Dream in Silence (2020) Xin Huang and Ye Bao

For a documentary, Dream in Silence is a surprisingly gripping film about an old Taiwanese filmmaker who won an award for a film in the 80s. He has been living a life of poverty after he moved to New York to pursue his dreams of making films. In his 70s, he is suddenly presented with an opportunity to make a film with a crew of young Chinese filmmakers.

Fang Sir, as he is respectfully called by his young friends has not been on a creative trajectory for many years and the opportunity to fulfill his dream finds him somewhat unprepared mentally and creatively. The documentary shows the process of making of the film, a remake of his old film.

I found the film charming, especially the interactions between Fang Sir and his young crew. His assistants on the film are frequently frustrated by the old man's wandering mind, lack of detail in his instructions and sometimes absence from the sets of the film. Fang Sir's idiosyncrasies are accepted by them in good humour though you can see the limits of their patience are frequently tested. Although they are quite tactful to begin with, it is clear that they don't rate Fang Sir highly and towards the end they sometimes mock him in a good humoured way.

The most poignant part of the film is toward the end. The young director assistant says that some people who never find success never know if they lack in talent or were just unlucky. Fang Sir himself says that at the best he could hope to get some job in some big studio.

The details of film production were interesting to me - the concern over continuity, the lighting and the camera focus. All this stuff made the film interesting.