ON THE MARGINS
Documentary, Colour HD, Chinese with Eng-subtitle, 12mins., 2023
Series: Ripple Ripple Rippling film trilogy
Co-directed and edited by Jingru (Cyan) Cheng and Chen Zhan
Special thanks to Yizhuo Gao and Yunshi Zhou for local filming support, and Laura Belinky for consultation.
This short documentary portrays everyday life in a village on the outskirts of Wuhan, China, where families are shaped by the absence of migrant workers who leave to power the country’s rapid urbanisation. Through quiet observations of thresholds—yards, gates, street corners—the film reveals how villagers inhabit spaces in-between, sustaining intergenerational bonds and collective life.
Treating film as an architectural medium, here we assemble time-based spatial collages that bring thresholds into focus—as sites where familial and collective life intertwine. This experiment, at once architectural and cinematic, is what we call the reconstruction of filmic space and time.
AWARDS
2024, Architecture Short Film Award, Milano Design Film Festival
2023, Best Short Film, Venice Architecture Film Festival
2023, Special Mention, Arquiteturas Film Festival, Porto
Ripple Ripple Rippling