I Don’t Feel At Home Anywhere Anymore
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Country/Region:
Belgium,Mainland China
Release Year: 2021
Release Year: 2021
Casts & Crews:
Viv Li
Directors
Runtime:
16
minutes
Language:
Subtitles:
Chinese, English
Festivals & Awards:
2020 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Netherlands
2021 Leuven International Short Film Festival, Belgium
2020 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Netherlands
2021 Leuven International Short Film Festival, Belgium
Tags:
#studyabroad, #documentary, #experimental, #overseaschinese
Director‘s Statement:
This short film was made right before the pandemic hit the world in early 2020.
Whenever I screen this film and look back at this moment, I found it ironic that I
was feeling so lonely and alienated at my own home town. Little did I know that I
would be separated from them for the next two years, and still counting. Little did I know that the world would all feel a kind of isolation that we are more helpless of.
I wonder, if I knew this, would I have behaved differently?
I gave up on the subtitles because I want to create an intimate experience for the audience just as they are in the rooms with me. Subtitling word by word
sometimes makes a film flat, and leaves less space for imagination. I hope the
audience could enjoy searching for clues in the image, rather than in the words.
And also, enjoyed seeing all the Chinese food we ate.
There are 50 million overseas Chinese in the world. The choice of studying
abroad and settling abroad have been considered a proud extension of one’s life
in Chinese society. However, after adjusting to a foreign life, coming back home
has always been a strange and weighty process, especially as an artist, a single
female and a 30-year-old.
My strange relationship with a Chinese home is often shared with people in many different cultures. And that didn’t surprise me. Globalisation made us floating, rootless and free, but we should always remember, there’s one thing, home will always remain very good at:
Only there, we can be a complete loser and it will still be okay.
Whenever I screen this film and look back at this moment, I found it ironic that I
was feeling so lonely and alienated at my own home town. Little did I know that I
would be separated from them for the next two years, and still counting. Little did I know that the world would all feel a kind of isolation that we are more helpless of.
I wonder, if I knew this, would I have behaved differently?
I gave up on the subtitles because I want to create an intimate experience for the audience just as they are in the rooms with me. Subtitling word by word
sometimes makes a film flat, and leaves less space for imagination. I hope the
audience could enjoy searching for clues in the image, rather than in the words.
And also, enjoyed seeing all the Chinese food we ate.
There are 50 million overseas Chinese in the world. The choice of studying
abroad and settling abroad have been considered a proud extension of one’s life
in Chinese society. However, after adjusting to a foreign life, coming back home
has always been a strange and weighty process, especially as an artist, a single
female and a 30-year-old.
My strange relationship with a Chinese home is often shared with people in many different cultures. And that didn’t surprise me. Globalisation made us floating, rootless and free, but we should always remember, there’s one thing, home will always remain very good at:
Only there, we can be a complete loser and it will still be okay.
Casts & Crews
Viv Li
Director
