Director/photographer/editor:Han Hui-yuan
Length: 52 mins
Production: 2005
Synopsis:
A small character who lives by selling his handicrafts, spending most of each year on the road，he has been to almost everywhere in China. He hopes to earn a little more money so that he can live better. He has his own ideals. This film covers his life during a half-year in Yunnan Province.
Director’s statements:
I came across Gao Feishan on the streets during Chinese New Year; my first impression was that he really knows how to talk; he could go on all day as if he were a professional storyteller. At the time, I was worrying about a topic for my film, so I chose him to be my subject. While working with him, I discovered many new things. After receiving his permission, I pointed my DV camera at him. In filming him for six months and eventually completing the project, I always had one thought: I didn’t want to make a pity piece, just showing the travails of someone on the bottom rung of society. I wanted to film him because he lived in a world that I had no understanding of; it was real. You will never know the joys of his world. You pity him, and that’s what he wants; he would laugh at you, and you would never know it. Everyone has their own world; you’ve already done great to be yourself.
In fact, for a time while I was filming, especially after the novelty wore off, I disliked this activity; why would I want to enter the life of a stranger? Why would he let me? I’ve already gone through many unhappy and painful moments, and lost sight of the meaning of documentary. Later I came to realize that I didn’t want to face such a painful life, someone having to put in all of their effort into mere survival; being so careful, diligent, acting different parts, playing a deaf man, never being able to slip up.
That’s O.K that the audiences laugh a lot when the film is shown.
It has no fun to edit someone else’s life; the most important is to edit one’s own life. I have always been searching out the needs of my own soul, attempting to bring it out through film.
Thank you, Gao Feishan.