Thanks to the support from the Canton de Vaud two students from ECAL’s movie school joined us for the trip to Shenzhen and Hong Kong. A few words from Korlei Rochat who directed the short film with Alan Dupasquier.
“The video Lost in construction follows the CHIC program during its immersion in China. We had the opportunity – myself and Alan Dupasquier, who was acting as chief operator – to have a carte blanche as to the movie’s angle.
The idea was to highlight the journey, the country and the prototyping adventure undergone by the students – between translation and construction.
We wanted to observe and film the students on par with the landscape and the city’s inhabitants. The approach was not intrusive, as we did not want to be between the camera and the subject or ask questions.
What struck me right away while exploring Shenzhen, was the impression that the city is in anticipation – there is a kind of suspense. The buildings that are erected everywhere – some still under construction and many completed – were mostly empty. Their emptiness awaits the imminent overcrowding of the population. It is this foresight that interested me in the landscape politics.
This is reflected in one of the many express noodle deliverers, the workers on the building sites, or the huge technology markets where there are thousands and one components to satisfy one’s construction desires.
The challenge for Alan and me was perhaps to find in this form of efficiency, in this industry – since Shenzhen is above all an industrial city – a human movement, melodies, poetic movements. Thus we were captivated to discover, in the middle of the machine, children who played in the light of LEDs, in industrial spaces that rocked their imagination.
We also wanted to integrate technological dimensions. We wanted to film with drones, to climb on top of skyscrapers and shoot the view.
This is also one of the first things we were told when arriving in Shenzhen: here the horizon of ideas is wide, everything is possible and above all – this being perhaps the singularity of the city – everything is possible extremely quickly.”
Stay tuned for the movie….