ARTICLE

Remembering Forever - By Joanna Dong

By InCinemas / 11 Feb 2011 (Friday)

“Forever” is a profound word. For someone who aspires to live in the moment, “forever” is a staggering magnitude of innumerable moments yet to happen. For someone who is notoriously forgetful (I don’t remember what I did last summer), it is almost ludicrous for me to speak of “forever” when “now” is already too much for me to cope with! Yet ironic as it might be, my First, was also to be my Forever.

Retrospectively, it could not have been a more appropriate title for my first film encounter. The stage, be it for live singing or Theatre, is my domain of familiarity. There, the presence of the audience is palpable, and their every response is part of the performance taking place. Whatever happens on stage is transient, and that is its greatest charm. But there is a reason why Film has become the popular and pervasive medium it is today. It allows us to capture a transient moment of beauty, and make it permanent for posterity. It also satisfies a very human longing to leave traces of ourselves, to triumph over our mortality.

The making of any film is a monumental undertaking: from conception to completion, the process of converting fleeting to forever is akin to the building of the pyramids (okay maybe not, but you get the idea!) . I started my journey to Forever in November 2009, and in a few more weeks after almost a year from when I completed my performance I will finally “face” my audience whilst sitting amongst them. Surreal!

What I’m feeling now is a strange cocktail of ambivalence. I feel somewhat detached because it’s been so long since I completed my contribution to the film, and yet there’s a great sense of ownership too (it is my face on the poster afterall!). I feel so much pride at having been part of something so special, at the same time, the process has truly humbled me – like I said to our director Li Lin, I’ve come to realise that every movie made is a miracle. A mind- blowing amount of effort and passion is required from so many people with such diversity of skills before an idea makes it to the big screen.

Maybe not every person who steps into the cinema senses this, but for every person who has been a part of making a film, “movie magic” is more than just a metaphor.

Joanna Dong

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Remembering Forever - By Joanna Dong