you live on

In a series of images, sounds, and scenes, a performer recounts and reconstructs the memories of their grandfather in a powerful and moving statement about grief and unfaltering love.

  • Victoria Elen Drave
    Director
    Decay, As You Are
  • Victoria Elen Drave
    Writer
    Decay, As You Are
  • Victoria Elen Drave
    Producer
    Decay, As You Are
  • Victoria Elen Drave
    Key Cast
    "Self"
    Decay, As You Are
  • Ethan Blanc
    Assistant Camera
    The Pendle Witch
  • Paula Gal
    Assistant Camera
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    公公，再見
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Student
  • Genres:
    Experimental, Autobiographical, Biopic, Student, Short
  • Runtime:
    23 minutes 13 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 9, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    30 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    Hong Kong, United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English, Yue Chinese (Cantonese)
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Lancaster University
Director Biography - Victoria Elen Drave

Victoria Elen Drave Leung is a Hong Kong and UK-based filmmaker and theatremaker, who creates and pushes the limits of storytelling through experimental means. As a filmmaker and theatremaker, their practice inevitably consolidates theories and inspirations from both mediums. Their art is human, messy, tender, rhythmic, and fragmented.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

In Chinese culture, “family” is one of the building blocks of society. I loved my grandfather dearly, and spent a considerable amount of time with my grandparents in my childhood and through my teenage years. When I began to lose my memory, those moments with my grandfather became even more important to cherish: the three sugars he would have in his coffee, the way he would read his newspaper while squatting on the ground.

He became fragmented, characterised by these objects and moments that weren’t fully complete or temporally accurate. Once my family emigrated to the UK, this effect was exasperated by the distance, and his passing in January of 2021. These moments meshed together, pulled apart, and through the medium of experimental filmmaking, I was able to process my grief and recreate memories through the lens of a psychoanalytic and formalist approach. All of us will experience grief, and no doubt in many different ways. People often say grief does not get easier, just that we deal with it better.
I hope you can resonate with my film.