We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jianqi K Huang. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jianqi K below.
Jianqi K, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I’m currently working on my graduate school thesis, which is a video essay on the role that the construction and destruction of architecture play in cultural and collective memories. Ruins serve as traces of political conflict, bearing witness to violence.
This inspiration stemmed primarily from my research on racial/religious cleansing and genocide. In many cases, architecture becomes the embodiment of violence: the removal and prohibition of specific, iconic building elements; the construction of concentration camps; or, most commonly, the destruction of civilian buildings in bombings.
I utilize footage ranging from my great-grandmother’s house in Hubei, China, which endured the years of the Sino-Japanese War, to footage from my time living in Shanghai and Berlin. The images in the film are intended to leave an impression rather than strictly illustrate the narrative. Since the footage is captured from the present (including archive photos and videos), it suggests how we approach history — encountering only the ruins and having to imagine the rest ourselves.
The story of the army invasion intertwines with the haunting feeling of that hundred-year-old house, built in the style of the Qing dynasty, which has lingered in my imagination since childhood. Furthermore, during my time living alone in Shanghai and Berlin, the weighty histories of these cities seeped into my nightmares. Hence, I decided to undertake this project as a form of possession, wherein I become the conduit, inviting those spirits (mostly females) that were once silent or misrepresented to speak through me.
Cultural memory and heritage are not solely processes engaged with the past, nor does the material culture of the past exist only for the purpose of ‘remembering’. Instead, cultural memory and heritage are active processes that engage with the social, economic, and political life of the present. They are living processes and tools for the resilience of communities. Through this project, I aim to raise questions about remembering and commemoration, encouraging us to actively engage with the present.
Jianqi K, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Born and raised in Wuhan, China, I came to cinema by way of photography, which drew me in with its ability to capture and preserve life. Majoring in Film and Media Studies at Franklin and Marshall College for BFA provided a background in the history, theory, and practice through which I could explore what initially fascinated me about cinema, culminating in the creation of my undergrad thesis film, Along With The Mountains. This process of making this deeply personal project, which built on my education in experimental and documentary filmmaking traditions and their relationship to subjective experiences of time and the impulse to preserve, has solidified my commitment to a future as a filmmaker. As a nonfiction meditation on loss and memory based on my grandma’s death, this film was catalyzed by an existential fear when watching her die. In an unconscious effort to push against this ephemerality and preserve what would be lost, I picked up my camcorder to record the entire process, to let the camera become my eyes, carrying my feelings, breath, and thoughts. Going to her funeral in the countryside, I filmed mountains and rivers which made up my childhood memories and gave me inner peace, influenced by my admiration toward Andrei Tarkovsky’s oneiric frames that reveal his nostalgia, but also the gratitude toward nature. Even if my memories will fade away over time, there are parts of our temporary existence fossilized in cinema for the future. It is with this focus on developing this personal philosophy and commitment to embed these reflections into films that I seek to pursue a MFA in film and video at Calarts now.
My works examine the societal issues from an ethnographical perspective through performance, video, photography and writings. My interests are but not limited to architecture and landscape, collective and individual memories, diaspora and colonial politics.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I would say it’s the impulse of sharing a universal feelings and experience, connecting with the spectators that’s encouraging me endlessly. While making my film Along With the Mountains, at first, I took it as a deeply personal journey of exploration and grief, but later turned out to be a collective endeavor of healing and community building. The process of editing this became a way to understand that hiding from negative effects is not the ultimate solution, only confronting and embracing them can help us to keep going, as we grow through experiencing. While it was hard to review the footage right after its capture, editing it allowed me to face the irreversible nature of time, a process of grief that I communicated with the durational aesthetics of my work. Importantly, this procedure of mourning was also fundamentally collective, bringing together filmmakers and spectators, who are all creators of a work’s meaning. During the screening, the audiences’ affective responses to it indicated the shared feelings that connect us across cultures, regions and any social barriers, and allowed me to discover myself by my work. I still remember that after the screening there was a girl in tears came to me and said how much my work has reminded her of her grandpa who got Alzheimer. That was the first time that I realize the power of art, and that feeling kept pushing me to continue my journey.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
After undergrad, I returned to China and worked for a year. Initially, I interned at a Women’s Film Festival. Since the majority of the workforce were women, a friendly atmosphere naturally formed, and we quickly bonded. However, after busy weeks of preparation, on the day before the opening ceremony, the festival was shut down. The planned interviews with filmmakers for the following day were also disrupted by the police. Everything, from the delicate sets constructed overnight, to the posters and merchandise we tirelessly worked on every day, to the equipment we carried across the city — all of it came to a halt. God knows how many tears we shed at that moment. It was the first time in my life that I experienced such direct, helpless suppression from the system. As an individual, there was nothing I could do but watch as they destroyed everything, then carry the rest back. There was nothing to be said, only obedience. And so, my first internship ended prematurely.
Then I went to Beijing, intending to experience the working and living atmosphere in various cities across China. I arrived in Beijing during autumn, with its red leaves, warm sunshine, numerous parks, ancient alleys, and an overwhelming number of film screenings, all of which made me fall in love with the city instantly. I was invited by the supervisor I met during my first internship to assist in organizing another film festival. However, not long after, the event was postponed again. So, I found myself unemployed again, haha. Meanwhile, I was also doing volunteer work for the Beijing LGBT Center, where I met lots of faithful and kind people. However, it was also the time that NGOs struggled to survive, and many of our activities were disrupted or canceled. Ultimately, the Center closed in May 2023.
I felt that I couldn’t stand this anymore, and now I’m here. Sometimes there’s a voice in my mind blaming me as a deserter, but now I’m reconciled with myself, knowing that I have the right to feel safe and supported to do my creative work. I feel I’ve become more attached and resonated with my roots and culture, and perhaps, sometimes escaping it is just taking a longer route to come back.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://inthefog.cargo.site
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kakazma/
- Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user89409664
Image Credits
“Memory Ruins” showing in Berlin taken by Hayate Kobayashi