Video (published)

Shanghai Saga:
Other Skies, Other Lands
(中文版)
Hong Kong / 2009 / 32 minutes
a work by Linda Lai and Gina Wong

Crytoglyph
[ Click to view video clip ][ Click to view video on YouTube]

To a common hero(ine),
an ubiquitous character, walking in countless thousands on the streets…,
the absent figure who provides [narratives] both their beginning and their necessity…
(S)he is the murmuring voice of societies.
In all ages, (s)he comes before texts.
(S)he does not expect representations…
-- Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (1984)

Synopsis
Shanghai Saga is a video essay-poem on Shanghai by two HongKong women, Linda and Gina, who relate to Shanghai on very different horizons. Linda knows Shanghai as a film historian, cultural theorist, a curious reader of literature, and an interested traveler who walks the city, whereas Gina, a business owner and free-lance art incubator, splits her residence between Shanghai and Hong Kong. Linda engages in the literary and visual imaginary of Shanghai, observes the everyday texture of the city and the effects of urban renewal; Gina studies the unnoticed scenario of excessive real estate development as an accidental refuge for unknown artists. Gina brings to her camera the faces and voices of individuals in Shanghai who seek to make sense of their artistic career, while Linda discovers individuals in Hong Kong who have unique personal connections to Shanghai...

Concept / Artist's Statement
As a species of video diary and visual ethnography, the work evolves around the question of what it means to know a place and space as a generative category of knowledge. It experiments wtih a broad range of visual sources, from 1934 to 2008, opening up each audio-visual fragment as both document on its own right and representation of a lived moment.
 

Camera:
Linda LAI / Gina WONG
Editing:
Linda LAI / WOO Ling-ling
Script, visual narrative & sound design:
Linda LAI
Additional shots:
Hector RODRIGUEZ, Karen CHIM, Peony CHEUNG, YU Jiajie
Found footage research:
Linda LAI
Research on Da Dongfang estate artists:
Gina WONG, YU Jiajie

Location shots were taken from the following movies:
Goddess (1934, dir. WU Yonggang, Shanghai)
New Women (1934, dir. CAI Chusheng, Shanghai)
Street Angel (1935, dir. YUAN Muzhi, Shanghai)
Old and New Shanghai (1936, dir. CHENG Bugao, Shanghai)
Crossroads (1937, dir. SHEN Xiling, Shanghai)
Modern Women (1945, dir. TU Guangqi, Shanghai)
Everlasting Regret (2005, dir. Stanley KWAN, Hong Kong)

[Screening history]
* World premiere; in international competition at the 55th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany, April 30-May 5, 2009.

 

《上海歌:另尋天地》
2009, 32 分鐘
黎肖嫻、黃思源
"獻給民間的眾英雄∶無名無姓,穿街過巷的湧流…,因你之故,陳述有了起頭,有了說的必要…。[她]是社會的喁喁私語,不管那個時代,[她]的存在先於文本。[她]沒有期望過表徵或再現。"
-- Michel de Certeau著,《日常生活的實踐》(1984英譯)

 
本事
《上 海歌∶另尋天地》是兩個不同觀點與背景的女子為上海城市合譜的錄影散文詩。黎肖嫻以文化歷史作者和電影研究學者的位置出發,透過文學和電影的想像從視覺方 面構築上海,亦多次親身閒蕩於上海市,穿過大小的里弄、柏油路、漫步於高架天橋之下,去觀察日常生活的肌理、微細的小節,以至現代化都市發展在城市空間留 下的痕跡。黃思源從金融投資和企業管理專業的身份出發,同時關心藝術創作的發展,又僑居於香港上海雙城,因而留意到近年上海市地產專案發展過熱的現象,尤 其那些建好了而一直空置了無人入住的現代化屋苑,如何在不覺間變為無名藝術創作者的臨時避難所、工作室。黃思源透過現身的訪尋,把那些力尋創作空間的個體 的音容展現於鏡頭前;黎肖嫻則在香港生活的個別人身上尋索各種與於上海市的勾連。《上海歌》由十三個小節組成,訪問、影像詩、陳述、策問、擺放、直接展示 輾轉交替,斷裂與延續交錯對立而撞擊,打開了上海城市論述的框框。

創作概念
《上 海歌∶另尋天地》是錄影日記的延伸,以及對視覺民俗田野法的創作層面上的回應。理念上,這個錄影作品探求“空間”在生產文化知識上的衍生性潛力,認知一個 “地方”又是怎麼樣的一回事。作為現成物創作法的一個品種,這個作品涵括了不同出處的視像素材,從1934年到2008年,而每一塊影音的斷片既是亦是某 人於某年某月某日活過的時刻的符碼、表徵,同時是過去的某個狀態的現成“檔案”;在我們的創作過程中,就成為了開發意義、進行論述的材料,在理念和觀察 間,在解釋演繹於調解影像聲音的物理性之間,《上海歌》破開了紀實與虛構、寫真與實驗的二元對立。我們,也在三十二分鐘之時段裏對“上海是甚麼”這個議題 放上源於我們存活的經驗的進項。

 

製作資料
攝影:
黎肖嫻、黃思源
剪接:
黎肖嫻、胡玲玲
劇本//聲效及視覺敍事設計:
黎肖嫻
另加錄像片段:羅海德、予佳婕、張慧群、詹嘉慧
電影片段資料搜集:
黎肖嫻
“大東方”地產項目藝術家查訪:
黃思源、予佳婕
上海街頭實景選自以下電影:
《神女》(1934 / 吳永剛導演/ 上海)
《新女性》(1934 / 蔡楚生導演/ 上海)
《馬路天使》(1935 / 袁牧之導演/ 上海)
《新舊上海》(1936 / 程步高導演/ 上海)
《十字街頭》(1937 / 沈西林導演/ 上海)
《摩登女性》(1945 / 屠光啟導演/ 上海)
《長恨歌》(2005 / 關錦鵬導演/ 香港)
 
放映記錄:
第55屆奧柏侯辛國際短片節(德國)國際部份競賽作品及世界首映,2009年4月30日至5月5日。