Beautiful memory

Her grandma has beautiful memories of the cave dwelling where she lived until the age of 15. She spoke fondly of fruit trees in the yard — the scent of the flowers, the sweet taste of the fruit.

The cave sparked a family discussion. "How come nobody ever shared about this story that we have this cave my great-grandfather built in the wilderness?"

Her mother replied: "Our family story is not interesting."

But Zhao said her family story was interesting that everyone's family story was interesting. Despite the lack of drama — nobody got killed, nobody's life got turned upside down — Zhao said the filming process led her to feel regenerated.

"I felt this deeper connection with them. I felt like I would get to know more and now have a different perspective."

Near the end, Zhao's family was paying tribute to her great-grandfather by his tomb. Nearby, a high-speed railway loomed overhead.

This reflected Zhao's critical thinking on urban development all over the world, another theme her film explored.

"We're experiencing lots of urban supremacy. We see ourselves being further and further from the earth because of the apartment buildings," she said.

"I wanted to talk about this relationship between people and land and how we can still find strength in our intimate connection with earth."

She later brought her family back to the cave, including her then 88-year-old grandmother, reuniting with family roots deeply connected to the land.

Zhao's film, made with a grant from the International Documentary Association, debuted last year at True/False film festival. It was featured at various events and received a special mention jury award at DokuFest in Kosovo.

Zhao found the practice of oral history that's part of her film very beautiful.

"People have experienced so many changes throughout their lives. They might not remember the years and dates correctly, their personal stories might not directly fit into the grand history narratives, their memories might deviate a little from truth, but their stories represented their true experiences."

Zhao enjoys experimenting with different art forms, just as she did by incorporating animation and community theatre in the film. Her next film will explore the theme of age and death.

"It will be half documentary and half fiction," Zhao said.

To her, even documentary films have some fictional elements because they only show selective facts, and cameras often interfere with people's behaviors.