Spring 1976, during the Cultural Revolution in China, 5-year-old Swallow is abandoned at a public boarding preschool in central Beijing. When the persimmons are ripe, Swallow masters how to cry in her harsh new life, but doesn’t forget how to fly. Inspired by filmmaker Mochi Lin’s mother’s experience as a young child, this story is told through a delicate stop-motion animation style that is at once soft and harsh at the same time, resulting in a profoundly moving film of survival.
Canada
2022
In Mandarin with English subtitles
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Credits
Producer
Mochi Lin
ANIM
Mochi Lin
Editor
Mochi Lin
Original Music
Mochi Lin, Derek Jin
Director
Mochi Lin
Mochi Lin is a filmmaker, animator, pianist, and composer, recently graduated with a BFA in Film and Animation from Rhode Island School of Design. She also concentrated in History Philosophy and Social Sciences, and studied Music at Brown University. Mochi grew up looking up at the green roof tiles around her neighbourhood, running between the red city walls of imperial Beijing. However, when she fled to Canada in 2015, looking down through the tiny porthole, all she perceived was a city long shrouded with grey smog and yellow sandstorm…
Filmography: Swallow Flying to the South (2022)
VIFF Short Forum
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Short Forum 1: The Scarier One
The return of scary: fear in all its chilling, suspenseful, and unsettling shades.
Short Forum 2: Anthropomaxx
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Short Forum 3: Workers of the World
The grind of the working class in a system that betrays its promises.
Short Forum 4: Immanence: A Life
You don’t have to look far; life is beautiful!
Short Forum 5: Somewhere Else
If space and time are pure perception, let’s build them differently.
Short Forum 6: Archive Lives!
Before anything becomes archival, it’s lived.
Short Forum 7: War at Home
Truly, no one is safe until everyone is safe.
Short Forum 8: Queer Magic
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Short Forum 9: Big Time Sensuality
Explorations of desire and intimacy serve both pain and pleasure.
Short Forum 10: Are the Kids Alright?
The future kinda depends on it.