A Book of Sand (2024)
Experimental Documentary Film
10’34
Director: Linrui Xiong
Sound Design: Xueqing Yu

Context:

The Book of Sand is an experimental documentary exploring history through cinematic approach. Amid the persistent regional wars of recent years, director Linrui Xiong reflects on the unchanging nature of human conflict, where history seems to consume humanity itself. Constructing the human world through the four elements—wind, fire, water, and earth—the film presents history as an omnipresent force, both above and beneath the written word. A notebook, inscribed in multiple languages, records the regional wars that took place between 2020 and 2024, ultimately illustrating how human writing itself becomes part of history.

80% of the sound in the Sound Design comes from a recording of seawater on the island of Korčula, Croatia. Using Granulator II, I rediscovered the character of water—it can form textures like flowing sand, be melodic, soft, and powerful, or turn merciless and brutal.