The Art of Intergenerational Filmmaking at TIFF

Rolex has been integral in supporting the fine arts for over half a century. However, its latest round of mentorship programming that connects burgeoning artists with renowned creators has produced an exceptional bond, spotlighting emerging Filipino director, Rafael Manuel.

Connected by Rolex’s Perpetual Arts Initiative and the borderless language of film, Manuel was selected by renowned director Jia Zhang-Ke as a protege, becoming immersed in Jia’s formidable world of cinema at the height of the pandemic. During this isolating time, Jia was an open book of knowledge, mentoring Manuel and showing his strengths and weaknesses as they worked on his forthcoming film. Now making its North American debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, Caught by the Tides is a definitive work that playbooks filmmaking for the next generation and a protege who is stepping up to the mark.

A poignantly timed film, Caught by the Tides is a story of personal strength during rapid societal change and the consequence of progress. Pulling unseen footage of China from his archive, b-roll from prior films, and contemporary scenes, Jia paints the complex relationship between two characters, Brother Bin (Li Zhubin) and his love interest, Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao), from 2001 to 2021 in a manner that blurs documentary with fiction.

The film is set in the northern coal-mining city of Datong and time-lapses its rapidly changing socio-economic landscape. It opens with an entrepreneur running a coal-stained music hall in a warehouse for retired factory workers, hiring out-of-work women to perform simple songs and serve tea to patrons. Qiaoqiao starts her singing career here and is soon introduced to Brother Bin, a music promoter, and falls into an oppressive relationship with him.

Jia Zhang-Ke

As China’s industry continues to boom and western trade flows, Qiaoqiao hustles various modelling, singing, and dancing opportunities. Bin abandons Datong for the call of opportunity in a southern province, texting Qiaoqiao that he is going away and will return.

Months turn into years, and with no word from Bin, Qiaoqiao begins an epic search for him, drifting down the Yangtze River. She ends up in a city being demolished for the Three Gorges Dam, a hydro-power plant displacing more than a million people and destroying ancient landscapes. Overcoming endless dangers, she briefly reunites with Bin, breaking off the relationship and disappears into a watery sunset. Driven by his ambition, Bin continues a path of corrupt business. Years later, in 2021, a collapsed Bin returns to Datong, coming full circle to a home and society he does not recognize.

You can’t help but feel that Jia is instilling core values that will hold our gaze for the next generation of filmmakers. He explains that the enduring foundational traits of right and wrong, kindness, understanding, and empathy toward others allow us to face the changes in our world, and since our world is ever-changing, we need to find a new way of filmmaking.

In Caught by the Tides, he says, for the first hour there are short unrelated scenes, but it gradually focuses on two individuals, and from this chaos emerges a new format, like individual candles assembled in a circle to create a luminous final product.

Jia’s protege Manuel’s 2020 short film Filipiñana, now being turned into a full-length feature, is set in a private Manila golf club and explores the ignored manifestations of violence in his home country.

Rafael Manuel

With the support of his mentor, Manuel brings society’s skeletons to light. “I am very interested in exploring violence in my country, but not how it is traditionally portrayed,” he says, noting that a lot of cinema that comes out of the Philippines focuses on poverty. “There’s a lot of murder, rape, and they showcase the ghettos. And I think as the Philippines develops, and the middle class gets bigger, this becomes less and less the reality, and people think that things are getting better because we’re developing financially.”

He is more interested in exploring the gentrification of violence. “For example, golf courses in my country were first established on U.S. military bases, and then they were taken over by the ruling elite, so there’s an inherent violence to them, even though there is no murder or rape that happens in them.” He feels that the Philippines is so obsessed with becoming part of the first world that it’s not considering the cost of this progress, the objective violence of a system that’s inherently hierarchal, unjust, and segregated.

Speaking at a round table discussion, Jia explained that he has observed China’s continuous evolution and the issues that have risen from it. While initially he thought these problems were Chinese-specific, he soon realized they existed worldwide.

With China’s internet boom blending into the A.I. and robotics revolution, Jia is concerned that traditional cinema and storytelling methods won’t be able to adapt and communicate the latest issues our world faces.

Matched with the right mentor, emerging directors such as Manuel can bring their unique stories and perspectives into the fold; holding a place for traditional storytelling and possibly evoking change.

SHARE