Jaco Bouwer (ZA)
I love you Jet Li, 2005
11:20
A short experimental South African Fong Kong* love story that explores dysfunctional relationships using multiple layers of narrative.
Beijing, China. International Wushu master and cult Kung Fu film legend, Jet Li tours the city to promote his latest blockbuster action film. 12 000km away, at an airport in Africa a young woman waits to fly out to meet him...
i love you jet lee is a short experimental Fong Kong* love story that explores dysfunctional relationships using multiple layers of narrative. Part documentary, part music video and part short story, this dystopian romance flies in the face of traditional genre definitions.
Introducing actress Dale Dodgen, it’s directed and produced by Jaco Bouwer, written by Stacy Hardy and features an original soundtrack by acclaimed experimental electronic composer Felix Laband.
* Fong Kong: South African township slang for counterfeit goods
Script: Stacy Hardy
Music: Felix Laband
Starring: Dale Dodgen
Directors’ note
“Opposite me there's a little girl in a pink gown crying. Her mother is pointing to something in the sky. I’m looking to where she’s pointing. I stare. 4 hours until my flight to Barcelona. Berlin is so cold. I just stare into grey. The voices and announcements and trolleys. Vehicles outside below me - they look like toys. I look at the sms for the seventeenth time. It's an old sms. Saved. I’m seeing someone else. I feel invisible. Like a cliché. I feel deaf. I put my ipod on really loud. Perhaps I can really make myself deaf. I already feel numb so what the fuck? Delete. Delete message? Yes. Message deleted.
I need to distract myself from myself so I start making up stories about people. People I see. People that pass. People that talk. People with their backs to me. Sometimes I give them their own soundtrack. My thumb spins through the playlists on my ipod. Fragments of dialogue become subtitles. Words become thoughts. Thoughts become subtext. Emotions. Hopes. What happened last night. The week before. A year ago. New characters get introduced with ever more layers of subplots underscored under the direction of my thumb.
I follow the woman with the turquoise scarf for half an hour. There's something in the way she walks that reminds me of someone. I check my phone to see if I perhaps received another sms. Battery power low. The distraction isn't working anymore. Her story has become part of my story. She goes into the wc.”
Biography
Jaco Bouwer studied theatre received an Honors Degree in directing at Stellenbosch University and completed a Master’s Degree in 1999. He has been working professionally as director, actor and dancer for the last five years and has performed in Aars!, Tango Del Fuego and Mamma Medea directed by Marthinus Basson. In 2003 Bouwer received the Fleur de Cap Young Director Award for Spanner written by Saartjie Botha. Recently, he has specialized in video and animation and his most recent video works include Two Gentlemen of Verona, Maria de Buenos Aires and the Fair Lady South African Fashion Awards and Tall Horse with the Handspring Puppet Co. Directed Verkeer which won Smeltkoers Award at Aardklop 2005 . He directed the new play by Mike van Graan called Mixed Metaphors at the State Theatre. His international award winning short film i love you jet li was recently screened at festivals in Berlin, Los Angeles and Cape Town. Directed Altyd Jonker at KKNK 2006 which won 3 Kanna awards and won Fleur de Cap award for best director in 2007.