"We were united by a love of cinema and a desire to show China with our own eyes": Maria Piskovatskaya told about participating in Looking China

Is it possible to make a good documentary film in 10 days in China? Students of the St. Petersburg State University of Film and Television - participants in the international project "Looking China Youth Film Project-2019" have proved by their example that it is possible! Maria Piskovatskaya told us about the filming, the ancient Chinese art of paper cutting and work in a friendly team.

If I had ever been told that I would go to China and even to shoot my documentary, I would never have believed it. But this happened. Sometimes even the craziest desires come true.

The “Looking China Youth Film Project” was held from June 2 to 18, 2019 in Rizhao, with a population of almost 3 million people. The city is located in the Chinese eastern province and its name translates as "the first rays of the sun." Here people are very calm, well-mannered and friendly. Despite the language barrier, they always tried to help me (and we managed without an interpreter).

The theme of my documentary was the ancient Chinese art of paper cutting. The Chinese hang on the windows these beautiful red clippings for all holidays or significant events in life. For example, 2019 is the year of the pig and it is imperative that at least one window in the house hangs a “red pig”. It scares away evil spirits and brings harmony to the house.

The cutting craft is gradually becoming irrelevant as there are machines that can do this for a person. But the soul is lost in these clippings ... My documentary filmed on the Looking China 2019 project is called Madam Papercut. I talked a little about my heroine Van Shuven. She lives in a tiny village an hour's drive from Rizhao. Unfortunately, since childhood, she has problems with her legs and, as she herself says, her only joy and all that she can do is cut out of paper.

Her works are presented in the national museum and all residents of Shandong province come to her for clippings of red paper. The government is also trying to actively help her. In 5 days of filming, she became my Chinese mother! We keep in touch through my translator and on the final day Wang gave me paper clippings: for a happy family life, for easy study and good luck.

Despite the fact that only 10 days are allocated for shooting and editing, I think that this is quite enough. On the first day, we arrived at the "intelligence service" to get to know the heroine and explore the location and without wasting time, we immediately started shooting.

I brought most of the equipment with me from Russia. Still, it’s more convenient to work on habitual equipment, but something that was missing was given to me: a light, a tripod and a stabilizer. In my head, I immediately sketched the script and distributed the next days of filming, not forgetting to look at the weather forecast (and it turned out to be very changeable). The most difficult stage for me was the video editing. Inspiration came only on the third day. But the advice of guys from other countries and our supervisor really helped. Speaking of them. In total, the project had ten guys from different countries: Russia, Brazil, India and the countries of South Africa. We were all united by a love of cinema and a desire to show China with our own eyes. Indeed, this is the meaning of the project. China is a huge country, it has so many different arts and wonderful people. It is imperative to show this to the world.

We were a great team with my producer Jan and translator Crystal, we were able to achieve complete mutual understanding and at the end understood each other perfectly. I also want to express huge words of gratitude to our master on the project Arun Gupta. He could always cheer up and give practical advice.

Now 3 months have already passed since the end of the trip to China, and I want to say that this was the best student adventure that happened to me. New culture, new acquaintances, shooting on the other side of the globe - I will never forget Looking China. And my biggest dream will be to return there again.

Maria Piskovatskaya,
Faculty of Television, Design and Photography, 4th year, group 1654,  Film and television directing