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Life and Times beyond The World
The following article has been assembled from material gathered during three conversations I had with Jia, between September,2004 and August, 2005. The interviews were conducted in Chinese and I'd like to thank W'mny Zhang for transcribing the Chinese text.
ALICE SHIH: Jia, I know that your career started with shorts. Can you tell us about your first short, Xiao Shan Going Home?
JIA SHANGKE: That was inl996 when I was still at the Beijing Film Academy. About 10 of us in the class formed the "Independent Experimental Film Group". We gathered a little money, and started making very low budget shorts. At the time, our first project was Xiao Shan Going Home, which I wrote and directed. After the film was completed, a fellow classmate from Hong Kong told me that The Hong Kong Arts Centre was hosting an Independent Shorts Competition and wondered if I would be interested. I said yes and he submitted the film for me. It was selected for competition and went on to win the first prize in the narrative film category. I was then granted the opportunity to go to Hong Kong.
The real prize of my Hong Kong trip was not the golden award; it was the friendship that I found in my three long term working partners. My cinematographer Yu Lik-Wai is from Hong Kong and had just finished his studies in Belgium. He was impressed by my film and we decided to team up. Li Kit-Ming was another one. He was a producer for my three films: Xiao Wu/Pickpocket (1997), Platform (2000)and Unknown Pleasures (2002) The third one was Chow Keung who helped produce Platform ,Unknown Pleasures and The World (2004). Our Hong Kong-China team formed a strong bond. We made six films in seven years: four directed by me and two by Yu Lik-Wai. We almost had one film per year, and we complemented each others' job. When I made a film, Yu would shoot it, and Li and Chow would produce. Whereas when Yu directed, I would act as his producer. I found this an invaluable working relationship, as I got to learn what was involved in the process, and appreciate the tremendous help that they offered...