D’est (From the East, 1993), directed by Chantal Akerman

Connecting with lecture –

I was very lucky to have a chance to look at the scenes shown during the lecture, a scene from ‘D’est (From the East, 1993)’, directed by Chantal Akerman, the scene is in a cold blue tone, the camera moves along the street shooting the pedestrian who avoid to appear inside the frame. The most impressive thing that I remember is the little boy with a serious face gazing the camera from a distance, he seems so curious to the camera but he is also afraid to get into trouble, so he was hesitate to follow the camera or not. This scene really reminds me my trip in Shanghai, when I say Shanghai everyone will think it as a metropolis, international city in China. However, when I spent my holiday in Shanghai it wasn’t that great as we always heard from the others.

What I did feel in Shanghai was, when the city is too big and too busy, people there only have time with their own business and they never had time to look at their surroundings. Maybe I am used to live in Melbourne, when we smile to the others, their will be someone that react to you. In Shanghai, they seemed so cold-blooded to me whereas they just walk pass by or ignored my difficulty.

OBSERVATION – It was freezing cold and wet in Shanghai’s December, wind blew up my jacket and drilled into my bones, I would rather stay in Melbourne and burn out. I reached the nearest metro station going to meet my friend, there was a tiny sign on the traffic light pointing to the direction of metro station. I stretched my neck out from my scarf trying to look for the entrance, after 10 minutes, the entrance of metro station was still not a mystery. I stopped in front of a drink stall and asked if she knew where is the entrance of the station, she didn’t stopped to swipe her phone when I asked her, few seconds after she slowly put down her phone and lifted up her eyes. With a hesitated face staring at me, quickly lifted her arm up and pointed to a direction. ‘Oh, that way?’ I re-pointed to the direction, but she had her phone on her hand again when I looked at her.

 

FILMED – 

This is the beginning of a documentary film. Content is about the girl comes from the country and this is the first time, first day in Shanghai. The scene opens with a long shots at Shanghai’s landmark, few shots on the streets of Shanghai to show how busy Shanghai’s streets are.

Few shots of the girl wandering along different streets, have her phone out to take photos. She than is looking for the metro station, she follows the signs along the street and stops at a big intersection. She tries to ask people passed by, but no one stop to help her.

The girl signs, she sits down on the nearest bench and browse around. There is a drink stall in her sight, there is a girl like her age looking at her phone. She walks toward the stall and speaks with a loud voice, ‘hi, where is the entrance of metro station please?’ The girl did not answers her immediately, she slowly put down her phone and lifted up her eyes. With a hesitated face her eyeballs moved to the right seems like pointing the direction, and starts to swipe her phone again.