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“Comparative Literature is where I learnt to see the world”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
NORA LAM \u6797\u5b50\u7a4e (BA 2017) is an independent filmmaker and the co-founder of Outfocus Productions. Her documentary feature Road Not Taken(\u672a\u7adf\u4e4b\u8def) (2016) had over 20 overseas and local festival screenings. Lost in the Fumes(\u5730\u539a\u5929\u9ad8) (2017) won Special Jury Prize at the Taiwan International Documentary Festival 2018 and was one of the winners in Films of Merit at Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award 2018.<\/p>\n
SEEKING SOLACE<\/h5>\n
Unlike the chaotic intensity depicted in many youth films, life as a teenager is monotonous and repressed for Nora. She indulged in the boundless world of literature and cinema, becoming particularly drawn to the twentieth-century literature, period dramas and LGBT cinema. These works, however, didn\u2019t allow a complete escape, for they portray a world that is distanced yet familiar. \u201cThey transport you to another world, but eventually pull you back to your world. They give you a new perspective; a new way of understanding a world you cannot change.\u201d<\/p>\n
RENEWED PERSPECTIVES<\/h5>\n
Years later, her admittance into HKU brought along two experiences that have opened up her world in unimagined ways. Joining Campus TV as a student journalist marked the beginning of her journey in filmmaking. \u201c2014 was a turbulent year for Hong Kong, but because of that I had many opportunities to see all kinds of things and people. All of a sudden I found myself in a bigger world, and that changed the way I understand things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides the exposure through filmmaking, Comparative Literature introduced Nora to unlimited ways of thinking and the possibilities of multiple interpretations. \u201cThe courses were thought-provoking and some ideas have shaped my beliefs and approach. For instance, in \u2018Ways of Reading: Film, Literature and Culture\u2019, Dr. Jason Ho introduced Barthes\u2019s concept of \u2018the death of the author\u2019. This idea really speaks to me and to this day I consider my role and \u2018intended message\u2019 as insignificant, compared to what the audience thinks about it. I don\u2019t have the authority to deliver a message; I just want to tell a particular story.\u201d<\/p>\n
What has been the most memorable, however, is not ideas from lectures or readings, but experiential learning activities. \u201cIn a course on New Cinemas, Prof. Gina Marchetti had us run an actual film festival on campus. It was 2015, when the Umbrella Revolution had just come to an end, so it was timely and sensible to have that as our theme. Our group was excited to be working on something we were interested in and good at.\u201d The event was a success, attracting a hundred students and public visitors to attend the screenings of short films. The project experience also foreshadowed her relations with films and film festivals in the following years.<\/p>\n
Through Her Lens, With Her Lens<\/h5>\n
As a filmmaker, Nora wishes that her work contains elements that the audience can relate to and find comfort in. \u201cI hope to bring to them a new way of understanding their lives; and then with a sigh of relief, let go.\u201d Within these five years of filmmaking, she has made a transition from journalism to documentaries, and from documentaries to feature films. As she develops different skill sets and brings different stories to screen, her perspective underlying these works reveals the same value and concern for particular social groups or individuals in society.<\/p>\n
When the filming young activist Leung Tin-kei (\u6881\u5929\u7426) and esteemed writer Lee Yee (\u674e\u6021), the narratives are driven by the individual\u2019s emotional life and personal experience. \u201cIn Lost in the Fumes, I could have explored issues like independence, China-HK relationship, which Tin-kei evokes and embodies. But I\u2019m less interested in that than the emotions, choice-making and disillusionment he has gone through. Similar to the RTHK series on Asian writers, I chose to focus more on Lee Yee than the abstract theories and commentaries often associated with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defying mainstream narratives and cinematic conventions is another characteristic underlying her films. As Nora described, there was almost an \u201cin-born\u201d tendency in her to overturn existing narratives dominating the market, a tendency that may have roots in her personality and Comparative Literature training. \u201cI am conscious of how the general public looks at a certain social group or issue, and the grand narrative that prevails. After knowing what the gaps are in that narrative, I want my films to fill them, returning a voice to those who should be represented in any entertainment and cultural text.\u201d In her entry for the 13th Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival\u2019s Call Girl and the Pimps (\u5168\u90e8\u90fd\u4fc2\u96de), she deliberately discarded the ways mainstream media have characterised part-time girlfriends or prostitutes.\u201c<\/p>\n
People often approach a piece of work or topic with a lot of fantasies or expectations. But there are always more layers to it, and fewer people, if not none, have worked on those. That\u2019s the way I look at things and explore a subject matter,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Comparative Literature is where I learnt to see the world” NORA LAM \u6797\u5b50\u7a4e (BA 2017) is an independent filmmaker and the co-founder of Outfocus Productions. Her documentary feature Road Not Taken(\u672a\u7adf\u4e4b\u8def) (2016) had over 20 overseas and local festival screenings. Lost in the Fumes(\u5730\u539a\u5929\u9ad8) (2017) won Special Jury Prize at the Taiwan International Documentary Festival … <\/p>\n