Double Ghosts
雙影
35mm, Chile/Taiwan/UK, sound, 31 min
Double Ghosts explores the status and potential of unrealised and fragmented histories from the legacy of Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz (1941 – 2011) to animist cinematic traditions in Taiwan. The project takes as its starting point an unfinished film made by Raúl Ruiz in Taiwan in 1995. Based in Paris since the late 1970s Ruiz came to Taiwan to film The Comedy of Shadows / La comedie des ombres with a script inspired by the Taoist philosophy of Chuang Tzu’s Wandering on the Way and Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. The project was filmed at Chin Pao San cemetery with a Taiwanese cast and crew but never finished.
The incompleteness of Ruiz’s film is the starting point for Double Ghosts, that considers the echoes of this unrealized project to explore cinematic and political phantoms. Drawing on research and diverse collaborations with filmmakers Valeria Sarmiento and Niles Atallah as well as Chilote fishermen, the film is staged as a series of actions seeking to reactivate this lost film. Filmed on 35mm film in Chile and Taiwan, Double Ghosts follows traces across the Pacific from Ruiz’s birthplace in Puerto Montt to the mountain cemetery in Taiwan.
Special Events & Exhibitions:
AV Festival, 16 March 2018
The project was first presented in a special screening at the AV Festival. The work-in-progress print was shown in under-construction Star and Shadow Cinema on 16 March 2018.
Chin Pao San, 19 August 2018
The world premiere of the film took place at Chin Pao San cemetery in Taiwan on 19 August 2018. The premiere was held in the original location of Raul Ruiz’s unfinished film and on the 7th anniversary of his death. Taking place during ghost month in Taiwan, the outdoor projection is a tribute to Raul Ruiz and his phantom film.
Taiwan Biennial, 22 September 2018 – 10 February 2019
Following the premiere at Chin Pao San the film features as part of new installation with additional film and sounds works, archival items, photographs, paintings and new commissions as part of the 2018 Taiwan Biennial: Wild Rhizome.
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival & Berwick Visual Arts
19th September – 27th October 2019
Double Ghosts was presented for first time in UK in expanded form opening with the 15th Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival. The installation involved three projections, work on monitor and wall mural with display. The exhibition also hosted series of performances with Taipei based arts collective lololol, Thai artist Tandachai Bandasak as well as workshops and events throughout the exhibition.
Giving Time – Essay by Fang-Tze Hsu, BFMAF 2019 Catalogue
Film Festivals Screenings:
International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands
January 2019
Courtisane Film Festival, Belgium
April 2019
Hanoi Doclab, Vietnam
June 2019
New York Film Festival, USA
October 2019
States of Motion, Singapore
February 2020
Light Field
March 2020 (cancelled due to COVID-19)
Double Ghosts Credits:
Valeria Sarmiento interview conducted 2 November 2017 in Lisbon, Portugal with translation by Miguel Ribeiro
Filmed on 35mm film on location in Chile and at Chin Pao San / 金寶山, Taiwan.
Image + Sound: George Clark
Additional location sound: Martin Baus
Sound mastering: Alex Bonney
Typography: Lucas Quigley
Film laboratory: Kodak Film Lab London
Cast: Valeria Sarmiento, Niles Atallah, Leonel Bahamonde, Cristóbal León, Ivan Ulloa, Rodrigo Saquel
Thanks to:
Niles Atallah, Leonel Bahamonde, Carolina Castro Jorquera, Huiying Chen / 陳慧盈, Yu-ling Chou / 周郁齡, Pei-hua Chung / 鍾佩樺, Joaquín Cociña, Bruno Cuneo, Lauren Federlein, Natalia Geisse, Fernando Godoy M, Wen Hsu / 許耀文, Maria Irene Alcalde, Cristóbal León, Azucena Losana, Laha Mebow / 陳潔瑤, Raúl Ruiz, Valeria Sarmiento, Veronica Sarmiento, Rodrigo Saquel, Rebecca Shatwell, Shireen Seno, Wei Hsuan Sung / 宋微暄, John Torres, Shr-tzung Tsai / 蔡世宗, Ivan Ulloa and AV Festval, Museo de Artes Visuales MAVI and Chin Pao San / 金寶山.