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Down by the Water

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Country/Region: Mainland China

Release Year: 2023

Story:
“Down by the Water” is a short film series that was shot in Vienna, Austria and Beijing, China in 2021 with the support of the Austrian Consulate General Shanghai. Starting out with a nightly walk along the Danube canal in central Vienna, Austria-based multimedia artists Ekaterina Kormilitsyna and Tania Podveikina pull the viewer into their stories that come to mind as they walk down a tunnel towards the water where their stories unfold, be they abstract and surreal, or entirely research-based. They then pass on the camera to Nina Dillenz, who takes it back to Beijing, where she finishes her film during a three-week hotel quarantine, reinterpreting the water theme in a confined space. Upon her release, the camera will be passed on to Duan Wenyu, Xia Mengyi and Pahriya Ghalip. A walk to be continued in China’s capital…

Casts & Crews:

Tania Podveikina
Directors

Pahriya Ghalip
Directors

Ekaterina Kormilitsyna
Directors

Nina Dillenz
Directors

Grace Hsia
Directors

Runtime: 26 minutes

Language: Mandarin, English

Subtitles: Chinese, English

Tags: #Short-Series, #China, #Austria

Stills:

Director‘s Statement:

Bodies of water, be it rivers or the sea, play an immense role in connecting cultures. They carry not only goods to trade from far-flung places, but also people: salesmen, explorers, conquerors. And with the people, stories travel down streams and across oceans. Water is also an element traditionally associated with the female as is shown in countless myths from across the globe in the shape of deities, mermaids, sirens and more generally as it symbolizes the creation of life. From the sea foam born Aphrodite to the river goddesses of Egyptian and Hindu mythology, to the lady of the lake from the Arthurian Legend and the Daoist ideas of Yin and Yang, water permeates human imagination as a female force.