In Its Infancy
a feature filim plan
A creatively stifled female artist crosses path with a provincial girl who’s trying to self liberate.
A story unfolds with ten months of surrogacy and two adventures.
Synopsis
When her films get aborted one after another, artist Aphra (32) feels as if her ‘creative genius’ has left her. She falls into a stasis. Meanwhile, fueled by her health condition, she’s forced to come to a decision soon on if she plans to have children.
In a lifeless town far from Aphra’s city, Lotus (19) sees no end to her being stuck at the foot of her grandma’s sickbed. Just as she’s about to be married off to a stranger, she rebels by becoming the surrogate mother for Aphra’s child.
As a part of their contract, Lotus has to read selected literature to the fetus in her body every day, listen to Aphra’s music playlist, and watch Aphra’s favorite arthouse films. In this process, her relationship to her surroundings begin to shift. The baby journal Lotus has to keep becomes the ground to transform her reality.
Aphra’s ‘creative genius’ seems to have taken on another host...
In a lifeless town far from Aphra’s city, Lotus (19) sees no end to her being stuck at the foot of her grandma’s sickbed. Just as she’s about to be married off to a stranger, she rebels by becoming the surrogate mother for Aphra’s child.
As a part of their contract, Lotus has to read selected literature to the fetus in her body every day, listen to Aphra’s music playlist, and watch Aphra’s favorite arthouse films. In this process, her relationship to her surroundings begin to shift. The baby journal Lotus has to keep becomes the ground to transform her reality.
Aphra’s ‘creative genius’ seems to have taken on another host...
Process
I plan to conceive this film following the rules of conceiving a child:
-
You need approximately 10 months for its completion;
-
You give it love, care, and patience;
-
You must not fix your expectation for what it will become. Instead, you actively learn who it is in the process, and respect its own will;
- Your physical, psychological and spiritual self-care in the process is crucial for its health.
Through the form of workshop, I will investigate the compelx woman-to-woman relationship that involves exploitation, mutual education, care, imitation, violence, selfishness, and love. I will conduct research and interviews to understand the context of surrogacy globally, as well as the intimate experience of those who has done it.
Cinematically, I intend to give equal agency to both protagonists, and the third non-speaking character--the baby. 360 degree camera, VR, and sonogram will be experimented with as modes of cinematic expression.