SHORTS: “Diaspora Blues” (total 87 min)
30 March 2024@BLOC
The diaspora, being an integral part of an indelible experience, profoundly influences individuals' memory. Women's cinema adeptly captures these nuanced intricacies through a diverse range of observations.
A Walk Down Memory Lane (WANG Kejing,18min, 2021)
A young gardener finds himself embarking on a tour to see rock formations and waterfalls, where he slips into the identity of a tour guide. With a fellow tourist, they experience yet more overlaps of topography, flips of identities, and ruptures in what is set in stone.
WANG Kejing
Wang Kejing, born in 1993, graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in2018 with an MFA in Photography and Related Media. Her documentary short Kayaking premiered at Doclisboa lnternational Film Festival in 2020: narrative short A Walk Down Memory Lane won the Best Narrative Short at Minute Short Film Festival Chengdu) in 2021: both films were also selected for Beijing lnternational Short Film Festival and CineCina Film Festival (New York).
The Thing with Feathers (Tianlin Xu, 19 min, 2022)
In this film, we catch a glimpse into an Iranian-Afghan family's one day in life in Germany solely
through seeing their hands. Iranian doctor Maryam came with her family to Germany for asylum
two years ago. After her little daughter, Yara, was born, she sticks to a strict daily studying routine,
hoping to return to her medical career while her husband Hossain takes care of their baby at
home. On this day, Hossain has a Job interview at a photo studio, and Maryam has to reschedule
her day.
Tianlin Xu
Tianlin Xu is an award-winning Chinese filmmaker and media educator based in Hangzhou, China and Hattingen, Germany, with an academic background in German studies and International Media Studies. She started filmmaking since 2009. Her debut feature-length documentary "Coming and Going "was funded by the Sundance Documentary Program and has won different awards at many Internaional film festivals, including “The best documentary director "at the Olympia Film Festival for Children and Young people, Gold Remi Prize at the WorldFest Houston, and “The Board of Directors' Award” of the North Carolina Film Awards. “The Thing With Feathers” is her first narrative short and got her nominations and awards at Hongkong International Film Festival, Golden Horse Awards. She is also engaged in media education and is the co-founder of the Studio Klasse Story Lab in Yunnan, China and initiator of the film education workshop for the immigrant women in Hattingen “FrauenLebenswelten”. She is a mother of two kids.
What Can I Hold You With (SHEN Di, 19min, 2021)
After missing a meeting with a friend, an elderly Afghan living in Yiwu, China, decided to roam the city on a sleepless night.
SHEN Di
Shen Di, graduated from Shanghai theater Academy.
The Storms in our Blood won the second prize of the Cinefondation of the 71st Cannes international Film Festival.
Film project was selected to the Venice Biennale Collage Cinema and the Venice Production Bridge.
What Can I Hold you With won the special mention of 2021 Beijing internationl short film festival. Year Zero was selected to 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.
Welcome Home (Yao Kuo-Chen, 30min, 2022)
This is a short film about women with a great influence in a Chinese family. In this mother-and-daughter relationship hides a cycle of love, life and hurting each other.
Kuo-Chen Yao
Kuo-Chen Yao majored in set design and graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts. Then he became the production designer of all kinds of films, including experimental, independent and commercial ones. He has shown his unique visual aesthetic style in the films “Gatao 2 – The New Leader Rising”, “More Than Blue” and “Your Name Engraved Herein”.
For the past few years, he has been a director of music videos and known for the subtle feelings and depiction of humanity. A pioneer of monologues, he tries to build an imaginary world based on the dialogical relationship between time, space and humanity. With his unique thinking of life and observation on humanity, he presents his question through his films. He is never in a hurry to get an answer but tries to guide his works and himself with the life journey. He has been nominated for Best Music Video at Golden Melody Awards and Best Art & Design at Golden Bell Awards.
