Us and the Night
2024, 67 minutes, 1:33, colour, sound
A film by Audrey Lam
with Umi Ishihara and Xiao Deng
Night after night, two travellers cross paths at a university library. The library's symmetry, rhythms and recurrences form a fantastic geography for their stories and adventures.
Director’s note
I liked thinking about how a new language can be an invitation and a game; how reading steps us into the familiar and the unknown; and how libraries can be like fantastic, exhilarating adventures to the sea, into the universe, to anywhere else. Stories and accounts are part of what the film is about. I hope the viewer -- a reader, of sorts -- will find other things too.
Production note
I filmed and edited the film myself over the years. Xiao is a jeweller who has been in my short films before and Umi is a filmmaker too; neither are actors. I started filming them at the library ten years ago and returned to keep filming the library over the years. It's a place I used to work at twenty years ago. The time spent and the time passing became part of the film.
Screenings
2024
May Prismatic Ground
June Festival ECRÃ
August Melbourne International Film Festival
September MOV - Festival Internacional de Cinema Universitário
September Asian Film Archive
October Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
November Adelaide Film Festival, Houston Cinema Arts Festival