40° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES COMPETITION
SILVER BIRD AND RAINBOW FISH
by Lei Lei
Country: USA, Netherlands
Year: 2022
Duration: 104'
“Our family is special,” says filmmaker Lei Lei’s father Lei Jiaqi. On the audio track of this inventive, poignant animation film he starts to talk about the struggles of his family amid the tumultuos times in the 1960s. When his own father, Lei Ting, is sent to the countryside, he stays behind with his sister and his ill mother. When Mum passes away, as the system forbids Ting to come back to live with his children, the kids are kept in an orphanage. Not long after, history repeated: once again, Ting is sent to a re- education center branded a class traitor. The family is split. They just can write to each other. The daughters are going to university, while Jiaqi and his new mum are sent to the countryside. They all wait for the day to reunite.
Biography
film director
Lei Lei
(Nanchang, Cina, 1985) graduated from Tsinghua University in 2009 with a Master’s degree in Animation. Since then, he has worked as an independent filmmaker and experimental animation artist. His works include short animation films This Is Love (Best Narrative Short Award at Ottawa International Film Festival in 2010), Recycled (selected at Annecy Film Festival), and many others, which have been selected in international festivals and exhibited in museums. He has also been selected to attend many artist residencies and fellowship programs. Furthermore, he has had solo exhibitions of his work in Beijing and Austria, and has also been a part of group exhibitions all over the world. His mid-length documentary Breathless Animals played in Berlinale Forum in 2019. Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish (2022) is his first feature animation film.
FILMOGRAFIA
Pears or Aliens (cm, 2009), The Universe Cotton (cm, 2009), Magic Cube and Ping-Pong (cm, 2009). Hululu Honglonglong Hualala (cm, 2010), This is LOVE (cm, 2010), My... My... (cm, 2011), Big Hands Oh Big Hands, Let It Be Bigger and Bigger (cm, 2012), Recycled (cm, 2013), This Is Not a Time to Lie (cm, 2014), Missing One Player (cm, 2015), Books on Books (cm, 2015), Hand-Colored No.2 (cm, 2016), Breathless Animals (mm, 2019), Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish (2022).
Declaration
film director
“Our generation grew up in an era of world peace and economic development in China. We did not experience the same historical turmoil as our parents' generation. Many of us live in cities. The living environment of young people is full of cafes, discos, cinemas, Starbucks and McDonald's, which is actually very similar to the Western lifestyle, the same as New York or Los Angeles in terms of consumption level. In this context, it seems that we increasingly want to live a so-called middle-class life, or we long to live a very rich, consumption-oriented life. But where are our roots? About our own family, what is its history? It seems that our generation doesn't care.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY, ANIMATION, CINEMATOGRAPHY: Lei Lei. STORY: Inspired by the life and storytelling of Lei Jiaqi, Lei Ting. FILM EDITING: Lei Lei, Patrick Minks. MUSIC, SOUND: Tessa Rose, Jackson, Darius Timmer. PRODUCERS: Lei Lei, Isabelle Glachant. COPRODUCERS: Bruno Felix, Janneke Van De Kerkhof, Femke Wolting. PRODUCTION: c-ray studio Chinese, shadows. COPRODUCTION: Submarine Amsterdam.
CONTACT:
CONTACT:
Asian Shadow - Lya lya@chineseshadows.com
