ALL ASIAN INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL OFFICIAL SELECTION 2021
The AAIFF is back for its second edition! We are proud to announce the films of this year’s Official Selection.
AAIFF 2021 will proudly screen 25 films from 10 countries on the 24th-28th of November, online.
Dramatic Feature Film
THE CLOUDS KNOW
DIRECTOR Jun Wang COUNTRY China
Wang Ruyun is a wine taster. She lost contact with her husband after a plane crash. She lives in grief and inside her endless thoughts every day, and her life changes drastically. Wang Ruyun also firmly believes that her husband will come back. But where is this missing plane?
THE ROAD TO EDEN
DIRECTOR Bakyt Mukul, Dastan Zhapar Uulu
COUNTRY Kyrgyzstan
A famous retired writer, is living his last days. A childless widower and his only wish is that literature continues to bring enlightenment to his nation. He finds himself between his desire to save his sick friend and the pressure to help his brother.
UGOKU TOKAI – MOVING CITY
DIRECTOR Lars Ostmann
COUNTRY Germany, Japan
A melancholy-looking young man in a business suit goes on an adventure into his own city. Guided by a mysterious map, he discovers twelve paths in time and space. As he wanders, he begins to pose questions about a meaningful existence. What makes us come alive? Will we go on the same way?
Dramatic Short Film
A GIRL IN THE ELEVATOR
DIRECTOR Takuma Matsuda COUNTRY Japan
Direct selection from Japan Web Fest
A week of life of the girl shown only in the elevator. By taking place in the limited space, her
inner world expands to the outer world.
FELINITY
DIRECTOR Guolin Pang
COUNTRY China
The gap between humans and animals could be as thin as a thread. And the excessive lust may result in lethal consequence. A man accidentally adopts a stray cat, which turns into a beautiful woman at the night and shows her affection to him.
LOW-END POPULATION
DIRECTOR Jianjiang Sun
COUNTRY China
When multiple outbreaks hit his city, unemployed Zhao Er refuses to leave even as the economy collapses. He unexpectedly finds a collection of portraits of Liu Zhen, his high school “Goddess”. This becomes the joy of his weary life.
MY BELOVED
DIRECTOR Youshi Xu
COUNTRY China
A gurgling stream, sweet flowers and plants, a flock of wild goats, all appear in the stream. The boy’s world is simple, beautiful and full of fantasy. The inverted reflection of himself from the stream makes him yearn for a fairy tale where he can see his mother again.
RESTART
DIRECTOR Xiao Ting Zhong
COUNTRY China
After a war that destroyed civilization, human survivors are unable to rebuild what they have lost. One day, a boy a military robot in the ruins. This robot could read poetry, and the world is slowly changing.
WAO
DIRECTOR Emi Yasumura
COUNTRY Japan
One day, WAO encounters three strange people. They are aliens, and WAO is told that he must return to his home planet with them. He is worried about leaving behind his parents, who do not get along, and tries to repair the relationship between them with the help of the aliens.
WELLSPRING
DIRECTOR Jeffrey Smith Quizon
COUNTRY Philippines
After a mysterious open barrel is seen floating in a river, villagers start ending up dead. A decade later, the river has disappeared after a catastrophic drought. Only one source of clean water remains: a hidden wellspring. Two opposing factions of soldiers converge in their search for the wellspring, but more than their thirst for water is their thirst for revenge.
Documentary Film
A LETTER TO A’MA
DIRECTOR Hui-Ling Chen
COUNTRY Taiwan
An art teacher returns to her childhood home to mourn the passing of her grandmother. As she pieces together the fragmented memories of her youth she finds herself coming face-to-face with the problematic issue of her country’s fractured history.
A WILL TO DREAM
DIRECTOR Patrick Alcedo
COUNTRY Canada, Philippines
A former ballet star in the Philippines, Luther Perez surrendered his US Green Card to teach dance to underprivileged children and youth in the urban poor districts in Quezon City. This is a story of how dance when partnered with kindness has the power to possibly overcome socio-economic inequities and political challenges.
MAN AND TREES – PLUM TREE
DIRECTOR Chiao-wei Chen
COUNTRY Taiwan
Due to the limitation of climate and soil, Taiwan’s green plums are almost always grown at moderate to high altitudes, which is also where many Hakka settlements reside. Since the green plum share similar historical footprints with the Hakka people, what does the green plum represent in their hearts?
WASABIA JAPONICA
DIRECTOR Edwin Lee
COUNTRY Hong Kong
Direct selection from Japan Web Fest
This is the story of 75-year-old who is the 8th generation owner of Iriya Manaka wasabi farm. It’s a unique farm based on the ‘tatamiishi’ method invented in the late 19th century. His story stems from a family tragedy, where he must come out of retirement and once again take lead of his wasabi business.
Student Film
BOY QUEEN
DIRECTOR Sai Nyi Min Htut
COUNTRY Myanmar
To his mother, Agyip is a 19-year-old who works as a hotel receptionist. What she doesn’t know is that by night her son has another persona and another life – as ‘Violet Katy’. Agyip and his friend Myint Kant Zin are determined to don their make-up and costumes, strut their stuff and live the lives they want – in spite of family and societal pressure.
DEMONS
DIRECTOR Niko Angelo Quimbo Chu
COUNTRY Philippines
All it took was one night for the demons to take the wheel, and the rest of his life was no longer to his control. A man is forever haunted by an unfortunate encounter with a lone hitchhiker in the deserted country roads. No matter what he does to escape them, the nightmares refuse to leave.
RELEASE
DIRECTOR Jiayi Huang
COUNTRY China
Shot in Hangzhou in the form of an organization or club, rope art and BDSM fans group – “black society”. The film will present their daily teaching and communication activities, performances, mutual discussions and chats, or their life state when they are separated from the identity of “SM fans”, so as to explore the world outlook of this group and outline an understanding of the SM world through these.
THE GUPPY’S DEATH
DIRECTOR Yi Han
COUNTRY China
Shen Qiushui, is a young woman fond of spying on other people’s lives. She steals her neighbour’s letters to satisfy her voyeuristic desire. When Shen compares the secrets she has peeped into with real life, she discovers that the letters seem to be false, but she still gains the power to change her life from the letters.
Experimental Film
CIRCULAR RUINS
DIRECTOR Zeyu Wang
COUNTRY China
Liang Jing, a woman who works in the city, returns to the village where her parents live. Her mother orders her to consult an old fortuneteller to find marriage. During the meeting, Liang’s reality starts to intertwine with her past and her life starts to change.
OTONASHI
DIRECTOR Martin Gerigk
COUNTRY Germany, Japan
“Painted in silence, a sparrow’s dream invokes timeless harmonies. In the heart of the universal geometry, the seed of calm is formed.” A philosophical voyage through inner and outer experiences of the human existence – an audiovisual meditation of futuristic transmutations about the Japanese Hannya Shingyō.
STARS FOR MY DOG
DIRECTOR Bane Ignacio-Singian
COUNTRY United States
Vicente is a young adult who ran away to space in his childhood cardboard rocketship. On his 21st birthday, family tensions he thought he left behind start to fall into orbit again.
THE ELEVATOR OF LIFE
DIRECTOR Guolin Pang
COUNTRY China
Life is short, sometimes separate and sometimes together, just like an elevator journey, cherish the present, cherish the people in front of us, cherish our future days. Love the people around you all the time.
Animated Film
ANTON
DIRECTOR Yen Jui Lu COUNTRY United States
In this film the director illustrates the relationship between himself and my dream. A message to anyone who struggles being themselves: just follow your heart and don’t let anybody crush your dream.
DIARY OF A
MAD BLACK WEREWOLF
DIRECTOR Mark Cheng
COUNTRY United States
A female werewolf reflects on her legacy and food chain.
THE JOURNEY WITH
DIRECTOR Yo Kohatsu
COUNTRY Japan
An actress stands at a train station in Sicilia. A cat hanging in a surgical mask comes from the sky. They have a mysterious encounter.