DOC NYC 2016 Women Directors: Meet Zhao Qing— “Please Remember Me”
Zhao Qing began her career at Shanghai Media Group in 1991, where she directed and produced television documentaries. Qing’s filmography includes “A Water Town — Zhou Zhuang,” “Graduation,” “A Woman’s Secret,” “For the Future,” “The Half Century Hometown,” and “Return to the Ancestor’s Land.” “Return to the Ancestor’s Land” won the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union Prize in 1998. Qing’s first independent film, “Please Remember Me,” has toured internationally and won awards from CNEX Chinese Doc Forum and Asian Side of the Doc. Currently, Qing is producing her second independent film, “Entry to Utopia.”
“Please Remember Me” will premiere at the 2016 DOC NYC film festival on November 13.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
ZQ: An old Chinese saying goes, “Hold his hand to grow old.” Our film profiles an old Shanghainese couple: 88-year-old Feng and 87-year-old Lou. Because of Feng’s first marriage, Lou waited for more than 10 years before they got married. When the two were hand-in-hand, ready to spend the last days of their lives together, Lou was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
As her caretaker for the past 10 years, Feng did everything he could to keep an elegant and dignified life for them both. Almost half of a century’s companionship transcends love and romance to a relationship of inseparable intimacy and bonded responsibilities.
This is a film about memory, love, and dignity.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
ZQ: Feng and Lou are my great uncle and great aunt-in-law. Every time during our family gatherings, I see such loving dynamics between them. Their spirit deeply inspires everyone in our family.
Feng was born in the 1920s and was brought up deeply influenced by Confucianism. He learned benevolence and morality, mostly through reading poems and writing calligraphy during his childhood. After going through all the wars, political turmoil, and the loss from his first marriage, Feng and Lou finally built a family in 1970. After a life of ordeals, they still try to [face] every challenge together with dignity and elegance.
There are more than nine million Alzheimer’s patients in China today, while caretakers are in serious shortage, which affects the quality of life for those families. This is also a story about the serious social issue of the left-behind elderly in China, whose children live separately from them due to the fast economic development and urbanization. For many elderly, it’s a luxury to desire emotional or intellectual care.
I saw the story of Feng and Lou as a great inspiration to millions of families with dementia patients in China, and [as a lesson on] how we can all help create an environment to build better emotional and intellectual care for these families.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
ZQ: “Please Remember Me” [challenges] almost everyone in the world to rethink about how to grow old and how to live in the present with happiness and dignity.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
ZQ: I think the biggest challenge for me was handling my relationship with the couple as a director, and as their family. I often challenged myself to keep my cool when filming their life, which was often difficult to watch behind the camera, especially when they faced helpless situations.
I constantly debated about putting away my camera to help them instead. But in the end I realized that they saw the camera as a tool that reconnected them to their vulnerabilities, and I considered the camera a tool that showed my respect. Our relationship deepened in the end, because of the camera.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
ZQ: We pitched the film at several international forums including Asian Side of the Doc, CNEX Chinese Doc Forum, and Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum and received great attention and feedback in the early stages of the film.
These events helped us receive funding from Sundance, IDFA, and BRITDOC.
W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at DOC NYC?
ZQ: DOC NYC is one of the biggest documentary festivals in the U.S. We are honored to show the film there, and especially to have another chance to meet more international documentary filmmakers after IDFA.
It’s a great recognition for our team.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
ZQ: One piece of advice to other female directors is to trust your female instinct when portraying such intimate subjects. We have the great advantage of portraying subtlety and tenderness in our cinematography. But in a male-dominated film world, I was challenged during pitch forums [to make] the film more issue-oriented and explicit.
Luckily, I have a great team of all female filmmakers. They gave me so much trust and confidence in expressing my own voice. Our team includes my Emmy-winning producer Violet Du Feng, who is also my cousin, Jean Tsien, and Ruby Yang, who are among the most respected Asian filmmakers in the world. I think the right collaborators really helped me get my female voice out.
