Wu Hsing-ying (吳星螢) bought a digital video camera for NT$22,000 in 2004 to document her friends’ campaign to lower tuition fees.
The then-college student thought it would be fun to use a behind-the-scenes style similar to “how people record their children’s birthday parties” to record the efforts of the Alliance to Oppose High Tuition (反高學費行動聯盟), founded in 1998 to reduce the cost of education.
Six years, almost 200 digital video cassettes and NT$300,000 in debt later, the 33-year-old director has completed a black-and-white documentary entitled Create Something (粉墨登場), which has been nominated for Best Documentary Film at this year’s Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎), scheduled to take place on Saturday in Taoyuan County.
Photo courtesy of Tosee Group and Wu Hsing-ying
Wu said the NT$200,000 prize money would come in handy.
“I didn’t start with the idea of making a documentary. I just wanted to record what we did … If I knew I would make a documentary out of it, I would never have made the videos so low quality,” Wu said.
The film looks more like an activist’s home video than a social documentary. Young women and men goof around, slurp noodles or brainstorm about how to highlight issues like the commercialization of education through singing and dancing at protests.
Photo courtesy of Tosee Group and Wu Hsing-ying
Many scenes are shaky or out of focus and the subjects are often seen in silhouette without proper lighting.
Wu said the film’s editor, Lin Kai-po (林楷博), had a hellish time trying to cull workable material from a vast amount of footage that “often resulted from the person with the camera forgetting to put the lens cap back on.”
Over the course of two years, Lin made more than 40 versions of the film from the 200 tapes, many of which became mildewy because the director couldn’t afford proper storage containers.
Photo courtesy of Tosee Group and Wu Hsing-ying
What could be perceived as defects, however, imbue the film with charm. Wu doesn’t attempt to give a clear examination or analysis of the educational issues involved. Instead, she reveals how a group of activists struggle to hold on to their youthful ideals as they grow from young rebels into adults who marry and start families.
Raised in a blue-collar family, Wu couldn’t afford to go to college directly after leaving school. She worked for seven years to save enough money to enroll in the Department of Motion Picture of the National Taiwan University of Arts (國立台灣藝術大學).
The documentary has been on tour since its completion last year, with more than 100 screenings here and abroad, including three at the University of California, where students protested against a 32 percent undergraduate tuition hike late last year.
Photo courtesy of Tosee Group and Wu Hsing-ying
Wu said many audience members have shown interest in the alliance’s proposal to tax big business and use the revenue for education. Businesses benefit from education, so they should contribute, she says.
A brief introduction to Marxism that the director slips into the documentary in the form of a simple animation has sparked discussion on the struggle between capitalists and proletarians.
“I am not a hard-core Marxist, nor do I want to preach about Marxism,” Wu said. “The idea is to make people pause and think for a moment. If we can all move to the left a little bit, the world would be less unjust.”
Photo courtesy of Tosee Group and Wu Hsing-ying
Originally planning to end the film’s tour next month, Wu, now five months pregnant, said she decided to extend it after visiting a Matsu (媽祖) temple. The night after, she dreamt of an old Chinese saying: In the mansions, rolling luxury allows wine and meat to go rotten; on the streets, grinding poverty causes people to freeze to death and decay (朱門酒肉臭,路有凍死骨).
“People were starving to death out in the cold [in the dream]. It was horrifying,” Wu said. “I see it as a sign. It’s as if the problem of class polarization is so grave that even Matsu can’t bear to watch it any more. So she is like, ‘Well, it will be great if you can continue the screenings.’”
For screening dates and venues, visit blog.roodo.com/cs10.
Photo courtesy of Tosee Group and Wu Hsing-ying
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