“Micro Narrative 2019: Right Here, Left Now, Out There 微敘事: 在這，仍在，現在” 6:30-8:30pm, Wednesday, 29 May 2019 @ Floating Projects
“Every breaking away from the conventional, dead, official cinema is a healthy sign. We need less perfect but more free films. If only our younger filmmaker — I have no hopes for the old generation — would really break loose, completely loose, out of themselves, wildly, anarchically! There is no other way to break the frozen cinematic conventions than through a complete derangement of the official cinematic senses.” — from Jonas Mekas‘ “true diaries” on 4 February 1959, an entry titled “Call for a Derangement of Cinematic Senses”
Videographic experimentation is about breathing and finding one’s own place. How I love the music of Mekas’ words ringing… “we need more free” videos. The first exercise I gave to the Micro Narrative people was ‘Performing my “selves” in time,” with “regaining your freedom,” “unlearning conventions,” “re-purposing videography” and “learning something new about themselves” as the key objectives. How many have reached the excitement to “break loose” as Mekas commanded?
In the sweep of 13 weeks another edition of Micro Narratives completed with summer dawning for a footnote. About 90 works were made, 17 are preserved for the “Micro Narrative 2019: Right Here, Left Now, Out There 微敘事: 在這，仍在，現在” screening. I kept asking myself, “Would you ever feel tired of this?” No, I believe. We must not stop articulating. We must not stop making our voices heard, no matter how feeble and unbecoming.
On another note, the Manifesto 2 team just finished reviewing all submissions. We have spent a total of 14 hours viewing most of the works. I feel the enthusiasm in the works, even in written pieces that lament the futility of making Manifestos. Perhaps the word sounds too Modernist. I remember being told on my face some years ago, “Experimental cinema? It’s over. There’s no more Experimental Film. That’s USA in the 1970s.” Without uttering a word back then, I grinned and started to “cook” Micro Narratives. I want “experimentation” not “Experimental Film HK brand”; I lean close to all personal “manifestos” from as many individuals as possible and have little concern for Manifestos in the monumental sense. So this year, I humbly invited my students to articulate, once again, what sense they have made through the 13 weeks. And here’s the return:
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When a thing, a feeling, or even the surrounding cannot be carried by memory anymore, forward it to the camera.
Chan Chung-fai 陳從菲
There is no stop in our life; time runs without stopping.
Chung Yiu-fai Aaron 鍾耀輝
To be honest, my works don’t always have a deeper meaning. What I do is a result of the images and thoughts that appear in my mind, whose expression I want to clarify – to myself, and to those who come across my visual works.
Alexander Frank
Do I want to create an intense wonderland from start to end or should I (is there a necessity to) wake up the audience (in a Godard-like way) once in a while?
Marvin Hauck
“Timing” in general, and that its change and evolvement is a process of possibilities for me to test out, is the most interesting thing I found unexpectedly in this semester. …Interdisciplinary imagination and imagistic entanglement [are closely connected with] imaging technologies, apparatus and dynamism. These are elements [guide] me to practice more [the] visual abstract “voice” of mine …
Sammi Ho 何心怡
… See the world in a million ways. Build the world in a million ways. Liberate the image to liberate yourself. Once a work exists, the world is opened up a little more in a [material] sense.
Hui Tsz Ho 許梓昊
Videography is everything, But also nothing.
Ittiteerarak Weera-It 張國樑
How can we show more than one story in a video work when there is only one screen? Many stories are there as fragments.
Ji Ziwei 季子惟
I believe in the power of objects to do the narrative work, and to believe the shot becomes not just an image but also turns into an ‘object’.
Kwan Yuet-ying 關月英
I have no power to win all the control, only videography can make me see the truth, and I believe more and more people can see the truth. To take back our authority.
Kwong Wai-yi 鄺惠怡
Videography is like meditation: it heightens most of my senses. It also allows me to be more comfortably experimenting what I wanna know without any judgement but instead saying ‘yes’ to my own perception.
Aurelia Giovanni Laksmana
in the world of videography is an “Esther” that is totally different from “Esther” in the entire world but both of them are called “Esther.”
Esther Lam 林琬晴
Videography. A process to catch a glimpse of passing beauty in life. Being a puppet master in pulling or letting go of the strings of space and time. To reveal qualities of myself and my perspective through a framed world. A reflection on the things I chose not to capture with my camera. Daunting.
Lee Pui-yan 李佩恩
General, personal, flexible.
Marco Leung 梁耀林
I have a lot of thinking and feelings that I am not able to express. Videography gives me a mouth to speak. I am a limited person living in a limited space. Videography gives me autonomy and freedom.
Esther Man 文雅樂
Freedom / Possibilities / Our Eyes / Lending Our Brain.
Michelle Shum 岑曉昕
It eliminates the boundaries between true and false. It … starts for me a private conversation with this world.
WEI Ke 魏珂
Videography … ‘an unfolding process of myself’… Playbacks of my work reveal desire and fear recorded without my knowing…, it gives me a chance to review my states of mind.
Wong Hiu-ching 黃曉晴
A detailed record of life.
Wong Hoi-ho 黃愷皓
What and how one chooses to shoot is what matters to him/her.
Wong Pui-man 黃佩雯
Videography as dream-diary gives up the authority of cinematic norms and returns as personality.
Joris Wu 胡文釗
A numerous of parallel events happen simultaneously inside the world of videography. (…) A video’s external aspect is what the artist recorded while the internal part … is the artist’s mind, the effort and ability to try new things.
Wu Wai-shan 胡瑋珊
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Related Reading/Event 相關閱讀/事件 [……]
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提筆的時候已是初夏，又一期十三周的《微敘事》實驗室又完滿句號。因著一個我愛的藝術家的一句話，我過去的十幾年好像得到了有重量的總結。我可以站一站，然後再上路。Jonas Meka （美國實驗電影及日記電影開創者之一）說：
「我們需要少些完美的電影，但需要多些自由的電影。」
我覺得Jonas Meka （美國實驗電影及日記電影開創者之一）簡單有力的說盡了我用幾千字也說不完的苦衷。這句話，大概是為甚麼我還在做錄像。這大概是為甚麼我有意、懷疑也盡力的陪著「微敘事」繼續遊戲繼續好奇，進而召喚更多的個人小錄像小宣言的出現。這大概說出了「據點。句點」的一種核心價值之一，也延伸至藝術創作的整體。
《微敘事 2019: 在這，仍在，現在》多得忻慧妍從近90個錄像練習中選出17件在一個70分鐘的節目中分享。所收錄的個人宣言則共23段。請參考英語版。（見上）
