Australasian titles Finding Jia and The Red Room are among five new shorts added to the SXSW Sydney screen program.
Directed by Alice Yang, and produced by Maisie Fabry, Finding Jia tells the story of 8-year-old immigrant Mei, who yearns for the type of life she sees on TV, instead of having to navigate baths in a bucket, mediocre Chinese food and bickering parents.
This solace is taken away from her, as her mum sees it as time that could be spent perfecting her multiplication tables. Mei plans to run away in search of the real thing, the home she sees on TV. But with time spent away from the screen, she comes to see that the life she has is one that was fought hard for by her parents in their search for the “Australian Dream”. The cast includes Joy Jiang, Vicky Liao, Johnny Xia, and Ollie Xu.
Also set to screen is The Red Room by New Zealand/Tongan filmmaker Alex Liu and producer Jacob Vale. The film follows a timid office worker, whose life unravels after he fails to read the terms and conditions at a pseudo-health clinic. It features Michael Falesiu, Catherine Yates, Samson Vaotuua, TJ Snow Karlton, Laing Brendon Green, Tristan Joseph, Jesse Miller, and Samantha Cotton.
Of the other new films to be announced, there is Masashi Kawamura and Iku Ogawa’s Hidari (Japan), Solmund MacPherson’s Wildmen of the Greater Toronto Area (Canada), and Taylor James’ LY, Bye (USA).
They join a shorts line-up that includes Wendi Tang’s Fishtank (China/USA), Eros V’s Meat Puppet (UK), Hweiling Ow’s Vivie (NZ), and Talia Shea Levin’s Make Me a Pizza (US).
This year’s SXSW Sydney will take place October 14–20. View the full schedule of what has been announced across tech and innovation, games, music, and screen here.