(LXT Film School)非洲導演項目：Gertjan的博客

　　Raiding Africa 4: The Snake　
　　Written by Gertjan Zuilhof, 18 August 2010
　　
　　The filming artist Xenson from Uganda had a mythical idea about China. He wanted to capture present-day China in the spirit of legendary stories. So he moved around like a fantasy dragon-snake from ancient times, much to the amusement and surprise of the Chinese.
　　
　　Xenson came without his camera. At the Chinese embassy in Kampala they had told him that he had better leave his camera at home. He also came without his laptop. In the Entebbe airport many extra security checks had been installed because of recent suicide bomb attacks, which had made some victims among the friends of the artist. After one of the many checks his laptop had not shown up again. This may be to remind us that our film maker comes from Africa where it is not only difficult to get things, but perhaps even more difficult to hold on to them.
　　
　　But getting a camera and access to a computer that was on line was no problem. Our partners at the Li Xianting Film Fund provided the camera and their office was always open to us for using their computers.
　　
　　The sky was often grey in the outskirts of Beijing. I guess Xenson missed the bright light of Africa. Here everything was diffuse and sometimes even in fog. On the other hand we could go and film almost everywhere. Rarely anyone ever objected or even paid attention. Most people ignored the black man with his camera and his strange moves.
　　
　　I think most ordinary Chinese were too shy to speak to our African film maker directly or look into his face. With the exception of children, of course. They kept looking at him and the really small or brave ones came closer to touch his skin.
　　
　　
　　Thanks to Xenson's mentor Sherman Ong we could communicate with the people we met on the streets and in restaurants. More easily than in Europe or Africa we made friends with people during random encounters.
　　
　　Gertjan Zuilhof, Xenson and mentor Sherman Ong behind Songzhuang restaurant waitresses
　　
　　It turned out to be just as easy to find actors for Xenson's film. He had two boys in mind who would fight his metaphorical snake. Together with Zhu Rikun (artistic director of the film school) we went to the market and simply asked the boys, who were helping out their families in the stalls. The first boy was too shy, but his mother convinced the crying victim to agree, but by that time boy two and three were already casted. The family had no problem with handing over the boys to complete strangers. Strangers that did not even speak their language.
　　
　　Xenson wanted to shoot many different things, including many well known things. I will refer to our memorable visit to the Great Wall later, but he also wanted to film on one of the many construction sites China is now famous for. Not to make a collection of clichés, but to film the clichés in a different way. For his snake story he used his camera as a snake and moved around like a snake. Close to the ground and constantly twisting. It was a nice sight, and it made many Chinese wonder.
　　
　　Xenson filming the water flow at construction site.
　　
　　In the Li Xianting Film Fund/School we not only found the partner we hoped for. In fact we found a home for the project. The home has a living room. It is in the former house of Li Xianting himself. The style of the former owner is respectfully preserved and tea is served in a highly sophisticated way.
　　
　　
　　Gertjan Zuilhof
　　
　　© 2010 International Film Festival Rotterdam