Is there something else I’ve lost?

16mm, color/sound, 34 min. 52 sec., Mandarin and English subtitles, China 2011

Urban gardening became part of the new organic life style, which goes along with a contemporary commoditization of our desires for nature, the natural and the sustainable. The film ‚takes a breath of fresh air‘ in the traditionally self-organized gardens in the suburbs of Wuhan, a city in China with over ten million inhabitants. Soon these carefully maintained vegetable gardens will be demolished by an accelerated modernization with its massive housing constructions. Nevertheless, at the moment, the film depicts fragments of fields and outlines traces of profound skills of how to construct support structures for plants to survive better.

Fredrik Svensk

Is there something else I’ve lost? A reading

2012

In Is there something else I’ve lost? the camera does not function as an instrument that illustrates a narrative. Instead, this film is a portrait of a character. The reality of this character is organized both through the camera movements and the editing process. However, who or what is “I” mentioned in the title?

The film starts in the dark, in a sound studio. The audible dialogue is fragmented: Somebody called Elke left for Shanghai. The conditions for farming are changing. Somebody speaks in English, someone else speaks in Chinese. Somebody is translating. A filmmaker without a movie camera? [continue reading]

Thanks to Raphaël Grisey, Sunshine, Ke Feng and Man Ling Li

Additional support provided by the University of Gothenburg, Akademin Valand

For public or institutional screenings, please contact Arsenal Distribution Berlin