Jona Honer’s new feature documentary Club Heaven (screening at NLWave 25) is set entirely within a nightclub in Chengdu, China. It’s an observational film, exploring in minute detail the strangely ritualistic behaviour of both staff and clubbers. The film is produced through Submarine. Dutch distribution is handled by Cinema Delicatessen with Human as the broadcaster.
“I was thinking conceptually about how religion is becoming less important in our lives,” Honer explains how the idea for the movie came about. He had read a book by populist British author and philosopher, Alain De Botton, Religion for Atheists, which looked at how some of the trappings of religion can benefit people, whether they are believers or not.
Religion, this book argues, provides structure and social support, thereby enabling humans to live together.
“I wondered what kind of rituals we have now which we may not even label as being rituals. Then, of course, capitalism being the dominant, underlying idea that we are all living in, I wondered what are the rituals of capitalism.”
A friend told him: “you have to come to China. It’s so extreme.”
Honer began to research the so-called ‘Fuerdai,’ the rich young Chinese with inherited wealth. Some had Instagram accounts. The director was fascinated by the way in which they showed off their very lavish lifestyles. They seemed to define themselves entirely by what they owned.
“I thought, OK, I have to go there, try to meet these people and take it from there.”
He worked out that the easiest way to connect with this elite, affluent sub-strata of Chinese society was through their favourite nightclubs. “When I went to the clubs, you see the Ferraris, Lamborghinis and McLaren’s lined up at the entrance.”
Honer worried that he would never be allowed in to such places. In fact, the clubs like to have a few token westerners in attendance.
“They were so friendly. A Brazilian girl let me in and she directed me to a table straight away. I was getting free drinks. Later, I saw her counting [heads]. It was very clear that there were tables for westerners.” The director realised he was part of the “western entourage, like a prop. That’s why they let me in.”
It meant he could look around. “I thought, wow, if I could just make a film about one night here, this is exactly spot on.”
The ‘Play House’ venue where Honer filmed is ranked highly on the top 100 list of clubs published by DJ Mag. He was shooting there for two months.
One unlikely influence on the project was Jacques Tati’s complex satirical comedy, Playtime (1967). “What he did, when characters walk into the frame, you suddenly hear them, and when they walk out, you don’t hear them anymore,” the director explains. “The environment is very dominant over the characters.”
He photographed the documentary himself. “What I do is I just put the camera down very close to the people [I am filming]. I am not going to pretend I am not there. The lenses I use are all very wide-angle lenses.”
At first, the nightclub waiters were very wary about him and didn’t want to be on camera. “But I was there every day. At a certain point, they thought this is kind of funny…they got used to me!”
Eventually, the staff and waiters behaved very naturally around him, as if he wasn’t there. He was focusing on their “tiny conversations,” day to day chit-chat about work and leisure. It’s a pressurised environment. “You’re not here to waste time and money,” their manager tells them early on. “You need to generate profit. You’re here to work for me…you’re here to add value, to make money. Simple as that.”
The manager points out with brutal frankness that if they’re not performing, there is a pool of 10 million other high school graduates from which he can potentially replace them.
Honer suggests that western companies put equal pressure on their employees – “they just don’t say it out loud. I think it [the Chinese] way is more honest. There is a tongue-in-cheek element to it. They overstate it and, in the overstatement, it becomes a bit funny…although it is still the reality.”
Honer didn’t speak a word of Mandarin but was accompanied by an interpreter who provided simultaneous translation. He also knew the inner workings of the club, so understood exactly what was going on.
He used a thermal camera to capture the clubbers. “It doesn’t see light but it sees heat…photons on a different wavelength.” The effect is startling. The clubbers look like ghosts, abstract phantoms. Their champagne bottles are “a bit like holy water.” We see one reveller throwing up but even this seems like a choreographed ritual.
“They [the club goers] create their own symbols, maybe without knowing it consciously. Every religion has its own symbols. They create their own value system…it’s more than a night out.”
Clubs in Amsterdam are very different. As Honer points out, staff will put stickers on phones and stop anyone from taking pictures or selfies. “But if you go to clubs like those in China and you want to take a selfie for instance, the person would assist you with a ring light.”
Honer describes himself as a conceptual filmmaker. He is far more interested in ideas than characters. “I like to look at reality in my own way,” he says. “I will never claim to tell the whole truth. It is definitely through my lens. It’s very important for this film [Club Heaven] that it’s not [seen] as a film about China…this is my way of looking at it.”
His previous documentaries include Ik (2013), about a 56-year-old writer who suffers from personality change after developing a brain tumour, and Up or Out (2015), about brothers who think they’ve found the magic formula for beating the stock market.
Before becoming a filmmaker, Honer studied journalism but grew frustrated by the emphasis on objectivity. “I soon found out that was not for me!” He is no fan of documentary which relies on “asking questions and people giving answers.”
“Sometimes, people themselves don’t even know what is going on. It might not even be going on, but just me seeing it! That’s the nice thing. If I see documentary as an art form, I can do whatever I want as long as I am honest in saying this is my take on reality – it’s not the truth, it’s my truth.”
Club Heaven is aiming for an international festival premiere after its Utrecht industry screening. Honer also hopes to get the film into a Chinese festival. “The Chinese people who’ve seen it are very enthusiastic….”
The director isn’t sure what his next project will be, but will push ahead with something soon. “I have a few very vague concepts floating around – and a quote from Nick Cave on my white board which says it’s better to act on a bad idea than to not act at all.”
