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Showcasing the many faces of digital film

By Yu Sen-lun
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Aug 08, 2003, Page 17

As the use of digital media in filmmaking has become more widespread, it is becoming harder to define what a digital film is. The school of Dogme95, led by Danish director Lars von Trier, has been making use of handheld digital video cameras to create simple but poignient, in-your-face, films. George Lucas, at the other extreme in terms of production cost, used the digital film format in the making of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. From small-budget art films to blockbuster movies, digital media is creating plenty of new potential for filmmakers.

Digital Vision: An Invisible Force (數位影展) is a film festival held with the intention of showcasing the range of digital films. It is the fourth event in POP Cinema (國民戲院), a government-funded program intended to bring art house or cutting-edge films to a mass audiance. Starting tomorrow, the 29 films, including nine international entries, will be screened over a two-week period.

Like previous POP Cinema events, the festival will first take place at SPOT -- Taipei Film House (光點台北), followed by screenings at the Hsinchu Municipal Image Museum (新竹市立影像博物館) and Kaohsiung City Film Library (高雄市電影圖書館).

In recent years many major film festivals around the world have begun establishing digital film sections. The Rotterdam International Film Festival in Holland, the Jeonju International Film Festival in Korea, the Hong Kong Film Festival and Taipei's Golden Horse Film Festival, have all opened categories for digital film. Even in Cannes, special screenings of digital films began three years ago. The nine international films in Digital Vision have been selected from entries at these film festivals.

The must-see film, and also the closing film of the festival is The Russian Ark by Russian director Alexander Sokurov. The fantastic, grand period drama is a revolutionary filmmaking achievement -- a 90-minute film with different scenes and time periods all shot in a single take. Such an acheivement could only have been attempted with a digital camera.

Slightly bizarre is the best way to describe the story of The Russian Ark. It is an adventure story about a contemporary film producer who magically finds himself in the St. Petersburg of the early 1700s. He meets a French diplomat from the 19th century and the two men go on a time-traveling journey through Russia's turbulent past. The Marquis and the filmmaker see a panorama of the Tsarist empire: Peter the Great thrashes his general with a whip, Catherine the Great rushes around looking for a place to relieve herself, the family of the last Tsar dine together, and hundreds of dancers waltz at the last Great Royal Ball of 1913.

Director Sokurov originally wanted to use 35mm film to accomplish the one-shot movie, but a 35mm film camera weights around 20kg, making the longest handheld shot about 15 minutes, even for the strongest photographer.

Sokurov had to resort to a digital camera to solve the problem with the photographer, as well as the problem with the length of the tape. The man who handles the camera in The Russian Ark is steadicam operator Tilman Buttner of Run Lola Run fame, who completed the running scenes of that movie by running along with the actress, creating a magical, fluid sequence.

Welcome to Destination Shanghai (目的地上海), the first film by young director Andrew Cheng (程裕蘇), was the winner of the Silver DV Award at the 2003 Hong Kong Film Festival. It is a very direct and daring film about the decadent world of Shanghai's night life in which young boys and girls give up their bodies for fast cash and a better tomorrow.

Hong Kong film Love is Not a Sin talks about a similar topic. Starting off as a tale about two best friends falling in love, the film unfolds with every outrageous element thrown in, including long-lost siblings, incestuous thoughts and a long distance relationship with a non-existent lover. Low on budget but high on drama, the film by Hong Kong director Doug Chan (陳建德) won the Golden DV Award at the 2003 Hong Kong Film Festival.

Leaving in Sorrow is another Hong Kong film, this one heavily influenced by the spirit of Dogme95, only using handheld camera and without using special lighting or other effects. It is a drama about six Hong Kong people living in San Francisco. Their existance is filled with lies, either because of the trauma from the Tiananmen Square massacre or because of their own contradictory beliefs.

Japanese film Asakusa Kid is highly recommended, especially for fans of Takeshi Kitano. An autobiography of Kitano's youth, the film faithfully and vividly describes Kitano's experience at a striptease theater in Asakusa, where he trained as a vaudevillian. It follows through to his meeting with his mentor who encouraged him to develop as an artist. It is a story full of both laughter and tears.

Korean film Flower Island is a very stylish film with a story by Song Il-gon. It tells the story of three women who have lost hope: a 16 year-old girl who has an abortion in a toilet, a singer suffering from throat cancer and a prostitute turning her back on her profession. They decide to go together on a trip to the Flower Island, a place where all pain and sadness disappear. Encounters during their journey there help heal their inner wounds.

Apart from the international films, there are four Taiwanese feature films, nine film shorts and seven animation shorts. The shorts were selected from winners of the Digital Shorts Competition in the previous Golden Horse Film Festival and the Taipei Film Festival.

What: Digital Vision -- An Invisible Force
When and Where: Aug. 9 to Aug. 22 at SPOT, Sept. 6 to Sept. 19 at Hsinchu Municipal Image Museum, Oct. 10 to Oct. 24 at Kaohsiung City Film Library.
Tickets: Free in Kaohsiung, NT$100 in Hsinchu and NT$150 in Taipei, available at Acer ticketing outlets as well as at the venues. For more program information: visit www.spot.org.tw, or call (02) 2511 7786
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