GHOSTS IN YOU

Rafael A. López’s approach to filmmaking aims to interrogate the relationship between fiction and realism, by crafting environments where the camera becomes an omniscient observer of reality; therefore letting go of the idea of performance. For López, the micro lens of human experiences becomes an open door to exploring the complexity of flawed political systems and the duality of the human condition. Being raised between two countries, establishing a sense of belonging has proven difficult for López. When the political situation in Venezuela became too unstable, López had the privilege to call Switzerland "home" yet without it ever truly feeling like such. As a result, the concepts of belonging, identity and grief in their many forms, inspire López’s work. Ultimately, they makes sense of their privileges as an opportunity to redefine the visual language of cinema.
With a history of political propaganda, filmmaking is still used today as a societal element to influence one’s perception of the human experience –romanticizing violence and pernicious power dynamics– through not only story but lighting, camera angles, and framing. As a queer non-binary filmmaker and heavily influenced by Nina Menkes' mentoring, López strives to combat the pre-established patriarchal norms of mainstream visual language by exploring new ways to address difficult conversations while centering humanity over entertainment.

In GHOSTS IN YOU, López's creative approach was more instinctive and organic all the while being guided by the recent loss of a parent. Meanwhile, Wu and Lopez kept to themselves their own connection to grief throughout the creative process –as a means to focus on the feeling rather than the cause. This opened the door to new ideas, emotions, and egoless free-flowing collaboration.

Hanna Tzong-Han Wu sees the works she makes as opportunities to connect to the world and the people in it through the language of dance; as a first-generation immigrant, Wu's surroundings and the people in it become the only things promised that do not remain. And parting becomes a part of her life. In GHOSTS IN YOU, Wu is dedicated to talking about something universal that everyone must go through: the heartbroken, the comes and goes, the fallacy of permanency. It’s raceless, genderless, divideless. It's human. Wu strives to understand such unalterable human nature, with more research on elegy in depth, exploring the invisible pain, expanding beyond the concept of grief in reality. Inspired by multiple poems and metaphors, this project speaks to its audience through its multiple forms, including in the form of film. In collaboration with artists who share similar vision and belief, Wu and collaborators physicalize the experiences in an effort to truly cope, heal, let go, and ultimately mourn over the natures of life.