Ungrounded
Lee Chie-yen, Ni Hsuan-an, Yap Jia-ning, Liu Chiung-yu
Documentary, 35 minutes
"Why are we leaving, and how will we stay?"
The director who came to Taiwan from Malaysia is about to face the choice of staying or leaving, so she started her constant exploration of the meaning from body moving to overlapping identities. A series of questions brought us to three foreign women who had settled down in Taiwan. They are from Malaysia and Vietnam. Through interviews, we learned about how they left their homeland, faced the memory loss of homeland and the multiple identities they have, and how they established their home even after leaving home.
Lee Chie-yen
Malaysian Chinese, graduating from the department of Radio and Television, college of Communication. From the time I realize I have questions to the world, words and image creation have become my company of growing. After producing a short documentary about an elder living alone, I found my strong interest toward documentaries, so I chose a documentary as the period of my four-year college life. Thus, I hope to keep creating with images, and become a video maker. Keep observing lives, recording lives, and seeing through souls.
Ni Hsuan-an
From Longtan District, Taoyuan. It is a place full of sounds of nature.Because of a documentary with a friend about the uncertain future of university students graduating, I started to know about documentaries.The deep interaction between people and the slow process of relationships building nourish my soul bit by bit, and I like how a documentary tells a story more and more. I expect myself to be brave to discover, to keep continuing searching, to be courageous and wise, to record and create through the lenses. As little as it is, it is strong enough.
Yap Jia-ning
A Malaysian Chinese. I got to know about documentaries in my third year of college, and it started with a shooting of an elder living alone, a true life story being recorded. I learned how to observe little things and the lives they reflect on. Learning bit by bit has made me choose to make a documentary as my graduation project, shooting the stories of three outlanders. It is cherishable because it is true. To me, documentaries are recording the trust between people. Shoot a bit more profile and do a bit less dolly in, let the true heart be the filter which is disguised by the photographer, and present to the audience. I expect myself to keep creating, to love creating, to be always curious about the world, and to have a free soul.
Liu Chiung-yu
Born in Mastu, Beigan, Left handed, Pisces, view the ocean often, it’s about two minutes from home to the coastline. I like the voices of Faye Wong and Joanna Wang, and I’ve been listening to Chih Siou’s songs.
It is the first time I chose documentary as the form of work. I hope that through this piece of work, dream and loss can be revealed, also the choices and unchoosable, “us” as the outlanders’ puzzle.