Hangzhou in Polaroids
A short travel film about Hangzhou seen through a visitor’s curious eyes, recorded in moving footage and Polaroid photographs.
- Type
- Short film
- Role
- Director, cinematographer, editor, colorist, music
- Year
- 2025
The idea
I filmed this on a trip to Hangzhou in January 2025. When I travel, I like to stay a visitor on purpose: to look at a city with fresh, curious eyes and notice the things people who live there have stopped seeing.
What caught me in Hangzhou was connection. People with each other, and people with nature: the small, everyday ways a city lives alongside its water, trees and seasons. I found it quietly beautiful, and I wanted to keep it.
How I made it
I carried a Polaroid camera the whole trip, and the instant photographs became the heart of the film. A Polaroid slows you down. You only get one print, so you wait for the right moment, and the moment you choose says something about what you care about.
I made the film on my own, from start to finish: I shot it, edited it, graded the color and chose the music, shaping the pace so it feels like walking through the city and stopping whenever something makes you look twice.
