Ever since I was a child, I have had doubts about life. I’ve always wondered that if humans are destined to die, why do we work so hard to live? What is the meaning of life? I’ve had this question until my father underwent a major operation and I felt that death was so imminent. It was so real and unfamiliar. The incident touched the question in my heart again. Maybe the answer can only be found through understanding death. That’s why I started the film "Who Says Goodbye First." This is a story about a family with a rare disease, and how the family members learn to practice living in the face of death. In the post-production stage of this film, after deep contemplation and self-reflection, I tried to depict the family from the perspective of Yi-Nuo the younger brother of the family, and to present their attitude towards death and their transformation of life following some critical events. I document how the family lives. It is also a documentary of my journey of finding the answers.
This thesis consists of five chapters:
Chapter 1–Introduction on my own creative background, origin and motivations.
Chapter 2–Literature research that is divided into six sections: 1) the basic introduction of the rare. disease Niemann-Pick disease; 2) the challenges of rare disease families and their attitude towards death; 3) discussions on the concept of death in Christian faith; 4) discussions on the ethical issues in the process of filming; 5) the conclusion of the literature discussions and 6) the documentary film.
Chapter 3–This chapter focuses on the creative process, my creative perspective, and my thinking.on how to conceive the film, and the aesthetics of the documentary.
Chapter 4–The production planning of the film, including how I planned the content and interviews, my thoughts on editing and how I structured the film during the post-production period.
Chapter 5–This chapter includes excerpts of feedback from the public screening and post-screening. discussion. I reviewed the feedback and explored other possibilities to make the film better. The chapter ends with lessons I learned from the entire creative process.