Embers from Yesterday, Aflame.

A transcendental meditation on withered trees struggling to be reborn. A fleeting glimpse into the seemingly trivial occurrences of daily life. A sheer ecstasy of physical intimacy viewed through celluloid films, in which the life of the emulsion is decaying: during the lockdown, film footages were “disinfected” by disinfectant, surface cleanser and hand sanitiser gel, specifically, household chemicals which were alleged to “kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses”, and which helped us prevent the spread of coronavirus. Returning images that have shapes to the shapeless, in the physical fragility of the cinematic medium, allows for the viewer’s hallucinatory perception of matter in a state of continual creation and dissolution. Through the evocation of the tension between transience and continuity, the film unfolds the dialectic of destruction and metamorphosis.

Director

William Hong-xiao Wei

Duration

10 min

Country

United Kingdom

Language

No Dialogue