Handscape | 夏青
China | Drama | 2020 | 19 minutes | Mandarin with English subtitles
Director: Yiru Chen
SYNOPSIS
Contemporary Shanghai, summer. Xia Qing, a boy who has been wearing hearing aids due to hearing impairment, has a deep love for dancing. He gains so much joy just from copying Martha Graham’s hand gestures in a dance magazine. A kid with a precocious nature, he sometimes paints his pinky nail red just for that glimpse of beauty. Yet all these passionate pursuits are misunderstood and questioned by his single, deaf mother. Given the opportunity to audition for his favorite dance company once in a blue moon, he has no choice but to return to his body--He seeks his mother’s approval and longs to overcome this obscure self-identity crisis, through the silent language on his fingertips.
DIRECTOR - Yiru Chen
In 2019, Yiru graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a major in Film and Television production and two minors in Psychology and American Sign Language. She has received her MA degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education Program. Currently, Yiru works as a classroom teacher at St.Francis De Sales School for the Deaf. She is an active member of both Shanghai and New York signing communities. She remains a strong advocate for sign language education and accessible, inclusive arts.
Yiru is skillful at producing poetic media and writing. The experiences she has both in front of and behind the camera have allowed her to develop a unique personal aesthetic. Her works always explore the concepts of anthropology as well as universal emotions. Her thesis short film "Handscape" has been selected for more than 20 international film festivals and won the Grand Jury Prize at Shanghai Queer International Film Festival. Her first feature-length documentary film with performance artists Eiko Otake and Wen Hui will be published in 2022/2023.
- Year2020
- Runtime19 minutes
- LanguageMandarin, Chinese
- CountryChina
- DirectorYiru Chen
Handscape | 夏青
China | Drama | 2020 | 19 minutes | Mandarin with English subtitles
Director: Yiru Chen
SYNOPSIS
Contemporary Shanghai, summer. Xia Qing, a boy who has been wearing hearing aids due to hearing impairment, has a deep love for dancing. He gains so much joy just from copying Martha Graham’s hand gestures in a dance magazine. A kid with a precocious nature, he sometimes paints his pinky nail red just for that glimpse of beauty. Yet all these passionate pursuits are misunderstood and questioned by his single, deaf mother. Given the opportunity to audition for his favorite dance company once in a blue moon, he has no choice but to return to his body--He seeks his mother’s approval and longs to overcome this obscure self-identity crisis, through the silent language on his fingertips.
DIRECTOR - Yiru Chen
In 2019, Yiru graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a major in Film and Television production and two minors in Psychology and American Sign Language. She has received her MA degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education Program. Currently, Yiru works as a classroom teacher at St.Francis De Sales School for the Deaf. She is an active member of both Shanghai and New York signing communities. She remains a strong advocate for sign language education and accessible, inclusive arts.
Yiru is skillful at producing poetic media and writing. The experiences she has both in front of and behind the camera have allowed her to develop a unique personal aesthetic. Her works always explore the concepts of anthropology as well as universal emotions. Her thesis short film "Handscape" has been selected for more than 20 international film festivals and won the Grand Jury Prize at Shanghai Queer International Film Festival. Her first feature-length documentary film with performance artists Eiko Otake and Wen Hui will be published in 2022/2023.
- Year2020
- Runtime19 minutes
- LanguageMandarin, Chinese
- CountryChina
- DirectorYiru Chen