For filmmakers, freedom is a verb. My thirty years of filmmaking have been accompanied by flowers and pitfalls. I fell into those pitfalls many times and managed to climb out. I have been practicing and advocating ‘First Person Film’ for over ten years now. The film notes I have written along the way discuss my own work, as well as films by others which I feel the urge to write about. The former is like looking at myself digging; the latter is one tree glancing at another tree.
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 23: Image as A Kind of Writing →From the Novel
I am increasingly of the opinion (at least in the last 15 years) that it is better to pursue “personal images”than to talk about “independent images”. The so-called independent image (once called “underground cinema”, as I experienced it in the 1990s) is, to put it bluntly, some kind of ideological trademark (a veneer) that some people are willing to use (in a discursive and discursive habit, which I see as academic laziness, of using “underground”) “banned”, “power of resistance”, etc.). (The title of my speech for a seminar on the anniversary of some independent film festival in China was, “Independence is a verb”)
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 22：A Cat and the Everyday, Conversation is the Way
Zhang Mengqi’s Viewing Material : Scenes of ‘Old Man He’ is three scenes in the life of an old man recovering from a serious illness in the village of 47 Kilometres. After watching it, I felt like writing something as a follow up, as a “reflection” on viewing this filmmaker’s work.
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 21：Memory, Exploration and Detail
As 2016 ends, it’s time for the Folk Memory Project to start its winter filming. Since the summer of 2010, when the Folk Memory Project started, winter is a time for participants to return to their villages to film, with 2017 being the seventh of these winters.
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 20：Flying
My experience of “documentary filmmaking” started with “finding subject matter” – Story? Characters? Politics? Coverage? Meaning? Novelty? Spectacle? A “Chinese style”? “One shot, ten rings”? Put it this way: my entire documentary journey across the 1990s was a string of these kinds of stories—in short, a “documentary mud pond or quagmire”. I dare not speak for other documentarians, only for myself.
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 19：Yu Shuang’s Huangpo Tan
“Caochangdi’s Tenth Weekend Screening” was Yu Shuang’s new film Old Sister of Huangpotan. After the screening, discussion was enthusiastic, with a variety of perspectives on the material. In my personal opinion, this is a rare occurrence since the “weekend screening discussions” started. Is this the effect of ten straight sessions of the “Caochangdi Weekend screenings” on Bilibili (ten weekends from the end of January to now)?”
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 18: Overcoming Fear and Fly – Watching the First Cult of Lolo’s Fear
After watching the first cut of Lolo’s first film Lolo’s Fear, I was thinking about a question: is it possible for the word ‘Lolo’ to be converted from a simple name to a special reference, such as ‘Lolo’s Fear’ (an emotion that cannot be avoided in a crisis), ‘Lolo’s flying’ (crossing over barriers and obstacles), and ‘Lolo’s…’. As an extension of this, could the word ‘Lolo’ become a term exclusive to creatives?
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 16: A Legend – Watching the First Cut of Yu Shuang’s New Film The Old Sister of Huangpotan
I mentioned in my notes that “the film Huangpotan shows us an unimaginable secret, a legend called Huangpotan Village in Shaoxing, Jiangnan”. The word “legend” makes me feel compelled to write some notes. Tomorrow night, our dear Yu Shuang will show her Old Sister of Huangpotan (I love the title to death). I have the urge to write an article to welcome this beautiful moment.
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 15: Editing Team – Summary of the work of the Folk Memory Project 2020 II
My previous notes, “Footage Review Workshop”, were a review of the Folk Memory Project in 2020. These notes, “Editing Team”, are a second review of last year’s work. I can’t wait to review the “editing team”, our “major invention” this year! In our creative group of independent directors, we explore how to work and support one another more effectively (for example, with editing). The emergence of the “editing team” is really amazing!
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 14: Footage Workshop
One of the main activities of the Folk Memory Project group over 2020 was the “footage review” workshop. As I said before, this was the first time we had done “footage review” as a workshop. Thinking about it, maybe this was the first time ever in the world. It’s not that I’m keen to “create” and pursue “firsts”. The fact is, who in the world would do this: a group of people, one by one, watching, discussing, and analysing huge volumes of inconsequential footage once a week for five months.
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 13: Gao Ang and Her Jiaoxing Village II
Gao Ang participated in the workshop discussion after watching the third version of Jiaoxing Village in June last year. The difference between the third and first versions is that the first is about “land rotation”, that is, the relationship and changes between rural land ownership and management rights, a huge and complex current rural issue. As I understand it, this is a typical case of the “topic first” or “seizing your topic” documentary filmmaking method. I have an idea (or find an issue) and it fits (or is close to) my own understanding of and judgment about society, so I start to work on it (fieldwork, interview, data collection and then shooting, etc.).
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 12: Gao Ang and Her Jiaoxing Village: Looking Back
Today is 11 January 2021. This is the eighth article of the new year. Writing three articles in eleven days is in line with my intentions and my expectations of myself. I live with a group of people who have things to write and want to interact with one another through writing. 360 articles a year isn’t enough. I believe that thought is a knife which needs to be sharpened. Otherwise, it becomes dull and rusty without being aware that it cannot cut anything. My experience is, the best way to keep sharp is by writing.
Wu Wenguang’s Film Notes 11: Landing
This article is about our ‘weekend screenings’, which start with Xiaobo’s Farewell My 19 this Friday [ed. note: 9 January 2021]. It’s worth noting (recording) our new activities for 2021.
Image becomes writing, freedom is a verb – Writing for the opening of the “Image Writing” workshop
Notes 5: Premiere
There is an editing software called Premiere. Many people probably know it and use it. I am a long-time user of Premiere, starting with version 1.0 in 1988. That was probably the earliest version of Premiere. I now recall how I felt when I first used it. You could describe it as a kind of “ecstasy”, like I had finally come across a spring of water in the desert.
Image becomes writing, freedom is a verb – Writing for the opening of the “Image Writing” workshop
Notes 4: Constitution
When image writing is carried out in the workshop, what does constitute the content?
My opinion has always been that creativity cannot be taught. However, you can learn and exchange ideas to create.
Workshops are a good way. Therefore, I have always called my teaching on image creation at universities, film festivals or art institutions “workshops” rather than “courses.”
Image becomes writing, freedom is a verb – Writing for the opening of the “Image Writing” workshop
Notes 3: Pathway
In the “warm-up talk” for the Image Writing workshop, I talked about “direction” and “intention” and realised that this is a topic that cannot be overlooked. The practice and discussion of “image writing” carried out at a specific time and place is indicative. It’s rooted in a specific context. […] In other words, it’s not a general concept, it’s not generalisable, nor is it a universal truth. It is an action embodied by the Folk Memory Project. This is “pathway”.
Image becomes writing, freedom is a verb – Writing for the opening of the “Image Writing” workshop
Notes 2: Direction
Following the previous notes which focus on “intention”, I will talk about “direction”, that is, what kind of “unintended” works may grow out of “image writing”.
Image becomes writing, freedom is a verb ——Writing for the opening of the “Image Writing” workshop
The “Image Production” workshop is one of the creative trainings conducted by the Folk Memory Project group of Caochangdi Workstation. A new round of workshops will start in January 2021, with the theme “Image Writing”.
Shao Images and Shao’s Expressionism
“Shao Images” was established because “Shao Yuzhen’s way of filming determines the composition of the film”. Her so-called “editing” means simply putting original footage through editing software.
A Self-portrait of A Dancer And the Story of Three Generations of Women
At the beginning of the film Self-Portrait with Three Women, a dancer holding a flashlight walks into the rehearsal hall. In the next scene, the camera captures the dancer’s face through her legs. She is saying: ‘This is my first dance work and a work related to myself. The name of the work is Self Portrait.’
Sha Qing’s Lone Existence: Thinking Activates Memory
I have never watched Sha Qing’s previous films. Lone Existence is the first one I watched. It belongs to the kind of bold work which does not conform to “characters”, “events” and “conflicts” in conventional documentaries. “Story” is completely unbounded and in a style of self-talking.
Shao Yunzhen,
A Rural Woman Who Uses DV as A Weapon
Caochangdi Workstation launched China Village Documentary Project in 2005. Ten villager filmmakers from nine provinces were selected from the applications and each completed a film about their villages on their own. By 2010, Shao Yuzhen, Jia Zhitan, Zhang Huancai, and Wang Wei have been shooting, and each of them has completed three feature films.
Treating and Me
Around 2000, I returned to Kunming, bought a house outside the city, and took my mother to live there. The old house in the city has been vacant from then on. In the summer of 2007, my 88-year-old mother passed away. After taking care of my mother’s funeral, I returned to my hometown at No. 6 Shangyi Street. I went back to the old house to look for the proof of grave ownership of my father who died 18 years ago and to arrange joint tomb for my parents.