Beina Xu

A film crew retraces the path of a refugee's journey. They hope to reconstruct a memory landscape, but are instead confronted by the artifice of documentary. Bystanders interject with their opinions on how to make better use of their time. What is a story, and whose right is it to tell?

"We live our lives in the middle of things." —Sherry Turkle What connection do we have to objects? This is the question I set out to explore when an inkstone catalyzed a torrent of memories: about my grandfather, about shame, about China. Museums are full of objects. Yet we know so little about them—where they come from, what their own histories are. So how do we connect with them? Do we even need to connect? Objects and meaning waltz in their own mystical world. This is a film that attempts to enter their orbit, and probe our relationship to the things we treasure.

An anthropological film by Beina Xu.