It’s 3pm and we are at Mandarin's House. In the shadow of one of the partitions on the ground floor, rests an oil painting with a portrait of a Chinese woman in a blue dress. A man dressed in light-colours, round glasses, hat in hand, walks through the artificial mist, looks at the camera and delivers a sentence with his perfect British accent. He makes a mistake and curses himself. "Cut!" someone yells. "Let's try again."
The man is Patrick Conner, presenter and co-author of the documentary "In the Footsteps of George Chinnery", which is currently being filmed in various parts of the city where the English painter spent time between 1825 and 1852, and where he produced most of his water colours, oils and sketches of everyday scenes of life in the city at that time.
"In the documentary, I appear as a kind of guide for Chinnery’s path. I'll walk through some of the places where he spent time, show people around and talk a little about the paintings he made in these places," Conner explains.
All in all, there were eight days of filming followed by months of editing and more editing. Everything has to be ready by October, when the documentary to be aired on TDM.
The film has a budget of 830,000 patacas, funded by the Macau Foundation and the Cultural Affairs Bureau.
"Initially, we had asked for more money, so we could make some historical reenactment scenes. We had greater ambitions," says Campbell McLean, producer and co-author of the documentary. "Unfortunately, we could not get all the money we had requested. Therefore we restructured the original plan, using only Patrick as host, to guide us through all these beautiful places in Macau."
Capturing the "magic hour"
As was common practice for most painters at the time, in order to make money Chinnery also accepted orders from wealthy men to paint their portraits in oil. But his true preference was the small and cheerful drawings of common people and also water colours.
"He was a wonderful watercolourist! He did magnificent things, such as coastal scenes, the setting of the sun on Praia Grande. Water colours are among his best work, I would say," says Conner.
It is said that Chinnery woke early and enjoyed making seven or eight drafts before breakfast. To capture the light that the artist looked at every morning, the crew filmed marathon sessions of 14 to 15 hours a day, starting early in the morning.
"We wake up every morning at five to catch the 'magic hour', as we call it in cinema. We have to start shooting early, when the light is magical. To capture a light similar to that in the water colors of Chinnery," explains Terry O'Toole, the director of the film.
"We are painting with light. As he did. We are in search of evocative buildings, shapes and textures that he loved so much. We are always based on some of his paintings, trying to reproduce the same light, the same environment," says the filmmaker, for whom shooting in Macau has been a rewarding experience.
"In our movie, Macau is the hero. And the fact that some of the buildings Chinnery portrayed still exist is stimulating. Walking around the places where he walked and that are portrayed in his works, such as the Temple of A-Ma, among others, has been great," the director reflects.
"In the film, we will only briefly mention the period before his arrival. I would say that 90 percent of the film will be about his life in Macau, and a little more about Hong Kong," says Patrick Conner. "One of the problems is that we have so much material. There are so many places where he painted and drew so many good things. And of course, his life was extremely interesting as well. The problem here will be condensing everything into 50 minutes."
Conner has been interested in the life and work of Chinnery for a very long time, having written books on the subject. "He's such a good topic! Because everyone is able to see how he draws small animated figures. It does not take an expert in art to see that the man had a magical talent for drawing, especially these small active figures, fruit vendors, shepherds, blacksmiths, fishermen, all that daily life in Macau from the time he lived here," says the expert. "There is one thing that people often question, which is: if Chinnery had not come to Macau, would he still have been a great artist in Europe, for example? I think so, yes. I think he had that special genius that not all artists have," he concludes.
Beyond his genius as a painter, the filmmakers also want to have a look at the life of George Chinnery, the man, which is not always an easy topic to cover.
"Chinnery has been portrayed as a womanizer who had affairs with several women. Everyone seems interested in that facet. But we have to speculate a little around it, because in fact there is no documentary evidence that he had affairs with several women in China," says Conner. "On the other hand, he had some illegitimate children when he was in India, where he had the reputation of being an extrovert and untrustworthy individual who could perfectly do that sort of thing," he adds.
Campbell McLean, the producer and the person who came up with the idea of making the film about Chinnery, hopes that this film will encourage people to take a new look at the life of the painter, and also serve as inspiration.
"Macau has unique characters and amazing stories to tell. We hope that our work can inspire others to do the same with other figures. And we advise these people to be persistent. It took us three years to get funding for this film and will be worth it because Macau deserves these stories to be told."
