UW alumnus Matthew Salton showed the UW community a world of fantasy and awe at the on-campus screening of his documentary “Dwarves Kingdom” on Thursday.
Salton graduated in 2008 with degrees from the UW Digital Arts and Experimental Media program and the Comparative History of Ideas department (CHID), and went on to create short films.
“Dwarves Kingdom,” his first feature-length documentary, highlights a theme park in Western China that recreates a mystical empire with little people as performers.
The theme park has been especially controversial among disability activists, who harbor concerns about whether it is ethical to create employment opportunities on the basis of a disability.
The screening, which was hosted by the CHID department, was directly followed by a Q&A session with Salton. The event pulled about 15 people, attracting both UW students and professors.
“I think generally the [CHID] program kind of instilled in me a deep sense of curiosity and a drive to engage with the world,” Salton said.
This drive to engage with the world was prominent in Salton’s film. Rather than making a political statement about the theme park, Salton shows the lives of the performers and exposes the raw emotion behind how they feel about their work.
“These people have courage and they’re overcoming the obstacles in life,” he said. “… But in the end it’s not enough.”
Salton said in some ways the movie is about “these people, and this idea of dreams and how it alters the people who live there and their perspective and the way they look at their future.”
CHID academic counselor Cynthia Anderson argued CHID values can be seen within Salton’s work.
She explained that one of CHID’s main principles is the idea that questions are content. Instead of outlining a list of solutions surrounding this controversial theme park, Salton presents questions to jog the minds of viewers, going back to this central CHID value.
“The content of his film is super CHID-like, because it’s not simple,” said Amy Peloff, assistant director of CHID. “There’s a lot of meat there that I think really fits well into what it is that we try to accomplish within CHID.”
The complexity that Peloff referred to can be seen in Salton’s desire to bring this culture from overseas directly back to the small CHID community on the UW campus where he originally started.
Salton’s film will be released in April on iTunes.
For more information and updates regarding “Dwarves Kingdom,” go to dwarveskingdom.com or follow “Dwarves Kingdom” on Facebook.
Reach contributing writer Rebecca Gross at development@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @becsgross
