Premiering at the prestigious LA Shorts International Film Festival, one of the largest international short film festivals taking place annually in Los Angeles and an Oscar-qualifying event, is a film called ‘Ministry of Loneliness’ directed by Randi Ali. ‘Ministry of Loneliness’ explores the lives of bureaucrats at a fictional ministry dedicated to addressing citizen isolation.
Festival goers and industry luminaries will also get to witness the incredible talents of acclaimed Chinese female cinematographer Jackie Fang. Originally hailing from Beijing, China, and currently based in Los Angeles, Jackie brings a distinct visual style to MOL shaped by her education at UCLA and the San Francisco Art Institute.
Jackie’s multicultural background and diverse artistic education provide a unique perspective and emotional depth to her work. Overcoming significant challenges as a foreigner, Asian, and woman in the film industry, Jackie has risen to prominence through her exceptional talent and relentless dedication.
As a woman in this field, achieving success and gaining prominence is no small feat, as evidenced by the abysmal stats. According to the latest figures on women in film by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego University, female cinematographers are still very underrepresented in Hollywood. The percentage of women cinematographers rose just 3 percentage points over the last 25 years, from 4% in 1998 to 7% in 2022.
Not only is Jackie part of a group of women forging new pathways, she brings her experience as an immigrant to the table, showcasing the importance of diversity in creative perspectives, and how mentorship intiatives are key to allowing underrepresented creatives to break through. Jackie is a recipient of the 2021 ASC Vision Mentorship Program, which pairs emerging cinematographers with experienced members of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) to offer guidance and industry connections.
Jackie’s previous work as a cinematographer on the short film “Kingdom of Strangers” won the ARRI Franz Wieser grant and premiered at the 26th Arab Film Festival in 2022. “Ministry of Loneliness” marks her second collaboration with director Randa Ali and we were excited to learn more about the film, Jackie’s journey into cinematography from China to Los Angeles, and hear her perspective as a woman in this very male-dominated field.
Can you first tell us where your cinematography career began, and what inspired you to follow this career path?
I think my early childhood experience set a base for my cinematography career. I grew up in a country where color contains a lot of metaphorical meanings. I remember telling my mom when I was very little that I wanted all warm lighting for our apartment no matter where we moved to, because that’s what I felt was “home”.
When I moved to San Francisco for undergrad at the age of 18, I didn’t know anything about the arts. Dark room photography was my first introduction to the visual arts. What fascinated me more was actually the process. It was really like magic when you see your photograph appear slowly as you agitate it in the tray of chemicals, because that was the first time one can actually see the photo after it has been taken and processed.
Later I practiced sculpture for a year. I love the way that it trained you to really think about perspective. Where do you place the object is to direct the viewers’ eyes to see or not see certain things, to have people come and observe closely or keep them at a distance.
I appreciated the craftsmanship in both photography and sculpture, but I didn’t feel like either of them could express my voice fully. I was in my early 20s, in a foreign country alone, curious about the world while trying to figure out “who am I”. I felt I was stuck until I first operated a cinema camera.
I fell in love with the openness and possibilities cinematography can bring, just like when you look at a photograph, at the same time, just like sculpture, you can direct the audience to look at what you want or not want them to. And that’s when I decided to pursue cinematography.
Who were some of your early inspirations in the film industry?
Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon was one of my earliest inspirations. I love how simple the plot was, at the same time, how complicated the story became. It taught me that sometimes “Less is More” and that is the philosophy I follow in my cinematography practice still till this day.
Photographer Alex Webb’s works were also one of my early inspirations. His use of vivid colors, his sense of framing and his instinct to capture the moment that made me feel the motion even when looking at it still.
As a Chinese filmmaker, can you tell us what the industry is like in your home country, and any barriers you had to navigate as a woman?
As a Chinese woman filmmaker, I grew up in a culture where there were a lot of working women, but the stereotypical gender duties assigned by our history and society still exist. There are not a lot of women working in the camera and lighting department because we are considered the physically weaker kind.
I have a personal story that may help provide a perspective on the industry back home. This was after I decided to pursue cinematography and had already gotten an offer from UCLA. One day, I met a writer/director who worked on some bigger budget films. The first thing he asked me when he found out about me going to be a cinematographer was “Can you carry a camera?”
I thought it was interesting that that was the first thing he asked, and maybe it’s true that a lot of people see the prerequisite of a cinematographer as being physically capable of carrying a camera, and when he saw me as a woman, he “naturally” asked that question.
I’m glad that situation is changing now, slowly but surely. I’m seeing more women cinematographers and camera operators growing. There are more projects that particularly look for a female perspective. The community is small, but growing. And just like the message Ministry of Loneliness is trying to tell us – communal support is important. I have faith that as we grow larger as a community, we will continue to support each others’ journey and never stop fighting for equity in our industry.
Being based in Los Angeles now, how have you navigated the industry in Hollywood to find great opportunities?
I think LA is the place to be for anybody who works or wants to work in film. The benefits from the industry being here are tremendous. There are a lot of filmmakers, who are just as passionate as me, and a lot of accessible resources and events open to all.
Navigating through this large pool is not an easy task. I think the first and foremost is that I have to be ready when opportunity comes, which means I need to never stop learning and keep improving my craft. Additionally, it is equally as important to form connections and keep contacts with other filmmakers, people I met through school, through friends, or through an event or a screening. Because at the end of the day, filmmaking is a collaborative art that needs collective talents.
What are some of the challenges you have faced as a woman of color in Hollywood, which is well known for being predominantly white and male-centric historically?
Being a young Asian woman in the film industry is a special thing. I think as an Asian woman, we live under a lot of stereotypes, such as, being obedient and being skinny. I often felt like I needed to constantly prove myself that I can lead a team or I could lift heavy equipment to gain some sort of respect in a work setting, and I don’t think that’s the way it should be.
I’m happy to see more Asian women filmmakers in recent years, especially more Asian women cinematographers, like Quyen Tran, ASC who photographed the 2020 film Palm Springs. I’m also extremely proud to have Janet Yang as the president of the Academy, it means a tremendous amount for Asian women filmmakers and the whole Asian filmmaking community.
We have had the opportunity to feature a few female cinematographers on our site, but women in this role are still outnumbered by men in the industry. What needs to change among executives and decision-makers in order to see more equity in the field?
In order to see more equity, there has to be more gender and race equity in the decision makers, which means, more women and women of color as executives, producers and directors. With more numbers of women in the creative and hiring circle, there will be a community supporting other female filmmakers.
As a female cinematographer, we shouldn’t be hired to only shoot female stories, we should be interviewed and selected equally based on our works and professionalism, and that is real equality to me.
We’d love to learn more about your film ‘Ministry of Loneliness’ – how did you get involved in this project, and what drew you to the story?
Ministry of Loneliness is a film about four lonely individuals who work at a government office called the “Ministry of Loneliness” where their daily job is to rate the loneliness scale of whoever calls in and send them comforting objects based on the rating. But after two power surges, these four realize that their lonely souls also needed some comfort and warmth.
As a foreigner, I was not able to go back home and see my family for four years. I lived alone, and for many months, I couldn’t see my friends either. The feeling of loneliness was inevitable, and after a while, you get used to the isolation and become numb to the lack of social interactions. Even after the pandemic was over, the social impact was irreversible.
I was touched by the story and director Randa’s vision in the Ministry of Loneliness that it offers a positive perspective on the meaning of reconnecting with others after the prolonged isolation, and advocates for all of us to take a step to open up ourselves and be part of a community again. I’m glad that I could contribute to a story like this.
The film has been selected for the Academy Awards-qualifying film festival LA Shorts International Film Festival! Why is this festival significant, and how can festivals like this amplify the work of a filmmaker or creative like yourself?
LA Shorts is the longest-running short film festival in Los Angeles. The festival screens over 350 films and attracts 10,000 attendees each year including Hollywood industry professionals and emerging undiscovered independent filmmakers. 68 LA Shorts filmmakers have earned Academy Award nominations, with 17 taking home the Oscar.
It’s a huge honor to be selected into a festival like such not only will let more people see my work and gain recognition as a cinematographer, but also will provide a place for me to see other filmmakers’ work, to make new connections and to find potential future collaborators.
Can you tell us about creating the visuals for this film – where did you draw inspiration from, and what kinds of messages were you trying to convey?
Ministry of Loneliness was my second collaboration with director Randa Ali. So we were already in tune with a lot of creative side of things. It took about three months from concept to finish. During pre-production, Randa and I had numerous meetings to find references and inspirations to develop a unique visual language for the film. We drew inspirations from Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love, Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors: Blue, as well as the Apple TV series Severance.
Unlike our last collaboration – Kingdom of Strangers, which was filmed all exterior using only natural day lights. Ministry of Loneliness was filmed on a soundstage where we were in a controllable space, but also means that everything needed to be designed and placed purposefully.
Randa [the director], the production designer Marie, and I worked closely on the color palette for the film because we wanted to use color to help convey emotions. So we decided to use blue for the main office space to set a lonely and nostalgic tone where we see each of them by their desks and separated from each other. We only introduced warmth once we saw them move to the break room area where they were together, because it is a space for reconnecting with each other. The contrast of the cool and warm color worked very nicely in showing the progression of the story and the transformation of the characters.
Seeing diversity behind the camera is just as important as who is represented on screen, especially regarding the perspective through which a story is told. Can you share more on this through your role as a cinematographer?
Perspective is something I love exploring as a cinematographer. Whenever I start a conversation with the director about the visual approaches, there are always two layers of perspective to figure out. One is the perspective the character sees throughout the story, the other is the perspective the audience sees.
I think being a woman of color shaped my way of thinking about the perspective of the characters, in a way that is based on my own life experience, how I perceive the world and how I am perceived. Because as an immigrant woman I experience a lot of things as an outsider, and it often allows me to see more from that perspective. I bring my sensibility to nuances and observation of details into thinking about the visual approach, eventually adapting them into the lens of the characters.
What are you working on next and where can readers follow your work?
I’m currently in development for a short narrative project and a feature length documentary. The short narrative project is based on true events that happened to me in my childhood and the story is a slice of life between two 11 years old Chinese girl in 2003, through a day of their life, we see a chain of abuse that is too complicated to be comprehend by the innocents, at the same time, too brutally raw to be accepted by the grown-ups. But that was reality, and may still be.
You can see more of Jackie Fang’s work on her website, and follow her on Instagram.
