Born in Hamilton, Canada, the artist and filmmaker Lesley Loksi Chan addresses questions of invisibility, believability and resistibility in her work. Shaped by the histories of anthropology and cinema, her films explore how material culture and image culture affect the particular ways we think, remember and live together. Using experimental, handmade and process-based filmmaking, she creates moving images as mementos.
What was your starting point for „Lloyd Wong, Unfinished“?
About five years ago, I received an email from video artist John Greyson saying they had found the original “lost” footage that Lloyd Wong was shooting for his TV episode of Toronto Living With AIDS in the early 1990’s, but tragically died before completing it. He asked if I would be interested in working on a restoration of it. I did not know who Lloyd Wong was. I said yes.
Lloyd Wong’s raw footage is full of traces. My approach has been restorative, but not in the conventional sense. I haven’t tried to preserve it or to improve it or to fix it. The unprocessed sound and image of the tapes hold their own truths.
I now understand the footage to be a kind of queer inheritance and this film to be an ongoing collaboration between the spirit of Lloyd Wong and myself, as well as a collective effort involving a community of artists, mentors, and friends of Lloyd who shared their memories. I guess I’ve tried to witness and listen to the incompleteness.
Do you have a favorite moment in the film? Which one and why this one in particular?
Most of the footage was shot by a videographer/cinematographer — though I still haven’t figured out who that is yet. But there is a fleeting moment in the film where we see a tremulous POV shot in Super8 moving across a ceiling fan, an infusion machine, IV fluid bags, blurry flowers and back to the ceiling fan again. I believe this was shot by Lloyd himself while laying in the hospital bed. Maybe this moment moves me because there is both weakness and strength in his shot, which is to say, there is a feeling of determination.
What do you like about the short form?
The short form knows how to hold secrets.
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INTERVIEWS
radio interview with Lesley Loksi Chan and Knut Elstermann for rbb radioeins
PRESS REVIEWS
„Mit großer Offenheit zeigt Lesley Loksi Chan die Selbstermächtigung eines Filmemachers, der sich nicht einfach in sein Schicksal fügt, und verwandelt sie mit großer Empathie in eine ganz besondere Hommage“
review by Marie Ketzscher for Berliner Filmfestivals
„And just like that, twenty minutes ago I didn’t know that Lloyd had existed, but now I’m devastated by his loss – because we could really use Lloyd right now – and his was just one extinguished light from a battle where so so many beautiful, sparkling, unique and amazing lights burned out.“
review by Jess Sweetman on Substack.com
„Die Kanadierin Lesley Loksi Chan greift hingegen die verschollene und im Queer ArQuives wiederentdeckte Arbeit des im Toronto der 1990er Jahre lebenden Künstlers Lloyd Wong auf. Er dokumentierte sein Leben mit Aids, starb jedoch vor der Fertigstellung des Films. Das Unvollendete steht in Lloyd Wong, Unfinished im Vordergrund. Filmemacherin Lesley Loksi Chan kombiniert das Rohmaterial mit ihren eigenen Notizen und tritt dadurch mit Leerstellen in Dialog, wobei sie auch die Zuschauer*innen mit einbezieht. Lloyd Wongs Material selbst ist ein zutiefst persönliches Zeugnis eines asiatisch-kanadischen schwulen Manns mit Aids sowie ein Akt der Selbstrepräsentation.“
review by Peter Bratenstein for zeitgeschichte online
„Der Gewinner des Goldenen Bären für Kurzfilm, Lloyd Wong, Unfinished von Lesley Loksi Chan, stützt sich auf Videoaufnahmen, die der an AIDS erkrankte chinesisch-kanadische Künstler Lloyd Wong im Toronto der 80er/90er Jahre selbst vor seinem Tod gedreht hat.“
mention by Isabel Roy & Verena Nees for World Socialist Web Site
„„Lloyd Wong, Unfinished“ von Lesley Loksi Chan war bester Kurzfilm.“
mention by blickpunkt:film
mention by Variety
reactions on letterboxd
Berlinale Shorts 