Theatre director Ho Lee Ching is beginning off the 12 months with an experimental film work Dead Water that examines the disconnect between the thoughts, physique, and the exterior world.
“The way I would describe it is the state of consciousness where you’re alive but you feel quite the opposite. You feel foggy, numb, and disconnected from the world,” says Ching, as she’s recognized within the arts scene.
“Sometimes you can feel like you’re not real or everything is a dream. You may also have a distorted sense of memory and time,” she continues.
The 50-minute (pre-recorded) efficiency, filmed outside at the garden of the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac), shall be screened at the Indicine, KLPac on Jan 15 and 16. It may even be streamed through CloudTheatre from Jan 20-23.
The story channels the facility of rituals for its primal vitality, with a solid of dirt-covered performers, monstrous creatures, and a commune round a camp hearth. Dead Water, offered by Hermana Collective, is a collaborative effort involving dancers, theatre artists, musicians, and videographers.
It options Chloe Tan, stage actor/director Tung Jit Yang and Ching whereas Rezza Coebar Abel and Ian Francis Khoo (of experimental arts/music outfit Francoe) present the ambient soundscapes.
This theatre film discover the juxtaposition between the stagnation and lack of lifetime of the human’s “dead water” situation in opposition to the ever-changing, fluidity of nature. Photo: Ravin P
Ching and Tan, who kind Hermana Collective, started sharing their psychological well being struggles with each other in 2019.
“On one of the days, Chloe said she felt like dead water. There was an immediate excitement about those two words – dead water, and how much it can mean. That was how it all began,” remembers Ching.
Ching is not any stranger to shedding gentle on psychological well being points by way of the humanities. In 2018, she staged her debut directorial present at KLPac known as OCD which explored the experiences of these with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and in 2019, she produced a bodily theatre present about neurodiversity known as In/Out.
Last 12 months, she organised Commune For Arts, a free digital programme to assist folks take care of the pandemic and handle their psychological well being.
Grief is one other theme surfaces in Dead Water.
“I think it is probably because grief is the bridge to what is lost between the past, present, and future. When we dissociate, time is not linear. We grieve for that loss of linearity, loss of feelings, and loss of grounding and stability,” says Ching.
Ching (proper) is not any stranger to shedding gentle on psychological well being points by way of the humanities. Photo: Ravin P
Originally, Dead Water was to be offered on-site at KLPac. However, due to the pandemic scenario, Ching selected the filmic route. Online rehearsals started in the midst of final 12 months, and the staff reconvened in October for in-person rehearsals.
“Coming up with the narrative was a back and forth thing where we performers came up with something and gave the freedom to the musicians to interpret it and come up with their own thing.
“Ravin, our videographer, joined us more in October. He would also come up with ideas and suggest different angles and ways of shooting specific scenes. It was fun to have such input,” says Ching.
The staff spent two weeks filming Dead Water.
She reveals that Dead Water can be particularly related and relatable to audiences because the pandemic pressured many to “sit with a lot of heavy emotions, mainly grief, and feeling stuck and hopeless.”
“Feeling stuck does not just mean feeling stuck in our homes, but more of feeling stuck in our circumstances. I think it’s pretty much a piece that also says, the only way out of this is through it,” concludes Ching.
Dead Water is supported by the Cultural Economy Development Agency (Cendana), MyCreative Ventures and PENJANA.
