68. WEIFAN WANG: A SPACE BETWEEN REVEAL AND RELIEF.
Wei Fan "Eye of Jung” 2024.
“I’ve practiced these words for 20 years now, but maybe being candid isn’t the best idea. I’m starting my countdown again, another 20 years. Maybe it might be the right time by then.” W.W.
Please can you introduce your film HEY DAD
HEY DAD is a confession of my own 20-year struggle to come out as a gay men to my father, I turned this personal emotion into a journey in which the protagonist is determined to find his father and reveal the secret. The starting point of the script came from an argument I had with my father when I was 20 years old. At that moment, I was debating whether or not to tell him I am gay, but after cooling down, I still thought that the consequences of confessing would not be any better than having a harmonious relationship we have now. Therefore, I dismissed the thought. After this incident, I have always wanted to visualise complex emotions in my mind, not only to help me face my own issues, but also create a queer animation work with no love story, no quarrels, but purely private and introverted via my life experiences, bringing a gentler perspective to our society and let people understand and discuss another side of the queer community.
I also wrote a prologue at the beginning of the film. “I’ve practiced these words for 20 years now, but maybe being candid isn’t the best idea. I’m starting my countdown again, another 20 years. Maybe it might be the right time by then.” It condenses what the protagonist, me, is trying to say to my father, the society and myself, through this story.
The work is highly personal, and yet there is a very human story at the films core, a feeling that we can all relate to - seeking approval - do you feel a sense of catharsis from making this work?
Indeed, completing this film was like resolving a knot in my heart. Even though the issue seems to be unresolved in the end of film, I still felt relieved at the moment I finished it. It was also like a sense of giving myself clarity for the past 20 years. I have always believed that only stories that go deep enough into oneself can resonate with the viewers. Therefore, I hope that I can use this personal work to bring not only for my own sake, but also for all viewers who have experienced similar interpersonal relationships, a gentle exit for relief.
As mentioned, the personal nature of the work feels very precise, you have even provided the voice for your lead character - and yet there is a sense of spatial distance felt within the experience of viewing the work. Did you manage to reach a critical distance while making the work to be creatively objective?
I didn't really set out to create the feeling for the audience in terms of the narrative and the images. It was probably because when I was writing the script and designing the animation scenes, I intuitively wanted to express the emotional distance between me and my father, and thus create an atmosphere of emptiness and loneliness. In addition, perhaps deep down, I was still a bit reluctant to reveal myself too openly to the public, so as for the dubbing, in fact, I did look for a voice actor in the beginning. But as I said before, I ultimately thought that this story was a knot in my heart, if I couldn't face myself, then it would be a lose the original purpose of this work. So in the end, I chose to put my own voice into the film.
You manage to do something extraordinary - you transport your audience beyond the medium of film itself - you evoke emotion that is fraught and tender at the same time. Can you express the process you undertook to translate your emotive narrative in a visual way?
I am very fond of watching films and images, from animation, live action to video art works. During my four years of studying animation at the Taipei National University of the Arts, one of the most influential experiences for me was reading a lot of different types of images and finding my own visual language from them. During the process, I found that I was deeply inspired by the slow cinema narratives of directors such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tsai Ming-Liang. Their use of long shots always leaves me with the feeling of being wrapped up in the story, and the emotions that flow from the images also linger longer and deeper in my mind.
With their influence, I created an interiorized and magical realistic atmosphere by all the metaphors such as statues, television, seagulls, countdowns, to pile up the complex emotions that I face in the film, in the hope that the viewer can follow the steps of the protagonist and experience this journey step by step at the same time they watching the film.
What have you learnt through the experience of making this work and do you have a sense of what you would like to do next?
Making animation is a constant communication process for me. From the time I had the initial idea for the script at the age of 20 to the time I finished the animation film at my 26, I gradually came up with the answer to the issue of my relationship with my father. It was more than just a simple question of whether or not to come out of the closet. Rather, it was the whole process of thinking in the production that allowed me to find the balance where I am most mentally comfortable at this point of time.
As for my next move, I currently started planning for my next short film. HEY DAD corresponds to the core of my lived experience in my early 20s. After turning 25, my life changed even more, I started working as an employee, I became a partner in a relationship, and I even went to London as a student to further my studies. All these new identities - the overflow of stories came with new interpersonal relationships and issues that made me want and need to visualise and express within my next works.
