The 62-minute Anagama, directed by Guillermo Asensio and screening in Docs For Sale, delivers very effectively (and quite exquisitely) on a number of levels.
The film tells the story of artist and ceramicist Nancy Fuller who has struggled with her identity since she was adopted at the age of five. Born Chen Su Li in Taiwan, she was brought to Scotland as a child, but for the past 45 years has never felt she has fitted in anywhere. On a return journey to Taipei, however, she discovered pottery, and especially the process of firing within an anagama wood-firing kiln. For Nancy, this discovery was transformational. As she explains in the film, wood firing has a level of complexity that can take a lifetime to master, and therefore demands a lifetime of devotion, which she is more than willing to give.
On another level, the film demonstrates, in acute detail, the processes of preparation, production, firing and cooling of Nancy’s lovely bowls and vases, which can at times resemble delicately ridged amphorae. Nancy’s processes of self-reflection are played in counterpoint to the creation of one such vessel, from its inception to completion.
On yet another level, the film offers audiences, across its three chapters, a deliciously cinematic, meditative and auditory experience, with an internal rhythm that allows for strong emotional engagement with its subject, and a palette of autumnal colours that warm the heart.
“Anagama is an antidote to the hyper-accelerated, hyper-stimulated and very turbulent world that we live in,” says exec-producer Darby, herself a ceramicist. “It’s an ode to beauty, stillness, and nature. It’s a story that deals with identity in a conflict, and looking for a place in the world.”
“It is a really observational film,” adds director Asensio. “It’s very sensitive and I think its strength is the visuals. We worked on this documentary like a fiction film, from the storytelling to the musical sounds. There’s a narration, there’s her own voiceover throughout the film. But you learn a lot of things just through the images, with the metaphors, with the pottery, with Nancy’s life.”
Darby concurs: “We see this woman at work, we see her contemplating her own work, we see her walking the dog, we see her in nature. For her, this connection with the land is very important. We see the animals, we see the context that she’s working in. So it really is a very meditative film in that sense…It’s a point of stillness and it’s a calming film to watch, but at the same time it’s compelling.”
Darby and Asensio are at Docs for Sale to raise festival and broadcaster interest in Anagama, and to secure sales representation. From Darby’s perspective, the film is equally suitable for theatrical or small screen.
“The film needs to be seen. It is very cinematographic, so from that point of view it would be fantastic to see it on a big screen. But it can just as easily be enjoyed on a small screen. We’re talking about small things, so it’s about observation, it’s about contemplation. It needs to be watched when somebody’s in a frame of mind that they’re able to sit down to focus on it, because it really is a film to meditate and relax to – and to just enjoy the making of these enormous jars. But at the same time, it is a film that will generate a lot of questions in your mind.”
