KENT CHAN

IT'S ONLY TALK

The Substation, 2013

The smallest component of a film isn’t just the shot, it’s the very thought that determines each and every act of filmmaking. More than just a story, films are borne of ideas rooted to our world.

So let’s talk about it, the fundamental ideas that shaped the way we are and the beliefs that have fuelled cinema to this day.

It’s Only Talk was a performance-based installation by Kent Chan that explores the role that philosophies and ideologies play in informing our worldview and action, through the lens of cinema and vice versa. The project involved 5 filmmakers, Kent Chan, Chris Yeo, Daniel Hui, Jiekai Liao and Nelson Yeo, each with differing perspectives such as philosophy, politics, pedagogy and the personal, who spent the duration of the project engaging audiences in conversations regarding films and cinema.

Filmmakers could also invite members of the audiences to make a film in the vicinity and to screen them within the gallery until a new film is made by another audience, whereupon the former would then be deleted. No traces of the films are kept at the end of the exhibition.

It’s Only Talk evokes cinema at its most immediate and entwined with our lives. An invitation for all, film lovers, filmmakers or not to talk about, re-think and to make film together over the encounter.

Presented by The Substation Moving Images. With collaborators Daniel Hui, Chris Yeo, Liao Jiekai and Nelson Yeo