The Projectionist (part I)
2018
HD color video
12 min
The Projectionist takes as its departure point the mysterious figure of Marcel Forhan, also known by his pseudonym ‘Yram’. An engineer, Forhan was sent to Shanghai in the early 20th century, to install radio antennae and a tram network in the Chinese city’s French Concession. On first testing out his new tramcars, Forhan experienced what he understood as an episode of out of body travel. Shot on location in Shanghai’s Chedun Film Park –a vast series of film sets, which includes a scale replica of old areas of the French Concession, The Projectionist might be understood as a meditation on a city and its cinematic double, which takes in histories of colonialism and modernity, as well as China’s current global ascent.
