually changed to a reflection between her family and herself when the film uncover the truths. It helped a lot in improving their relationship too.
4. How can we choose between the ethical dilemma of keep rolling or stop rolling when we touch the privacy of people being filmed?
Jill and Chan held distinct views on this dilemma. Jill thought that camera should hold no subjective point of view but simply recording everything. One have to decide whether they should be kept when editing. Whereas, Chan would rather make decision at the moment of filming. Whenever it crosses Chan’s boundary, she will choose not to film and not to include those truths into clips.
5. How is truth exist in documentary?
Chan stated that she has asked herself before as well: it that really enough for director to simply take her camera and film? Every time of rolling, movement is actually all violent and subjective. It is unavoidable for filmmakers to interrupt and influence the “truth” afterwards. Documentaries are not scripted, perhaps sometimes we need to throw away the logic of filming, follow the moment when the reality keeps changing when filming.
6. When would we know we finish filming a documentary?
Regarding Heatroom, Chan confessed that the question is full of unknowns, as the reality of the future has not yet happened. She thought of finishing her filming in 2018, but the society changed wildly in 2019, and the epidemic came in 2020. Therefore, footages simply accumulated. On the other hand, maybe the moment will come when filmmaker is tired, when the desire of creation is satisfied. As reality always move onwards, and our work can always be better. Yet, life combines with many other parts expect filming. Should we really prioritise filming as top one in our life would also be the question Chan keeps asking herself.
Jill’s documentary Lost Course, which is the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival – Best Documentary, spent eight years in filming. She planned to finish filming when all the press left and lives backed to normal. The moment came almost like an instinct: it might come before another life cycle start, it might come when we want to prove our thought by filming a bit longer of time.
影像之夜Q&A環節
1. 關於《32+4》當中的凝視和拼貼處理，為何會如此安排？
在決定拍攝家人後，面對鏡頭，父親是接受的，母親是拒絕的，而叔叔卻始終都帶著距離。在鏡頭後面的阿真，提問很輕，好像沒甚麼感情似的；而內心卻洶湧著——有很多恐懼，尤其是對於那個完全不熟悉的叔叔，她覺得那時的自己仍然無法很成熟地去面對。那些帶著距離的凝視，那些舊照片，那些從日記抽出來所以無聲的字幕，是當時她抽離自己的方式。
2. 在拍攝《熱室 Heatroom》時，導演有思考過生存的意義嗎？生活條件是如此的惡劣，板間房的人是為甚麼繼續生存著？
有時候，拍攝者難免會帶著某種優越感去凝視被拍的對象，在還沒真正入到內在，看到那些人覺得自己活得好好的的理由，那些支撐他們生活的東西。這些種種，是難以用一些社會框架去判斷的；所以不妨保持開放性，拋棄那些社會議題，看到人的存在。
3. 拍攝紀錄片，其實是反映事實、滿足觀眾，抑或是滿足自己？
在《32+4》的拍攝上，阿真覺得除了那真的是一份畢業作品，很大程度更是一個療癒自己、滿足自己心靈的過程。這部作品後來對她的家庭帶來很大的影響。從起初因為覺得不公平，因為執著於真相和歷史，因為對於家人的怨恨，她的拍攝多少帶著報復性。到後來，才漸漸從挖掘真相，變成一個對自己、對家庭的疏理，與家人的關係亦因此緩和、好了很多。
4. 在遇到那些作為影像人應該繼續roll機，作為普通人卻應該保留被拍攝者私隱這些道德難題是，要如何選擇？
兩位導演就給出截然不同的看法：《迷航 》的導演Jill覺得，應該不帶主觀視覺地全部都一一紀錄。這些抉擇時刻，留待剪接時決定。但阿真的做法，就偏向是拍攝的當下就做決定，若覺得過了內心條界線時，盡量堅持不拍，直接不把這些真實的部分變成製作素材。
5. 真實如何存在於紀錄片之中？
阿真表示自己其實也曾經自我拷問：作為導演是否拿著攝錄機拍攝就足夠？會否在理解被拍者之前，已經太快把他們框了起來？因為鏡頭的每一次開啟、移動，其實都是粗暴的、主觀的；拍攝者將無可避免地，介入了他們，影響著之後的「真實」。紀錄片沒有劇本，或許有時更必須摒棄拍攝的邏輯，順從那個被拍的同時，仍在不斷改變的現實。
6.一套紀錄片，拍到甚麼時候才叫拍完？
對照《熱室 Heatroom》，阿真覺得這個問題帶著很大的未知，因為未來的現實仍未發生。想著會在2018年完結，2019年大環境發生劇烈變化，2020年有迎來疫情，所以素材便一直、一直地增加下去。或者換一個說法，就是當拍攝者感到疲倦，當創作的慾望已經抵達，就是完結之時。因為現實永遠會遞進，而自己的作品永遠可以再好。可是，生活除了創作，還有很多其他的部分，是否真的應該把拍片放得那麼大，也是阿真持續的反思的問題。
而Jill獲得金馬獎最佳紀錄片的《迷航》就整整拍攝了8年，她當初的想法是：拍到所有媒體都離開之後的日常，就是拍完的時候。完結的念頭更是一個瞬間的直覺，在另一個循環開始之時，當這個直覺透過再多拍一段時間得到驗證，便是完結之時。