Director Wang Xiaoshuai’s documentary debut “Chinese Portrait” is a new philosophical puzzle
RUNJIE WANG
MAR 3, 2019
Auteur filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai knocked cinephiles’ socks off with his peculiar documentary Chinese Portrait, which premiered in 2018 at the Busan International Film Festival. He is the leading figure of the so-called “Sixth Generation” of the Cinema of China, whose oeuvre is examined in many film departments’ textbooks in Asia. Eclipsed by his Berlin Silver Bear winner film So Long, My Son that released this year, his documentary debut didn’t capture much of media’s attention until it was selected by an indie distributor for U.S. release. While filming, Wang and his crew spent eight years on an expedition across several regions of China documenting the inconspicuous areas and people in the wave of the country’s rapid bulking.
Chinese Portrait is an interactive living postcard with subjects staring straight into the lens at random places such as a courtyard, dusty mines, crammed streets and classrooms. Encompassing a wide range of places and people, Wang says this was a chance for him to have a broader perspective and get to know miscellaneous communities. “This is something cannot be gained from simply flying from city A to B,” he says.
Wang talks about how this experimental idea was born and how it broached a philosophical puzzle for him.
What’s the whole process of being featured in T/F like?
I was contacted by a True/False programmer at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam in November. I guess the True/False curation committee wished to diversify the content because “Chinese Portrait” is an avant-garde attempt, even among documentaries. The only place that this documentary can be reached by a larger audience is a film festival.
Speaking of its attributes, why did you make the change from feature lms to this experimental documentary?
Yes, it is. I’m a novice to documentaries. Actually, it was at the outset produced to be exhibited at an art gallery where patrons can come and leave of their own will. But the exhibition form requires a complex curation process and a particular dark space to present. It was displayed at Shanghai Biennale and the other art exhibition. Afterward, it was put on ice.
So, what inspired you to make this documentary?
I have a friend who is a famous painter. He is obsessed with exterior painting and documenting the world in a realistic way. He reached out to me to see if I could film his painting process. But I thought filming him didn’t suffice to disseminate more messages. So I decided to set up a camera documenting the mundane life parallelly with him.
The Chinese title is “Wo De Jing Tou,” literally “My Lens.” What do you think is the nuance in the translation?
I think the title “Chinese Portrait” can be more reprehensible to western audience. But the audience in China may not buy it since everyone has his or her own portrait of the country. It is impractical to be absolutely inclusive of the characters, nor is it necessary. So this is my lens, and it’s fine if you disagree.In the documentary, why did you let the subjects gaze into the lens for a couple of minutes?
After the screening (Saturday), an audience member told me that she was surprised to find her son well-behaved and watched the whole film in a cinema for the first time. Her son was very curious about why those people were looking at him. I was choked by the little boy’s question. I wasn’t able to answer. This was elevated to a philosophical conundrum of human relationships.
Wang says he will roll up more footage to add to the documentary. “But I can’t say I will jump into documentaries, which is not a breeze at all for me as a feature film director,” he says. “It’s a trade-off of the time I should be devoted to doing features and documentaries.”
