The Lighting

The Lighting aims to revisit issues of discrimination rooted in technological development and image production. Three professional Togolese photographers explore how to use instruments to compensate for insufficient exposure while shooting dark skin tones. A leading software engineer, developing facial recognition algorithms at Taiwan’s MediaTek, talks about how a newly-created camera algorithm is very popular on the African continent.
Musquiqui Chihying uses Kodak’s Ektachrome, a popular film material from the 1970s, to produce a kung fu movie in the style of an exploitation film that uses images of the famous Black martial art film star Jim Kelly, who starred in Bruce Lee’s movies in the 1970s. The work is also interlaced with an animated Bruce Lee as the narrator trained by facial motion capture technology and a speech recognition algorithm.
by Musquiqui Chihying
with Yugen Yah, Shu Fan Wang, Laïson Hilda Akoko, Apélété Kuami, Felix Agboka, Musquiqui Chihying, Kin Man Cheong, Chih Hao Chou, Ho Hsuan Feng, Shinyi Lin, Han Tang, Hanwen Zhang, Xiaopeng Zhou
Germany / Taiwan / Togo 2016 Cantonese, Chinese, French 21’ Colour & Black/White

With

  • Yugen Yah (Jim Kelly)
  • Shu Fan Wang
  • Laïson Hilda Akoko
  • Apélété Kuami
  • Felix Agboka
  • Musquiqui Chihying
  • Kin Man Cheong (Kung Fu student)
  • Chih Hao Chou (Kung Fu student)
  • Ho Hsuan Feng (Kung Fu student)
  • Shinyi Lin (Kung Fu student)
  • Han Tang (Kung Fu student)
  • Hanwen Zhang (Kung Fu student)
  • Xiaopeng Zhou (Kung Fu student)

Crew

Director Musquiqui Chihying
Cinematography Lucas Bueno Maia, Olivier Yamajago
Editing Musquiqui Chihying
Music Ilya Selikhov
Sound Design Sum Sum Shen
Sound Ixmucané Aguilar
Animation Mooni Perry
Production Design Ling Yu He
Assistant Directors Clémentine Kilikiba, Smith Kalao
Production Managers Freedo Apedjago
Executive Producers Gregor Kasper, Patrick Atakpa Ayele-Yawou
Producers Gregor Kasper, Patrick Atakpa Ayele-Yawou

Produced by

xizhuang culture & media GbR

Musquiqui Chihying

Musquiqui Chihying is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Taipei and Berlin. Specializing in the use of multimedia such as film and sound, he investigates the human condition and environmental system in the age of global capitalization and engages in the inquiry of and research on issues of subjectivity in contemporary social culture in the Global South. His works have been shown in several international institutions and film festivals, such as Art Sonje Center, Seoul, Centre Pompidou, Paris, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Taipei Biennial, and the 10th Shanghai Biennale. He is a member of the Taiwanese art group Fuxinghen Studio and the founder of the Research Lab of Image and Sound. His 3-channel-installation Café Togo (co-director: Gregor Kaspar) was shown at the Forum Expanded exhibition in 2018.

Filmography

2018 Café Togo; with Gregor Kasper, 27 min., Forum Expanded 2018 2019 The Guestbook; 15 min. 2020 The Sculpture; 28 min. 2021 The Lighting

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2022