A monk is traveling far in his mind.
Is he close enough to the place he longs to be?
This experimental travel documentary is a showcase of a spiritual journey.
Are You Close Enough is a film about traveling. It’s not, however, your usual travel-guide video about Tokyo, or Hamburg, or Luzerne. This film deals with a completely different aspect of traveling: it deals with how a journey becomes a spiritual showcase for the relativity of time and space.
The subject of this lyrical docu-drama is a monk, walking very slowly among the typical rush of Ginza’s Sunday afternoon. Taking his small, yet deep steps, the monk looks like a monument of silent rebel among the busy, hurried steps around his almost slo-mo movements.
Now, imagine you’re on a train. You can see how the world passes away from your train window. You sit there and wonder about the impressive visual feast: while you sit still on your train, the train moves against the background. Yet you feel that it’s not you who moves, it’s your surrounding which passes away. The nearby trees passes away so quickly, and farther in the background the fields move away very elegantly. Then you see the mountain, and the mountain almost stay there, only moving some millimetres away in one minute. Look at the sun: the sun stays there, not moving away at all. Just like the monk.
Being travelers, each one of us has a certain place where we want to travel to. Physically speaking, this monk – serene among the frenziness – is not getting anywhere. I wonder how far this monk is from the place he longs to be. Is he close enough? Can he get anywhere with his meaningless steps?
Or, perhaps he’s there already?
– Editors’ Pick at eveo.com, 2000 – online/worldwide.
– Eatcarpet, 2001-2003, SBS TV – Australia.
– Festival Fringe, 16th Singapore International Film Festival (2003) – Singapore.
– OK.Video, Jakarta Video Art Festival 2003 – Indonesia.
– Flying Circus Project 04 Process Showing, Theatreworks (2004) – Singapore.
– Festival Film Pendek Indonesia-Australia (2004) – Indonesia.
– Insomnia, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) London (2005) – UK.
– Politics of Fun, Yokohama Triennial (2005) – Japan.
(2000, dir. Tintin Wulia)
Clementine Wulia:
Writer, Director, Camera, Editor, Composer, Music Editor.
Zeno Wulia:
Composer, Musician.
Thanks to:
my parents Tulus Wuliata and Cecilia Indradjaja, my brothers Edo and Zeno Wulia, Wolf Kerschek for being always there, Die Studenten and Sebastian Studnitzky, Regula Schneider and Frank Sikora, Doug Roerden and Berklee Digital Media Lab, Arsnova Inc. and Yoichi Yajima, Yuki Sakamoto and Makiko Suzuki, for all their supports and understanding.