2017
West Lake International Documentary Festival
D20入圍
D20入圍
紀錄片在兩座島上播映。在香港，大概不太可能有人問：為什麼是是劉以鬯？為什麼是西西？為什麼是也斯？要談多產也好，或者他們在文學中不斷探問、逼近、包圍出香港城香港人特殊的身世與時空感，特別是西西和劉以鬯對文學形式多年來驚人的實驗能量，跨媒材創作，研究他們的論文豐盛到幾乎可以稱為「劉以鬯學」、「西西學」⋯⋯
The documentary seeks to use film as a medium to preserve and share the lives and legacies of prominent Chinese-language writers. Guided by each director’s unique cinematic language, these films transform literary masters into cinematic texts—introducing their voices to new generations of readers. The project goes beyond archival preservation. It aims to reveal how these authors and their works continue to move and inspire, carrying powerful resonance through the shifting tides of history—ultimately becoming a literary and cultural heritage for future generations.
A story is a journey, with both its beginning and end unfolding before the screen. Yet each story calls for a different way of being read—through the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, and feet. And at the end, like a white curtain of light, it’s as if a dream was gently dreamt atop a tree. Moonlight, sifted into fragments by the leaves, spills softly onto the body—only then do we realize that the self at the starting point has quietly changed… An unnamed kind of fullness.
Why do we write? When words erupt from the mind and pour into the heart, images and monologues take the place of daily tedium—of the mundane, the irritating, the unbearable. For some writers, however, writing is more than expression; it is salvation. It is an unshakable calling. In this themed selection on literature, Giloo presents documentaries that delve into the lives and inner worlds of writers—poets, novelists, critics—who wield pens (or typewriters) like swords, fearlessly confronting the truths of the world. The passage of time leaves behind not just pages, but marks of introspection—quiet yet undeniable badges of their creative journey.
In times of turmoil, I find myself drawn to documentaries. There’s something profoundly moving in watching people carve out a sense of “home” amid chaos—guarding a fragment of peace and expanding the inner landscape of the heart. I’ve always loved the phrase “a heart set on distant meaning.” We are born into constraints and often stumble through thorns, but perhaps it’s precisely these entanglements that awaken our yearning for freedom and for becoming. With that in mind, I’ve selected three documentaries. Some feature lives caught in inescapable webs; others portray souls that remain free, even when the body cannot move.