It’s a journey that’s made through the commanding editing work of a director with a master’s hand. Here, the journey takes us from the ore that is used in the component parts of our technology to what the technology itself then provides us with, in all its splendour of light.
Wang Yuyan had already explored the rhythmic possibilities of supercut editing with the terrifying hands that made up The Devil In The Details. In her following film, One Thousand and One Attempts to Be an Ocean, she elevated the art of the raccord to a mantra of undulations that crossed the history of moving images (from scientific films to viral videos). Now, in Look On the Bright Side, the director ups the ante by confronting – head on – the very subject of cinema: light. But since the nature of her work is to critically question technology, the light that interests the director is that produced by human beings. From fire to LED lights, Yuyan takes us on an ironic-transcendental experience that traverses electronics’ mineral cycle (from the extraction of gold for processing circuits, through the production of these systems – and the working conditions of the labourers – culminating in the devices that enable the capture, reproduction and digital circulation of light – in other words, that enable the very existence of the film, made from images collected from the internet. (Ricardo Vieira Lisboa)