Born in Keelung, Director Zero Chou graduated in Philosophy from National Chengchi University in 1992. Her first job was as a journalist for Formosa Television, covering political news. There remained media restrictions despite the lifting of martial law, but the extra-partisan FTV system, to which more than 200 underground TV stations around Taiwan belonged, formed a news network extensively broadcasting political news that differed from the mainstream views of that authoritarian era. Chou became aware early on of her need to build a creative career, and began working for FTV, gaining exposure to the processes of scripting, planning and editing. This was the starting point for her experience with film and video, acquainting her with the creative possibilities this form of media holds in store.
With the exception of her first film, the self-edited and -directed short A Film about the Body (1996), Chous works, including Looking for the Forgotten Artists (1997), Wanderers Bay (1998), Being Ceased (1998) and Memories of the Taiwanese Master (1999), have been documentaries. Chou never avoids referring to images as being merely a creative medium of hers. To reserve ample room for creativity, whether shooting drama or documentary, she first visualizes each film before attempting to seek funding for its completion. In this respect, it is easier to secure funding for documentaries because they are more closely connected to public culture than other genres, and as a consequence most of Chous films have been documentaries.
In 2004, Chou received a short film guidance fund from the Government Information Office for another project, Splendid Float, Chous second self-made dramatic film. Moreover, the story of Splendid Float, like that of A Film about the Body, derives material from the culture of drag queens, ostensibly representing a review and reshaping of Chous past eight years as a filmmaker.
Acclaim at the Berlinale
Chous latest film, Spider Lilies, profoundly affected Wieland Speck, who selects films for the Berlin International Film Festival (known as the Berlinale for short), and it was thus admitted to the Berlinales Panorama section. Chou has expressed a sense of honor and delight that a film of hers has received such international recognition.
Spider Lilies is chiefly a lesbian love story, one of whose main characters is played by Rainie Yang. Unable to dispel her inner loneliness, Yangs character lives in an idealized world of her own making through fantasies concocted in a virtual computer network. Chou bases the characters back-story on a child who profoundly struck Chou during the filming of Legend, a documentary on children she made for the 921 Earthquake Disaster Community Recovery Fund. This was because, after the quake, the boys mother only rescued her son from the house. Thus traumatized, the boy fabricated what everyone knew to be a lie: whenever the subject of his mother was broached, the boy replied that she died in the quake. In Spider Lilies, Chou explains through story arrangement the factors involved in weaving this kind of lie. Indeed, most of these reasons are tragic and heart-rending.
The films other protagonist is a tattoo artist played by Isabella Leong. Chou explains that Leongs character is the embodiment of certain perspectives of human nature. Chou believes that people can achieve mental solace and serenity through ritual; in her eyes, rituals are irrational but can often soothe the human mind. In Splendid Float, the protagonist pays respects to the dead superficially, but in actuality she is mourning her departed love. In Spider Lilies, the tattooist uses the ritual of tattooing to shift her psychological pain so that she will not be so depressed.
Working the language of images: creating a literature of film
To Chou, the fascinating part of filmmaking is that she can convey her thoughts and ideas through images and, through this kind of storytelling, let the audience digest for themselves the language of the images they see.
Chou has her own assertions and ideas regarding film. She holds that image manipulation is analogous to literature: there are established rules and logic involved. Before you can write literature you must first learn composition, before that you must learn to build sentences, before that you must master words. Similarly, one shot makes a word, two shots make a phrase, three shots make a sentence. To compose a story with elegant phrasing, one must put ones fluency in the language of images to the test.
A meeting of kinds: a source of inspiration
With novel scripts plus a fusion of creativity and aesthetics, each of Chous films is surprising and memorable. When asked how she can come up with so many new ideas, Chou replies, You cant go wrong working hard and making friends!
It turns out that Chous easygoing qualities enable her to befriend people of all kinds. And the stories behind these friends are often a valuable source of creative inspiration for her. Take her two award-winning films Corners (2001) and Splendid Float (2004) for instance. The script material came from Chous close friends: Corners was the product of notes she took at her friends failing gay bar of the same name, and she filmed Splendid Float after getting to know a group of drag queens she had met at Corners.
Chou comments on this method: Helping my friends and helping myself accomplish our dreams: this is the happiest thing in my life.
Epilogue: Since youth Chou has enjoyed observing culture. In her observations, she has unwittingly come to know innumerable people, and her straightforward, candid personality enables her to make plenty of good friends. She maintains that making films of the stories that unfold around her and sharing with the world the emotions that once shook her inner being fills her with a sense of accomplishment. To Chou, such a feeling cannot be replaced by anything else. As for the future, she will keep adhering to this kind of passion, struggling and toiling on the path of filmmaking.
credits go to taiwan cinema [by aznbadgirl]
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