In Littleness – Cherlyn Hsing-hsin Liu (Santa Clarita, California)

The film was shot on a regular 8mm camera and is presented in unslit form as 16mm, a screening format commonly referred to as double 8mm. When I first came into contact with this medium, I was deeply attracted by its miniature size. Eight millimeters is a very small space on which to store images. It reminds me of all kinds of things from childhood: ephemeral, wonderful, changeable. Recalling that as a child I spent most of my time with my nanny, I decided to zoom in on daily life, especially trivial household chores. At the same time, the particles and dust of the childhood world are magnified. During the filming process, I remembered a question asked by Stan Brakhage: When a film is projected, how many frames does an image need in order to make an impression on human vision? In In Littleness, we are asked to watch four images at a time. Each screen only lasts for a moment. The waves of oncoming impressions submerge the viewer in an open and chaotic world, in which a noisy childhood experience is faintly drawn. The memories included in the film are not just from my childhood, but also from childhood memories of people close to me. In the end, what In Littleness treasures the texture of childhoods, overlapping and collective. 2022; 8 min.