Video — Vhils debris, Macau 2017
I think the best way to tell a story is to speak of something intrinsic to you. The more you know about the subject you are dealing with, the deeper people will connect with the film, by seeing their own reflections in it. This short film blurs the line between documentary and fiction, since it is based on a true story, from my own grandparents, but it could be anybody’s story — in this case, a woman in Macau. The universality of storytelling is what pushes me to insert this tiny narratives on a much broader subject that me and Vhils have been tackling. And that is, generally speaking, the pace at which the world is moving today. It has sped up dramatically from 20 years back. And while that has brought us infinite positive things and progress, it also created new questions and paradigms. Is the world still a big place? We take 3 hours to drive 300kms, but we can send a photograph to the other side of the world in one second. Are distances getting smaller? Is the world shrinking? Are the gaps between us getting smaller? Or are we drifting apart? We’re constantly texting, talking, posting about everything and anything, but are we really communicating most of the times? And maybe more importantly — is anybody really listening?
As a curiosity, the only super 8 shot that is used in this film portraying a woman and her baby (a big friend of mine) is actual footage from Macau in late 1970s. Domingos Silva, his father, was always documenting their life in Macau and he kindly sent me a pack of old videos and it was with absolute pleasure that I made a small homage to his family and any other family who has lived there in the past.
