CARGO and Short Interview with Laura Waddington

By Ki Wong

This article was originally published in a mixture of Chinese and English, with Ki Wong’s text in Chinese, and Laura Waddington’s answer to the unprinted questions that he posed in English.

CARGO (25 mins, 2001, Digibeta)

巨輪上都是羅馬尼亞籍及菲律賓船員，就只有她一個女孩子，目的地是中東。在船上的六個星期，縱使船停泊在途徑的碼頭，船員都不被允許下船，他們唯有玩玩牌，唱唱歌或說說故事來打發時間，生活顯得乏味困局。有些時候她偷偷拍下了船員的生活情況：一個在碼頭偷木的男人/水手下船到廢置的碼頭釣魚/乞求船長載他回國的人…全片影像模模糊糊，將錄影減速或定格，富有詩意地描述整個旅程，女孩從頭到尾都旁述著她的心情及所見所聽的故事，使觀眾游走在現實和內在世界。片段中船員不隱定及被遺忘似的生活狀態，使人渴望那踏在地上的安隱日子。一直以為出海是自由的她，被一件件巨大的貨櫃箱包圍時，察覺到原來什麼地方也不曾到過，這是一個沒有目的地的旅程。

從女孩的眼睛看去，是一群動盪環境中過著平穩生活的人們。畫面搖晃，鏡頭緩慢移動，攝影特效模糊了活動節奏，影像拖著長長的尾巴，似斷未斷的難以確定是快是慢。穩定淡然，再刺激的場面都微不足道；偷竊的鬼祟跟釣魚的悠閒無異，載歌載舞僅是鏡頭的留影。從船員的生活讀到的是導演的納悶，畫面內的似是配角、主角執著攝錄機，藏在螢幕後。

^LW For the last few years, I have been filming with a small DV camera. I love the freedom that this camera gives me to work alone. In my films, I am trying just to look at the world in a simple way. When I am shooting, I film instinctively, going towards the things that touch me without thinking too much about what the final form of the film will be. The people I film are often living in a situation on the edge of things – the sailors on a cargo ship in Cargo or the Iraqi and Afghan refugees secretly crossing Europe, whom I am presently filming for my film Border. During the shoot, I live in a nomadic way often not knowing in which country I will be the next week or what I will find. Often, I build up very intense bonds with people who I will probably never see again. I think it is a huge privilege to make films in this way. I feel I get to meet so many people and discover the world from a different point of view. I do not think much about the length of the film I am making. Cargo was a short film and Border will probably be long. I believe each film has its own length and that you cannot impose a length on it. The advantage of making short films is that since they cost less, producers are more open to experimentation. When I go to short film festivals, I am often amazed by the large variety of films from so many different places.

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