Long Yearning

China is known to many as the factory of the World, and yet we rarely see the people who work there or contemplate the nature of repetitive work carried out by these individuals. Long Yearning takes the audience up close to the workers through intimate time-lapse and slow motion portraiture.

I researched and shot the film while living and working in China over the course of three years. During my time in China I learned to speak Mandarin and gained access to several rural factories which gave me permission to film internally.

I wanted to create a film that went beyond what I was seeing. The imagery captured has been heavily affected through layering and motion blurring to create a distinctive visual style, which aims to challenge the audience to look closer at the individual factory workers.

Instead of crafting a straight documentary I felt that a more creative approach could better evoke thought and questioning from audiences. In many respects making this film was a return to my grass roots in experimental filmmaking.

The Chinese poetry featured in the film was carefully chosen and accurately translated to English. Long Yearning gives a rare insight into the inspired minds of China's ancient poets and todays factory workers carrying out industrialized work.

Director

Elliot J. Spencer

Writer

Elliot J. Spencer

Producer

Elliot J. Spencer

Original title

長相思

Project type

Documentary, Experimental

Runtime

25 minutes

Completion date

February 20, 2017

Country of origin

China

Countries of filming

China

Language

Chinese, English

Shooting format

Digital

Aspect ratio

16:9

Film color

Black & White and Color

First-time filmmaker

No

Student project

No

Digital Cinema Package

Unavailable