From Sound to Observation: Shuntaro Uchida on Incinerator

By Yun-hua Chen. I felt that my job was to interfere with that as little as possible.” –Shuntaro Uchida Ten-year-old Kozue (Karin) feels out of place at school. She doesn’t have any peer to talk to and likes tossing randomly procured objects into the school’s incinerator. The university student Jinta […]

Space and Its Limitations: Yang Zhengfan on Stranger

By Yun-hua Chen. I was initially attracted to the concept of space, but space brought many limitations, which I actually like because they encourage exploring more possibilities.” Composed of snippets that capture different hotel rooms inhabited by various “strangers”, Chicago-based Chinese director Zhengfan Yang is acutely sensitive to how spaces […]

Flight in Search of Asylum: On In the Land of Brothers

By Yun-hua Chen. People often say there are more important problems in Iranian society and no time to discuss [the Afghan refugee crisis]. That’s not a good excuse.” –Alireza Ghasemi Filmmakers Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi discuss their new feature Stemming from profound concerns and affection for Afghan refugees who […]

“Three Goodbyes”: An Interview with Celine Song on Past Lives

By Yun-hua Chen. Characters that I am trying to create are in general characters that are very thrilled to exist as who they are. So, I think this is really about not making apologies.” Exploring untaken paths and traces of human connections that feel like originating in past lives, Celine […]