This week we discuss Alvarez’s conception of Metafilmic strategies in city documentaries. We will consider how images of cities shape and are shaped by cinema. Finally we will watch Thom Anderson’s seminal film Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003).  

This week we took our final field visit to explore another neighbourhood that tells the story of Hong Kong on multiple levels: Wan Chai. We were guided by two residents of the neighbourhood and met at Hong Kong House of Stories, in the Blue House at No. 74 Stone Nullah Lane, Wan Chai, HK. We were able … More Class #9: FieldTrip to Wan Chai

Observation is an extremely important skill, fundamental to many areas of learning and study. For documentary production, one of the most important skills is learning how to do field research – this includes both looking at the physical and visual elements of an area by taking photographs, drawings and notes, but also noting the particular … More Part 1: Field-notes (ALTERNATIVE) | SHANGHAI STREET

  This week’s class included group presentations of Assignment #1 looking at the spatial and geographic dimensions of inequality in Hong Kong. We also watched Miao Wang’s film BEIJING TAXI and discussed her short film MADE BY CHINA IN AMERICA.

This week we discuss making cell phone films in the first part of class. In the second section, we talk about URBAN SELF-PORTRAIT films from Alvarez’s book Documenting Cityscapes. We focused on the three types of Urban Self-Portraits he discusses: Self Portrait as Socio-Political Documentary Self Portrait as Essay Film Self Portrait as Self-Fiction In discussing these … More Class #5 Urban Self-Portraits

This week discussed Ackbar Abbas’ chapter, thinking about the idea of what his idea of “disappearance” means in Hong Kong. We also did a tour of three distinctly special sites: Pok Fu Lam village, Wah Fu Estate and Waterfall Bay (Swimming spot, Statue lookout and the 1940s bunker) Add pictures to your own blog from your … More Class #4 Fieldtrip: Pokfulam Village / Wah Fu Estate / Waterfall Bay

This week we also watched clips from DETROPIA And we watched the Tan Pin Pin film SINGAPORE GAGA Finally, we split into teams and experimented with psychogeography, spontaneity and the derive through the Derive App