The Lonely Age, 2019. Single-channel HD video with sound, 11 min 47 sec. Photography by Ben Elie and Connie Zheng.
The Lonely Age is the first chapter in a trilogy of short, meta-fictional experimental films about the complex temporalities of navigating ongoing disaster, divergent articulations of hope amidst ecological crisis, and informal myth-making, as seen through the lens of seeds real and imagined. It is set in a highly toxic and ecologically ravaged near future, in which people begin to hear rumors of seeds that have washed up on the shores of California after escaping from a factory in China.
The seeds are rumored to possess curative properties, but they are also said to be sentient. The film toys with the languages of propaganda, dystopian cinema, documentary, and avant-garde film, while examining divergent articulations of hope amidst environmental disaster. I am interested in using this work to ask questions such as: How can image-makers mobilize the romantic qualities of the apocalyptic narrative in order to inspire climate action? What possibilities exist for humans to engage in cooperative, non-hierarchical behavior, given our conditioning under capitalism? And how do we negotiate the terms of our survival in a way that respects the agency of all living beings while also acknowledging the oppressive structures of colonialism, racism and xenophobia that have historically shaped our relationship to the “Other”?
I give my performers collaborative, improvisational games to play, and at its core, The Lonely Age is a meta-fictional film whose tension emerges from rumors of hope. Are the seeds real? Are they actually radioactive waste from China? In a sense, it doesn’t matter — the film is more about the power of belief and underlying ideologies that underpin our hoping and dreaming. None of the people providing the voiceovers actually believe that there are magical seeds that can cure all of our sicknesses, but they are using the tale of the seeds as a way to express their own hope or cynicism.
The Lonely Age has screened at venues such as Asian Art Museum (San Francisco, US), Singapore Art Week, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley, US), SALT (Istanbul, Turkey), IMPAKT Festival (Utrecht, Netherlands), and has been acquired for the KADIST collection and Kadist Video Library.
Credits
Director: Connie Zheng
Assistant director: Sharon Shao
Original story: Connie Zheng
Producer: Connie Zheng
Photography: Ben Elie, Connie Zheng
Editing: Connie Zheng
Effects and animation: Connie Zheng
Costuming & Props: Connie Zheng
Original score: Perfect Geisha
Sound mixing: Evan Karp
Performers:
Sharon Shao, Ben Elie, Indigo Jackson, Jane Eisner, Daniel Etler, Emily Algire, Craig Ostrin
Voices:
Mallika Nair, Evan Karp, Diana Geman-Wollach, Amelia Mathews-Pett, Amanda Nudelman, Brendan Milos, Kevin Bernard Moultrie Daye, Brenda (Bz) Zhang, Julia Kerley, Jessie Wesley