Shuang Yu
Filmmaking and Fieldwork Archives
History and Memory
Local Screening Practice
Introduction: In Huangbotan Village, I screened the daily life footage and oral history interviews I filmed locally, hoping to create a new public space through film, activate historical memories, and allow family members and neighbors who have lived together for decades to see each other in a different way.
Old Mei in Huangpotan Village (2021)
104 minute, documentary
filmed and edited by Shuang Yu
with support of Caochangdi Workstation, Duke University Library, White Rabbit Contemporary Art Collection
Synopsis: The film builds a new possibility for understanding history through the life stories of over 20 elderly women from Huangbotan Village in Zhejiang. They sit in front of the screen, recounting memories from their childhood, marital lives, political movements, and even supernatural events... In the fragmented narratives, the concepts of historical periods and events are difficult to recognize, leaving only emotions—fear, regret, joy, confusion, and humility—that allow the listener to piece together the everyday lives and fates of these elderly women. Like every corner of China, this small village has been turned over by nearly a century of wars, climate changes, and political movements, while anonymous individuals are surviving.
《黄婆滩的老妹妹》（节选）
Director's Statement: In our village, among women, the older ones call the younger ones “mei” (little girl/little sister). It’s quite fascinating that 94-year-old He Lefen calls 24-year-old Shuang Yu “mei,” and also calls 84-year-old Wang Cuijuan “mei.” At the end of 2019, I returned to the village to conduct oral history interviews. Through sharing daily life with these elderly women who called me “mei,” I gradually realized that they themselves, too, are “meis"—they are little sisters who have recently grown old, possibly even surprising themselves. Wang Cuijuan sighs, “Oh my, how did I get so old while living my life?” This epiphany gave me a way into the village, not to study history as knowledge, but to learn from the lived experiences of these “little sisters" who aged earlier than I did. This film is my study notebook from the first year of my return to the village. Because the lived reality is difficult to capture with abstract concepts, I’ve attempted to present it through film as a carrier.
Pee Joo Joo (2020)
5 minute, experimental short
by Shuang Yu
Synopsis: When I was thinking about how to understand "the pain of others," a childhood memory floated back to my mind.
Stone (2020)
3 minute, experimental short
by Shuang Yu
Synopsis: A re-creation of a friend's sketch "The Shape of Memory," in which a person drowned in the overflow of memories.
"Woman and Bodhisattva" (2016)
20 minute, documentary
filmed and edited by Shuang Yu
Synopsis: A group of women built a temple for a statue that they managed to preserve from the Cultural Revolution. Their religious rituals echo historical documents from late imperial China, while the income of these rituals pushes them to purchase more and more statues and build new temples. Religious affirmation was expressed through aspirations for tourism success.
