FILM TRILOGY - 1
ON THE MARGINS
This short documentary film is a glimpse into an ordinary day in an ordinary village in China, with whom we’ve been working with since 2015. Villagers there are a tiny grain of the country’s 295 million floating population, whose families are often in a state of dissolving. They are rural migrant workers, the real force behind China’s unprecedented urbanisation, but their stories are rarely told. The 12-minute film is to share a moment with them. Though their lives might seem far away and very different from one’s own, we hope a connection might be forged through the agency of film.
As architects who use film as a tool to tell stories, we experiment with a series of time-based spatial collages that highlight the crucial role of thresholds in conditioning an intergenerational, interdependent way of living that is somewhere between the family and the collective. We call this the architectural reconstruction of filmic space and time.
ON THE MARGINS (v.2023) has been awarded the Architecture Short Film Award at the Milano Design Film Festival︎︎︎(2024), the Best Short Film at Venice Architecture Film Festival︎︎︎(2023) and the Special Mention at Arquiteturas Film Festival︎︎︎(2023).
SCREENINGS
2023 Edition
Ripple Ripple Rippling
Architectural Association, London, UK., Oct. - Dec. 2024
Rotterdam Architecture Film Festival
Rotterdam, Netherland, Oct.2024
Milano Design Film Festival
Venice, Italy, Mar.2024
Venice Architecture Film Festival
Venice, Italy, Aug.2023
Arquiteturas Film Festival
Porto, Portugal, Jun.2023
As architects who use film as a tool to tell stories, we experiment with a series of time-based spatial collages that highlight the crucial role of thresholds in conditioning an intergenerational, interdependent way of living that is somewhere between the family and the collective. We call this the architectural reconstruction of filmic space and time.
ON THE MARGINS (v.2023) has been awarded the Architecture Short Film Award at the Milano Design Film Festival︎︎︎(2024), the Best Short Film at Venice Architecture Film Festival︎︎︎(2023) and the Special Mention at Arquiteturas Film Festival︎︎︎(2023).
SCREENINGS
2023 Edition
Ripple Ripple Rippling
Architectural Association, London, UK., Oct. - Dec. 2024
Rotterdam Architecture Film Festival
Rotterdam, Netherland, Oct.2024
Milano Design Film Festival
Venice, Italy, Mar.2024
Venice Architecture Film Festival
Venice, Italy, Aug.2023
Arquiteturas Film Festival
Porto, Portugal, Jun.2023
2021 Edition
Crisis / 3rd International Seminar Architecture and Ethnography
Santiago, Chile, Oct. 2022
St. Moritz Art Film Festival
St. Moritz, Switzerland, Aug. 2022
AvaTourismus with Mañana Bold x Atelierfrankfurt
Frankfurt, Germany, Nov.2021
Driving the Human Festival
Berlin, Germany, Oct.2021
Crisis / 3rd International Seminar Architecture and Ethnography
Santiago, Chile, Oct. 2022
St. Moritz Art Film Festival
St. Moritz, Switzerland, Aug. 2022
AvaTourismus with Mañana Bold x Atelierfrankfurt
Frankfurt, Germany, Nov.2021
Driving the Human Festival
Berlin, Germany, Oct.2021
ON THE MARGINS
Co-directed and edited by Jingru (Cyan) Cheng, Chen Zhan
Special thanks to Yizhuo Gao (2021–22) and Yunshi Zhou (2021)
for local filming support, and Laura Belinky (2021) for consultation.
Architectural Reconstruction of Filmic Space and Time
Film clips from ON THE MARGINS (2023)
Co-directed and edited by Jingru (Cyan) Cheng & Chen Zhan
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