What's A Mother To Do?: Charles Xiuzhi Dong On His Film "After Class"
Chinese director Charles Xiuzhi Dong is an award-winning filmmaker based out of Los Angeles. He received a BFA at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and was recently accepted to the American Film Institute’s directing fellowship. His latest film, After Class, tells the universal story of a mother who is willing to do whatever it takes to help her child.
Eight-year-old Su Min and her mother reside in the slum of a metropolis in China, making ends meet by cleaning toilets and picking garbage. Su Min dreams to go to school someday. Marginalized by the school registration system, her mother tries to send her daughter to school at any cost.
Although the film only recently begun its festival run, it has already been awarded the top Oscar-qualifying prize at Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia in Japan. We had the pleasure of chatting with Charles about his film, its origins, his love for storytelling, schooling in China, and much much more!
How did the concept for After Class originate?
The inspiration for After Class came from an infamous scandal a few years ago in China, where people would intentionally get hit by a car to scam the driver’s money. I once saw a news article about a single-mother who was arrested for forcing her son, who had a broken leg, to run into traffic. It was reported that she did it in order to send her son to school. The boy got hit three times until she was arrested. Although the mother was shunned by the public, no one empathized with her situation. I wondered: What would a mother do to fulfill the basic needs of a child? The story is partly based on the news story and partly from my childhood. When my family moved to Shenzhen from the Northeast, my family had to pay a tax every year to send me to public school. When I walked around the city I once called home, kids would run around in slums, collecting water bottles for nickels and dimes in return. I asked them why they aren’t in school. They told me they just aren’t. It was that moment, I knew, one of those kids would become the character of Su Min.
What is your approach to shooting a scene? How do you prepare and nail down the logistics?
It was not an easy film to pull off. From the moment we prepped this, we faced countless problems from locations to casting to budget. But everybody had so much faith in this project. But my crew are very on top of our game. Whenever we are rolling for a scene, everybody knows what they are doing. Because we spend quality time preparing for the shoot. But a lot of acting choices were decided on set, since I met my cast the night before the shoot. I am very grateful to every crew and cast member who was working on this project.
Is there a moment or scene from the film that’s your favorite or turned out better than expected?
I personally love the scene when the mother steals money for the first time. To me, that is the most powerful scene in the film. It’s a moment of choice, a moment of true motherhood. It’s the moment when people do unacceptable things in order to help the ones they love.
How did you and cinematographer Stefan Nachmann arrive on the film’s aesthetics?
I met my cinematographer on my first day at NYU — way before I decided to pursue a career as a director and him as a DP. Stefan and I were roommates for a long time and knew each other inside and out. We very much enjoyed working together and have a great understanding of each other’s artistic approach. When we were discussing the visual style of the film, we decided to frame our characters far away from the camera. Utilizing very wide static shots, where the characters feel like they are stuck in their situation.
How did you find your film’s cast?
I met most of my cast members through a casting director. My lead actress, Youfeng Zhang, had a similar background as her character, which gave her a very clear understanding of what she needed to do acting wise. The girl who played Sumin was a first-time actress, with experience as a child model. She did a great job as well.
What drew you to the visual arts? How did you get into directing?
As a teenager, I was obsessed with performing magic tricks and even took a gap year in middle school to take it more seriously. Ultimately, I discovered that what I really liked to do was to tell stories through a visual medium, and somehow synthesized my passion for magic and film. Since I started going to film school, I was constantly on the lookout to direct a project, long and short film. I just like to tell stories.
What films or filmmakers have inspired you, your style, or your approach to telling a story?
My favorite film, without a doubt, is Cinema Paradiso. It was one of my first encounters with Italian Cinema along with Malèna. Everytime I watch Paradiso, it would leave me in a total wreck — overwhelmed and in floods of tears. It’s the kind of movie I would watch every time I feel like I want to give up on making movies. It would pull me back to reality, reminding me how bittersweet the nature of my job is.
What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
I used to live around the slums in Shenzhen where there is an urban village surrounded by a big urban city. These are densely populated villages with a vibrant community that looks nothing like the rest of Shenzhen. It’s such a surreal experience living there because outside the fences and gates; there are skyscrapers looming over you and Mercedes Benzes driving around. Other than telling the story through the film, one of my goals is for the audience to see and understand what the lifestyle is like in those urban villages.
Do you have any future projects in the works that you can share with us?
I am currently working on a documentary film, An Anshan Story, which is about my family history to uncover the truth about my grandpa’s ties with the revolutionaries of the left wing during the cultural revolution. My family recounts the traumatic events after the revolution has ended. The film jumps between the past and present as they confront their old age in an aging city. We technically picture locked almost a year ago, but we are in progress of doing a significant recut. I am very excited to share this film with the rest of the world when it is ready. Also I just started grad school in the American Film Institute as a directing fellow. I am writing my first feature film, Anshan Blues, based on a true story from my experience, about two insecure teenagers who were bullied in school, and decided to hire a group of gangsters to beat up their bully. I am hoping to make this film after I graduate.
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