• What is the name of your film? What is it about?

Outpicker, the queer environmental short doco, which is about a Chinese queer woman, litter-picking around Victoria as a way to connect with the Australian landscape and other like-minded community members, finding sense of belonging here.

• What was the most challenging thing that you shot for your film?

It’s a simple story and we had two 3 blocks of shooting. We followed the character Jing’s litter picking with the community in You Yang, and shot Jing’s litter picking in Ricketts Point and then the sit down interview indoor. Now looking back, the most challenging thing is like crafting the story, because for me, the most important stage of making a documentary is in post production, once I have all the footage, I have to jump out of the pre assumed structure and rethink what we can do to tell the story. Also, shooting in outdoor space sometimes might also be challenging. I quite like shooting “EXT.” which stands for outdoor scenes, since I really love the landscape and people’s connection to the environment. Shooting outdoor sometimes can be really temperamental. 

• Is this your first film? Where might have people seen your work before?

This is not my first film, but the first short doco. My first Melbourne production is a short narrative, also a queer story. I submitted films to film festivals and sometimes festivals would help me to distribute to streaming / upload online. Anyways, just go film festivals.

• What was the inspiration for your film?

I’m interested in people’s connection to the environment. Specifically, I always explore themes like queer lived experiences, disporic community, femininity and womanhood, landscape and nature. I wonder how the space and place shape or form queer people’s life and identity. For Outpicker, the idea is expressed very explicitly in the film – queer women litter-picking as a way to find the sense of belonging in the Australian landscape. A queer women community is doing it every month, why don’t I just tell the story? I have a new film in post production, it’s called Seasons Along Rivers, it’s a queer narrative about two women’s  love story in Mildura, flowing with the Murray River and Darling River. I like reflecting on the environment, nature and landscape to explore people’s identity and destiny. The Australian environment, nature and landscape inspire me a lot. And of course, lived experience does that too, as a queer filmmaker from another cultural background.

• Do you have any tips for aspiring filmmakers?

I think I’m still knocking on the door of established filmmaking 🙂 But if I could, I just wanna say it to my fellow indie filmmakers, just keep writing. Independent filmmaking could be often financially draining. Just keep writing, once the opportunity is here, you’ll have a good script to show people. Also, keep rolling no matter what kind of equipment you have. In Outpicker, I have some DV footage from when I was litter-picking two years ago. Back then I never thought I would use those footage for the film, but I did and it shows a different aesthetic and it worked well.