丨Yaqin Yu
People who met Wang Shen for the first time would not believe that he is a documentary director. On many occasions, Wang Shen was dressed decently and even a little delicately, often wearing a "signature" Silk scarf. However, documentary workers often turn upside down day and night, carrying cameras to the front line of the incident, doing extremely hard or dangerous work. This kind of stereotype makes Wang Shen easy to remember. Among Chinese documentary directors, his tall and handsome can be regarded as a strong personal mark. Although, this is not his intention.
chatted with Wang Shen, it is hard to believe that he was born in 1991: the speech is very organized, talkative, confident and not nonsense. Wang Shen said that he liked movies, especially art films, and was interested in humanities and social sciences since he was a child. He has always hoped to have the opportunity to shoot some different big screen works. After graduating from Communication University of China, Wang Shen chose to go to the Beijing Film Academy for postgraduate studies, under the tutelage of Xue Xiaolu, director of "Beijing Meets Seattle", mainly learning screenwriting skills.
However, during his studies in the film school, Wang Shen found that the school was still cultivating mainstream filmmakers, and he did not seem to be suitable for this path. He was interested in more serious things and should do something different. Even though he had participated in mainstream projects like "Bite of the Tongue 3", Wang Shen did not choose to quickly enter the industrial system. Instead, he found the opportunity to make his first documentary "Fangzhou". At that time, he had not yet left the campus.
"Stone Epic": The Alienation and Failure of Cultural Symbols in the Context of Globalization
At this year's West Lake Documentary Conference Proposal Meeting, Wang Shen brought his new project "Stone Epic". This global history of marble is Wang Shen's second documentary, set in distant Greece. Compared with the debut work "Fang Zhou", this work has a more professional team, and the content it wants to express is more ambitious: The structure of "Stone Epic" has some concepts of contemporary art. This work uses plastic objects like marble to capture For many symbolic things, the whole film does not have a core character, but allows the picture to convey richer and absurd content. Wang Shen did not find a brilliant protagonist like his last work, but followed the circulation of the marble world to express his understanding of globalization and other issues.
"Stone Epic" stills
Wang Shen came into contact with the Chinese who contracted the marble mine in Greece. In the marble processing plant, Greek sculptures are being manufactured in batches, and they are shipped to all over the world with modern logistics. In Yiwu's small commodity wholesale market, a variety of symbolic souvenirs from different civilizations can be gathered in a small shop for selection. The Chinese businessmen who produce and sell these do not care about any cultural attributes of the goods, they just process the raw materials and sell them to the world...
really goes deep into this topic, and Wang Shen's lens captures more interesting people and things. In this documentary, a pair of blonde and blue-eyed Greek internet celebrities are also very popular. They were blond and blue-eyed but spoke fluent Chinese. They used selfie sticks to broadcast live to their netizens in China at the front of the huge temple site in Greece... These together constituted the magical world in Wang Shen's eyes, which was originally Greece outside of the sight of ordinary Chinese. For another group of Chinese, it is a place to settle down.
Wang Shen was filmed in Greece.
Greece is an important birthplace of Western civilization, and Greek sculpture is regarded as the incarnation of the Western spirit and has always had a lofty symbolic meaning. When sculptures considered to be high-level cultural symbols were mass-produced by factories opened by Chinese immigrants and sold to thousands of households, they became households in China and other regions as daily decorations, and the cultural nature of sculptures became enormous. Alienation. In the process of globalization and commercialization, cultural symbols have lost their original meaning. How should we understand the world we live in? These are, of course, a common topic, but they are issues that the Chinese youth of Wang Shen's generation need to face directly.
"Fangzhou": A history of migration of overseas Chinese
Because of his family, Wang Shen had the opportunity to visit Greece. Before that, like most young Chinese, Greece was a myth in the book for him, and it was also a popular place to take wedding photos and honeymoon in recent years. In the news, events of the Greek economic crisis can occasionally be heard, but they all seem a bit remote.
At that time, Greece was just affected by the refugee crisis in Europe.Global attention. Wang Shen unexpectedly got to know the local Chinese organization that rescued refugees, and he had the idea of filming a documentary: on the one hand, it was a world-wide refugee issue, and on the other it was the legendary history of Chinese migration. Wang Shen focused the camera on a Chinese woman named Chen Xueyan and completed his first work "Fang Zhou". The reason why
is named "Fang Zhou" is to express the legend of "Noah's Ark" in the Bible, and "Fang" represents women, so this documentary has some feminist colors. For Wang Shen, what he wants to convey is the theme of symbiosis and reconciliation of different nations in the face of disasters.
The protagonist of "Fang Zhou" Chen Xueyan
Chen Xueyan's father died in Bulgaria, she wandered to Greece and lived as a guest for 15 years. She found that Chinese volunteers were rarely seen in the raging refugee rescue operations, so she decided to organize a Chinese rescue team by herself to let the Chinese in Greece out of the relatively self-contained Chinatown. In Chen Xueyan's eyes, Chinese immigrants should not be silent, but should make their own voices. Therefore, even if she is not fluent in English, Chen Xueyan is still bothering to lobby various people around her. What
"Fang Zhou" tells is not the story of Chen Xueyan alone, but an attempt to show the ecology of Chinese life in Greece: they work hard in a foreign country, but it is difficult to enter the mainstream and are unwilling to participate in social affairs. ; Or because of various reasons, they had to leave Greece... This documentary started with refugees seems to reflect the history of overseas Chinese migration.
The documentary "Fang Zhou" had a great influence on Wang Shen, not only because this work allowed Wang Shen to enter the industry. He confessed that if he had been living in Beijing, he would never have access to the real and vast world. He had come into contact with all kinds of people, including Syrians, Afghans, and even "snake heads" that he had never come into contact with. For Wang Shen, even the bosses and workers of the factory were fresh experiences, and these experiences were very important to him who was still studying at the time.
Volunteers rescue refugees in "Fang Zhou"
The life of contemporary youth is empty, and the formalization of documentaries has turned into crisis.
In recent years, the creation of Chinese documentaries seems to be quiet, and many commentators believe that Chinese documentaries are in decline: on the one hand, it seems Indeed, the number of influential independent documentaries in China in the past is decreasing; while the number of documentaries shot by cinema documentaries and video websites is increasing, Chinese documentaries have begun to have the possibility of profitability. Under such a general environment, as documentaries The author needs to stand up to some temptations.
Wang Shen's mentality is very peaceful on this. China's independent documentary production methods are generally very long. If there are good works such as "The Road in the Sky" and "Young Zhao" appeared around 2015, but these two years have been rare. There are excellent works, maybe it just means that Zhang Zanbo and other authors need time in the process of shooting their next new works.
filming documentaries is a hard work. Although some works have been selling well in recent years, they are all accidental. The creation of a niche documentary like this requires a sense of loneliness. The top Western documentary masters may not have any social reputation. If it is not for the corresponding complete fund support and public television projects, many documentaries cannot be produced.
Inevitably, we talked about the holistic observation of contemporary youth creation. As a graduate of the Film Academy, Wang Shen keeps a high degree of attention to these creations. He believes that the previous generations of Chinese directors have some rural and township experience, and their works are more socially critical. My own generation basically only has urban experience. Many young directors of the new generation are children born in middle-class families. Their life experience is relatively simple, and the content of their works is inevitably thin.
However, on the other hand, how much of the meaning of the documentary, which uses reality as the main carrier, is created by the author? Traditional documentaries require authors to spend a lot of time dealing with the subject and dealing with various relationships with people.
has investigated some works in recent years, and the creation of documentaries has a tendency to pursue more and more artistic and formal sense. The sense of form in documentaries has long been neglected in China. Because of the urgent demands of reality, it is more of physical resistance. Of course, in the 1990s, documentaries were also relatively new media, and recording this behavior itself was a new concept. The new generation of creators of
does have a strong formal shift, andSome successful works have appeared, allowing people to see more possibilities, but there are also certain dangers. The danger lies in the fact that a strong formal attempt may make the work just stay in tone. Formal exploration sometimes falls into a void, and its social setting may be empty. The reason may come from the empty lives of young people.
Can the suffering of others become the material of the work?
When the refugee crisis was at its worst, Wang Shen was filming in Greece. At that time, a place called Idomeni on the border between Greece and Macedonia became the focus of worldwide attention. At the same time as the EU’s policy changes, countries such as Macedonia did not allow refugees to pass through the country, and a large number of refugees were stranded there. What makes people feel absurd is that during that time, there were more cameras in this little-known place than refugees. Wang Shen began to reflect on the working methods of the media and the meaning of documentaries. The material of
documentary comes from real sources, and often takes the suffering or privacy of the subject as the material. Therefore, the ethical issues of documentaries have been widely discussed for a long time. At what distance is the camera suitable, and how should a documentary feed reality?
Wang Shen mentioned a documentary film "Taste of Cement"
(Taste of Cement)
, which touched him a lot. This work tells a group of Syrian refugees in Beirut, Lebanon who became construction workers and started a new life in Beirut. . In fact, Beirut has also become a city destroyed by the Lebanese Civil War, which means that this city destroyed by the civil war will be rebuilt by a group of refugees whose homes have also been destroyed. The film is very artistic, well-made, and very beautiful.
"The Taste of Cement" has a very formal beauty
This film may also bring some anxiety to the author. According to the current point of view, if the director leaves after filming, he will face some ethical issues; even if the director can do some follow-up work, it will not change many problems.
At the West Lake Documentary Conference’s forum on the dilemma of documentary directors, Wang Shen deeply felt this. The documentary director could not get rid of his own exploitation of the subject. Some people said this was an “original sin”. Traditional documentaries cannot avoid it. "Fang Zhou" is also inevitable to sacrifice your characters, and Wang Shen can't help but worry about it. Perhaps because of this anxiety, "Stone Epic" no longer focuses on a person like "Fang Zhou", but shows events.
But how powerful is the documentary film? Can artworks that move people's hearts play a key role in structural issues? Wang Shen is often confused. During the filming of "Fang Zhou", Wang Shen also came into contact with rescue teams from various countries. Everyone is doing their best to improve the situation of refugees, but the living conditions of refugees are still very bad.
"But I found that in the face of a structural problem, many efforts are limited. I can only comfort myself to do one thing and one thing." Wang Shen said, "I still worked hard to communicate with Syria, Afghanistan and other places I knew then. My friends keep in touch. But in the face of these realities, the power of movies and art seems to be quite weak. "Refugees face the most real life crisis every day, and they may be bombed at any time. Even if they fled to Europe, they may face deportation. There are too many cruel realities worthy of being recorded, but they cannot be resolved.
When Wang Shen is filming in the Western world, he naturally has the opportunity to see more and more updated documentaries. With the popularization of shooting equipment, some documentaries are also trying to solve this ethical problem. For example, the popular "Midnight Traveler"
(Midnight Traveler)
at the Sundance Film Festival tells how a family escaped from Afghanistan to Europe for three years. The director is the father of this family, and he recorded himself on his mobile phone. The story of family escape.
"Midnight Walker" is a documentary
in which refugees use their mobile phones to make their own stories. This year, it shines at the Cannes Film Festival. There is also a documentary called "For Sama"
(For Sama)
, the author is a woman. She filmed the process of her marriage and childbirth in Syria. Some people commented that this film is very similar to a personal vlog, but it is undeniable that this work provides an internal perspective on the Syrian civil war. Films like
naturally brought some influence to Wang Shen's creation, and it also prompted him to change his work style in the new film. In general, how do documentaries betterShould be realistic, it is still something that needs to be discussed and practiced continuously.
Chinese independent documentaries tend to pay great attention to the reality of China.
Chinese independent documentaries often have a tradition of paying great attention to the reality of China, while Wang Shen did the opposite, trying to tell a world-wide story. Wang Shen said that when he participated in some film festival proposal meetings around the world, he would encounter the question of the judges: why are you
(shooting these stories)
?
But no one will take this question to ask a director from Sweden or the United States. The logic here seems to be that the directors of these developed countries have lived well enough, and they have the responsibility or some kind of power they can control to shoot movies about the suffering of other countries. And the Chinese themselves are still in the midst of many social problems. Paradoxically, friends in China will also ask Wang Shen, there are so many things worthy of being photographed and problems that need to be solved in his own country. Do you have to travel so far to photograph the disaster abroad?
Someone criticized a Chinese documentary about suffering in Africa, but Wang Shen felt that it was fine. This is a new subject that we must face in the future. The position of the Chinese in the world is very special: on the one hand, they are still classified as the "Third World", on the other hand, the economy is getting stronger. How do we deal with our position in the world? Wang Shen believes that to a certain extent, his works want to express the theme: China’s problem is that it is economically dependent on the world and culturally isolated from the world. Wang Shen believes that in the future China's documentary film authors will increasingly express world issues. There are also many people who think that filming the suffering of society is the responsibility of a director with conscience. If you shoot works with modern consciousness, you may be able to shoot well. But others will say, if you want to show the life of the middle class, a modern and rich China, I can watch CCTV, why watch your film?
In fact, Wang Shen believes that CCTV does not truly reflect the content of modern life in China's middle class. To be honest, this subject belongs to a vacuum zone, the mainstream discourse is not deep, and independent works are rarely expressed. Wang Shen began to be very interested in Nordic movies. He felt that the development stage of the social reality of China's first-tier cities can also be expressed in more contemporary expressions and show life. Future movies may develop in this direction-certainly not all. However, the diversity of appearances will make the ecology of movies healthier.
author丨Yu Yaqin
editor丨An Ye
proofreading丨Zhai Yongjun
