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A FILM · 2023–2024

Shoot Self
with You

Human Surrender · 人类投降派

Film excerpt · 18 sec · Silent

Official screening ↗Vimeo ↗Screening enquiries ↗

A film taking shape through rehearsal and life together.

Approx. 156 min · English subtitles

He Fa: Initiator, producer and editor; direction and screenplay collectively created by the crew
Original end credits ↗

Frames of an encounter

Theatre, bodies, overlapping images and people looking. Return through moments held in the film.

Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You, film still, 00:07:49.
Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You, film still, 00:07:49.Full image ↗
A solitary action inside an emptied theatre, 00:43:47.
A solitary action inside an emptied theatre, 00:43:47.Full image ↗
Two people within an overlapping image, 01:02:32.
Two people within an overlapping image, 01:02:32.Full image ↗
Body, fabric and touch, 01:49:27.
Body, fabric and touch, 01:49:27.Full image ↗
A shared viewing scene near the end of the film, 02:26:59.
A shared viewing scene near the end of the film, 02:26:59.Full image ↗
Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You trailer still, 00:00:48.
Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You trailer still, 00:00:48.Full image ↗
Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You trailer still, 00:02:08.
Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You trailer still, 00:02:08.Full image ↗

How the film took shape

The project moved through casting, rehearsal, filming and public performance in 2023; an approximately 156-minute film cut was completed in 2024.

Project statement

Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You took shape through casting, rehearsal and filming in 2023. Participants faced one another and the camera; initiating, performing, filming and directing intersected within a shared creation process.

At 19:30 on 26 August 2023, The Last Rehearsal took place at Ciyu Bookstore (Middle Theater branch). The final performance before filming wrapped combined theatre, performance art, live sound, installation, audience interaction and continuous photography; material from the event entered the film.

After completing the film, He Fa continued to work with its voices, dialogue, breath, images and excerpts through sound sessions, explanatory shorts and frame-by-frame notes.

A line through the work

When performers, director and camera all remain inside the relation, can looking stay neutral?

June 2023: an initial three-part film proposal

He Fa’s recruitment text of June 3 proposed three parts: long-take rehearsals in a black stage space; a camera following performers into everyday life; and a public performance recording their interaction with an audience. Three people were sought to play a director and two leads, with work planned for June–August. This proposal documents an early method rather than the final film’s structure, cast size or duration.

Read the contemporary text ↗

From a borrowed camera to shifting production roles

The production account of August 18 names Yun Jianhui as an early initiator and cinematographer. Zhou Jinsong and Liu Jinqi recorded the process while contributing ideas, scripts and production work. He Fa describes roles changing during the work: actors could direct, camera operators could perform, and recorders also acted within events. These contemporary credits preserve individual contributions alongside the shifting structure of the collaboration.

Read the contemporary text ↗

The pre-performance credits for The Last Rehearsal

The August 25 announcement scheduled the film’s concluding performance for 19:30 on August 26 at Ciyu Bookstore’s Inside-Out Theatre branch. It lists Huang Meng, Sun Jiarui and Xu Shuai as performers; Yun Jianhui as recorder; Zhao Xuan, Ru Meng and Zhao Ziyi as musicians; and He Fa as the behind-the-scenes producer. The plan combined theatre, performance art, live sound and installation, with camera documentation throughout. These are the roles stated in the pre-performance announcement.

Read the contemporary text ↗

Continue in writing

Follow works back to signed texts, with writing at the time, later reflection and participant accounts identified separately.

Editorial reading · 2026

CLOSE READING / 2026 CURATORIAL INTERPRETATION

Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You

When shared experience becomes a film, who can still answer within it?

Work date: 2023–2024Reading: 2026

Site editorial reading · AI-assisted · Version 2026-09-16

The film overlays the reciprocal looking of rehearsal with the gaze of later viewers. Cameras are present from the outset, and people know their actions may become future images. The camera is therefore not a transparent witness outside the event. The collective direction and writing credits extend this relation into authorship: shared experience is not absorbed under one director’s name, while He Fa’s initiating, producing and editing work remains specifically identifiable.

Editing still selects sequence, distance and duration; collective credit does not make those decisions vanish. The question is how the film lets voices continue to encounter one another and where it fixes a relation into one version. A published 2026 reading of eyes, sound, cameras entering the frame and questions offers entrances for close viewing. These remain versioned interpretations to be tested against passages in the film. It cannot simply become testimony that theatre has exposed real people, and a director character cannot automatically be equated with He Fa outside the frame.

The limits of this reading

The film, public performance, rehearsal records and 2026 research text remain distinct versions. Private experience is not inferred from characters or performances.

Sources for this reading

Based on the 2023 Last Rehearsal announcement, He Fa’s published 2024 account, Imaging with You (2026), and the end credits of the 4g version.

The film continues elsewhere

Dialogue opens back onto images. Sound becomes another work. Writing returns to what happened between people.

A sound reworking

Another work, heard through the film

He Fa continues to work with the film’s dialogue, breathing, voices and environmental sound. This is a 45-second excerpt from that sound reworking.

HS4G / LOGIC PRO

Do You Need Me to Say It for You? — sound rewrite excerpt

00:00 / 00:45

Enter the related works

Shoot Self with You · Human Surrender: Site interface · September 2026

Site interface · September 2026

Film · dialogue & images

Shoot Self with You · Human Surrender

Return to the film through dialogue, characters, timecodes and stills; follow a sentence back to its image.

sswy.p4theater.cn · Chinese / English

Under the Membrane: Under the Membrane · project cover

Under the Membrane · project cover

Film extension · interactive work

Under the Membrane

Four voices move through mist; the viewer lights a fifth lamp. An interactive space extending from Human Surrender.

s.p4theater.cn · Chinese / English

The Recursive Referential Machine: Site interface · September 2026

Site interface · September 2026

A book by He Fa · online reading

The Recursive Referential Machine

Beginning with P4 Theater, Human Surrender and shared practice, the book asks how roles, images and interpretation reorganise life.

book.p4theater.cn · Chinese text

Human Surrender Canon: Site interface · September 2026

Site interface · September 2026

Film extension · public reading

Human Surrender Canon

A multi-volume reading space extending questions from the film into discussions of roles, relationships and viewing.

canon.p4theater.cn · Chinese text

Credits & record

Return to the people, the dates and the material left by making the film together.

2026-10-04 / ARCHIVAL ADDITION

Source materials, process and versions

Keep the camera records separate from the completed film. The 5.14 collection retains individual file identities; rehearsal, discussion and later editing remain distinct.

DJI_0002.MP4 ↗

Follow the other material strands ↗

Collective credits in the film

The preserved 4G version credits He Fa as initiator at 02:34:12, with direction and screenplay collectively created by the crew. At 02:34:50, He Fa is credited as producer and editor, with contributions to cinematography, art direction, rehearsal texts and subtitles. These two frames preserve the film’s own credits.

End credits at 02:34:12: initiator and collective direction and screenplay.
End credits at 02:34:12: initiator and collective direction and screenplay.
End credits at 02:34:50: production, editing and shared contributions.
End credits at 02:34:50: production, editing and shared contributions.
Work record & citation

Work record

Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You, 2023–2024. Film, rehearsal, live performance. He Fa’s role: Initiator, producer and editor; direction and screenplay collectively created by the crew.

Work / series
Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You
Date
2023–2024
Medium
Film, rehearsal, live performance
He Fa’s role
Initiator, producer and editor; direction and screenplay collectively created by the crew
Catalogue section
Selected works

Cite this record: Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You · 2023–2024 · Initiator, producer and editor; direction and screenplay collectively created by the crew · https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/human-surrender

Read Markdown ↓All work records ↗
Festivals, production texts & sources

Festivals & public records

The film's festival journey has three stages: selection by Filmmaker Sessions Volume 8, Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival, the Summer edition of the Los Angeles Film and Documentary Awards, and TheaterFilmFest - FIKTIVA in 2024; a place in the Boden International Film Festival's 2nd Quarter semifinal the same year; and Best Feature Film at the Esoteric Film Festival in 2025.

Further reading

Human Surrender: history and performance detailsThe Last RehearsalFestival selections, semifinal and awardBoden International Film Festival — 2nd Quarter 2024 semifinalistsEsoteric Film Festival — 2025 winnersLos Angeles Film and Documentary Awards — official selection

Related sources

Connections to other works

TAKE A PATH ACROSS

Other paths from this work.

  1. The Forbidden City: a square image of an architectural outline and overlapping traces

    Keeping and losing

    Overlap does more than add information

    Human Surrender / Shoot Self with YouThe Forbidden City

    The displaced overlays of The Forbidden City resist one stable instant; Human Surrender organizes collective filming into a film. Both hold multiple acts of looking, but planar overlap and editing sequence are not interchangeable.

    2023–2024 / Film, rehearsal, live performance
    2009–2012 / Photography, archival pigment print

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      Displaced superimpositions form the architectural outlines; the original portfolio does not specify the number of exposures or processing algorithm.

    2. Period documentFrom a borrowed camera to shifting production roles ↗

      The production account of 18 August 2023 specifically records shifts among photography, performance, directing and documentation in collective creation.

    Continue from this work ↗
  2. Team introduction page of the 2016 CAFAM proposal, naming FakingAosome’s founders and four projects

    Working together

    How shared making is credited

    Human Surrender / Shoot Self with YouTheatre Murder Case

    Theatre Murder Case combines drama and games under the name FakingAosome; Human Surrender credits its crew with collectively creating the direction and screenplay. Both organize practice involving multiple people, while the duo and the film crew define different scopes of authorship.

    2023–2024 / Film, rehearsal, live performance
    By 2016 / Immersive theatre, drama and games

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentDrama and games at P4 Theater ↗

      The 2016 proposal jointly signed by He Fa and Zhang Aoshuang lists the work under FakingAosome and explicitly combines theatre and games at P4; detailed documentation is limited.

    2. Event recordCollective credits in the film ↗

      At 02:34:12 the film credits directly attribute direction and screenplay to collective work by the cast and crew; the scope follows the original credit wording.

    Continue from this work ↗
  3. YourTube installation with multiple screens, exposed cables and linked seating

    Keeping and losing

    Seeing others and changing an image

    Human Surrender / Shoot Self with YouYourTube

    YourTube places existing comments over images; Human Surrender brings those filming and those filmed into shared production. The former makes others’ viewing traces visible; the latter also credits collective direction and writing. The word interaction cannot adequately describe both arrangements.

    2023–2024 / Film, rehearsal, live performance
    2018 / Multi-screen video installation

    Read the source materials
    1. Event recordA playback file finds its place in the installation ↗

      Source frames retain on-screen text, picture-in-picture and images of viewers, bringing existing traces of viewing into the playback material.

    2. Event recordCollective credits in the film ↗

      The credits at 02:34:12 and 02:34:50 separately retain collective direction and screenplay, production, editing and shared cinematography.

    Continue from this work ↗
  4. Shixiang’s dark stage, with a large-format camera and lighting at its centre

    Working together

    Facing one’s image again

    Human Surrender / Shoot Self with YouShixiang

    Shixiang extends photography into renewed viewing and expression; Human Surrender organizes shared filming into a film. Both bring people before their own images. Responses during continuing meetings differ from the choices that establish a finished version.

    2023–2024 / Film, rehearsal, live performance
    2019–2020 / Photography theatre

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentEight and a half acts. ↗

      The 2020 project text sets out photography in odd acts and viewing and expression in even acts within an eight-and-a-half-act structure; this is the method announced at the time.

    2. Period documentFrom a borrowed camera to shifting production roles ↗

      The production account of 18 August 2023 specifically records shifts among photography, performance, directing and documentation in collective creation.

    Continue from this work ↗
Explore crossings from this work ↗

FROM HERE, ELSEWHERE

Passages between works

  • After moving closer

    Close images and the visible presence of cameras make it difficult for viewers to occupy an uncomplicated position outside the encounter.

  • When can it end

    The film orders rehearsal and live material. Its preservation of collective work need not reduce it to one voice.

  • Making and keeping

    Move from the 2023 three-part film proposal through rehearsal records, the trailer and the public film, then read the artist on selection and continued editing. These stages preserve versions through which shared time during filming can be considered alongside later editing decisions.

Related records in the archive

Return to the work world ↗Reading He Fa ↗
Other works & reading

CONTINUE FROM ANOTHER ANGLE

Shixiang ↗

Photographing and viewing alternate. Participants encounter their own image and decide whether it becomes public.

P4 Theater ↗

Spaces, participants, events and documentation change one another through sustained work.

← All works
Complete chapter contents