5 Questions with Audrey Lam
Audrey Lam is a filmmaker.
Her short films have been screened widely at film festivals and museums locally and internationally. She has co-curated several film programs with Keegan O’Connor.
Us and the Night is her first feature film.
No.1
Having made many short films through the years, Us and the Night is your debut feature film. Can you talk about the process of going from the nucleus of an idea to actually making it? How long did it take and how did the shape of the film evolve over time?
I’m always surprised when I think of something for a film; it feels like a rare gift. But when it comes, it’s true that it’s been there for a long time, waiting for me. I first started working at a local library when I was 14 years old. I went to that same library weekly, sometimes daily, with my two sisters for a long time before that. So the library, as somewhere to be, has been with me for a while. But it takes more than an idea to make a film. The shape of the film is the hardest part about making films—it takes me a long time (but less long than the idea, at least) and it is the richest, most tormenting thing.
No.2
What are the parts of filmmaking that are most invigorating to you, and what are the parts that you dislike the most?
See above! And not quite (or not only) a dislike, but an important problem: money.
No.3
How do you negotiate creative control when you’re working with other artists on a film?
For Us and the Night, [cast members] Umi [Ishihara] and Xiao [Deng] gave me the gift of trust and let me do whatever I wanted. I hope that I never take that kind of freedom for granted. I’ve only collaborated with a few other artists on projects—it’s been a while but from memory—[and] it was quite fun and rewarding. Maybe if I did this more often, or more recently, it would be harder.
[Not long ago] I was a cinematographer for another artist, Sancintya Simpson, for a project of hers shot on 16mm film. That really was fun, an adventure practically (travel and fire were involved) and creatively different—concentrating on the filming side of it all, understanding what she was looking for and trying to get there. Sancintya was generous and specific, which helped.
No.4
In your body of work to date, it feels as if there’s a sense of being at a remove, and sometimes of isolation and the search for connection. Us and the Night seems to carry this undercurrent also. Can you speak more to this?
It’s hard to think about your own films and see those things, but just reading that, I immediately thought about how some of the writers, artists and filmmakers I love have something of that in their work: Elizabeth Bishop and Italo Calvino, Mark Rothko and Francesca Woodman, Tsai Ming-liang and Joanna Hogg.
No.5
Your previous short films range from 3 to 17 minutes, with Us and the Night being just slightly over an hour. What does the duration of a work mean to you and how does it play into your creative process? What advice would you share with someone who wants to make a film but isn’t sure how to get started?
I like that a film—maybe like music—takes a certain amount of time and that’s it, as decided by the filmmaker or musician [and] not the viewer/listener, unless you tune out, of course. (This is different from how long you spend with a painting, photograph or sculpture.) I do think a lot about how I want the film to feel, how it moves, and how long it is sits alongside all that. So I would say that the duration of a film means quite a bit to me.
On getting started: I think just start, there are so many beginnings to making a film (and other things). I don’t mean that to be mysterious. I tend to have so many false starts and then sometimes I realise I'm already quite deep in it so I might as well keep going. I don’t know if this process really works though. Maybe there is a better way. It’s hard to know what actually works. I’m sure it’s different for everyone.
(Audrey Lam and Umi Ishihara)
Find out more
Ten years in the making and shot on 16mm film, Us and the Night is an ode to the joy and mystery of books and language, travels and encounters. The film follows two travellers crossing paths at a university library: Umi (Umi Ishihara) is library cleaner, while Xiao (Xiao Deng) works as a night shelver. Like ships passing in the night, the library—with its symmetry, rhythms and recurrences—form a fantastic geography for their stories and adventures.
Expanding on the mystique of her acclaimed short films Faraways (MIFF 2013), Magic Miles (MIFF 2014) and A River Twice (MIFF 2017), this is a beguiling debut feature that is an entirely unique take on what an Australian film can be.
Audrey is one of four Australian filmmakers nominated for the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award, which recognises an outstanding Australian creative within a film playing in the MIFF program.
Us and the Night will be showing at the Melbourne International Film Festival on 12 Aug, 18 Aug and 25 Aug. More info and tickets here.