A disappearance is the engine of Dong Jie‘s debut feature “Zoom In, Zoom Out,” but the Chinese director is less interested in the mystery of where his character has gone than in what his absence reveals about everyone left behind. The film, which premieres at the Venice Critics’ Week, follows Shi, a young game designer, as he searches the city for his missing roommate Gao, a search that pulls him into an unlikely bond with Gao’s girlfriend YY and into the fragments of chat logs, game avatars and memory that Gao left behind. It is the first feature from Dong, who grew up in Shanghai and trained as a director at the Beijing Film Academy.
Before stepping behind the camera, he worked as an editor on “Summer Blur” and “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” and is the author of the short story collection “The Gap of Migration.” His 50-minute thesis film “Break” played at the Pingyao International Film Festival and the Beijing Intl. Short Film Festival, among others. Li Zhong served as cinematographer, Qin Yanan edited the film and Hank Lee composed the score.
Variety is exclusively unveiling a clip from the film. Dong wanted the disappearance to do more than drive a plot. Do we really care about them, or are we confronting a deeper sense of unease within ourselves?” he says.
He calls that delayed reckoning “particularly reflective of the way we relate to one another today,” pointing out that people can “stay connected” with each other constantly and still only realize what someone meant to them once that person “goes offline forever.” Shi and YY piece together who Gao was from chat logs, an in-game avatar and other digital traces. Digital traces, Dong says, “can never give us a complete understanding of a person,” and the process of assembling them is driven as much by “a deep-seated desire to pry, as well as an impulse to play” as by any real wish to know someone. What it truly exposes is Shi’s deep recognition of and longing for Gao.” The production built its own game rather than rendering one with visual effects.
When we have nowhere to place these needs, they find their way into larger, more abstract narratives and identities.” He describes the film as an attempt to reclaim a belief “that meaning can be created through the difficult, concrete work of living with other people.” “Zoom In, Zoom Out” treats the digital world as part of everyday life rather than an escape from it. He adds that he is looking forward to seeing Italy beyond the festival, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and a ride on a Venice water bus. Looking past this film, Dong says he wants his next project to be “more genre-driven while still having a strong authorial voice.” He describes himself as less a director than a creator who works across mediums, including fiction and podcasts.
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