Remaining Silent | 保持静默

16mm to digital, 13:00, 2022

Made in 2021 in Shanghai, the film captures the last days of historical neighborhoods before they were confiscated and renovated for modern commercial use. The neighborhoods are decades-long residencies for many local Shanghainese as well as migrant workers. As a brief encounter at the moment of departure, this film is a final portrait for the decaying architectures and an elegy for the anonymous.

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"Choosing a silent film not for the sake of a nostalgic aesthetic, but because in a neighborhood that is about to be destroyed there is simply nothing left to say. Sound involves change and life, and its absence here is a clear evidence of a wound. Then, the image becomes a dying trace, in which something happens anyway in the dim light, between some beams, behind the glass of a window, in a trickle of dirty water. If the man is still there, he is backlit, he is a dark spot on a sepia background, while the ruins are exposed to everyone’s sight. To catch a glimpse of what will be in the future, let’s look at a puddle surrounded by what remains: the image dissolves in the roar of the rain, which, like everything else, remains silent."

--Laterale Film Festival

 

press:

https://specchioscuro.it/laterale-film-festival-2022-un-approfondimento/

http://www.uncleyanco.it/2022/10/08/laterale-film-festival-recensione/

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screening: REDCAT CalArts Showcase, Los Angeles, US, 2022

Laterale Film Festival, Cosenza, Italy, 2022

Tacoma Film Festival, Tacoma, US, 2022

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award: Best Cinematography Documentary Short, Tacoma Film Festival, 2022