Nina Wu (灼人祕密), the latest film by Burmese-Taiwanese director Midi Z (趙德胤) has been selected for competition in the Un Certain Regard section of the 72nd Cannes Film Festival, which will be held from 14th to 25th May. And three VR installations created by Laurie ANDERSON and HUANG Hsin-chien (黃心健), Aloft (高空), Chalkroom (沙中房間) and To the Moon (登月) will be presented all together for the first time at the 51st Directors' Fortnight.
▲Nina Wu directed by Midi Z
Nina Wu, the fifth narrative feature of Midi Z, shot in Taiwan and starring WU Ke-xi (吳可熙), Vivian SUNG (宋芸樺) and Kimi HSIA (夏于喬), has been shortlisted in the Un Certain Regard category of the Cannes Film Festival. It has been 11 years since a Taiwanese film was nominated for this category. Inspired by the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo movements in Korea and Japan, the screenplay was written by WU Ke-xi, who is also the lead actress in the film. The film will make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 20th May at Théâtre Claude Debussy.
In addition to the cast, Midi Z has the best line-up for his film Nina Wu. The international crew includes LIM Giong (林強), a Cannes award-winning composer, CHOU Chen (周震), a regular sound designer of Midi Z, and Matthieu LACLAU, an awardee of Best Film Editing at the Golden Horse Film Festival.
The Taiwanese new media artist HUANG Hsin-chien and the American avant-garde artist Laurie ANDERSON have been collaborating on various digital art projects since 1995. During the 15-minute VR experience of their latest work, To the Moon, the viewer is shot out from earth, walks on the surface of the moon, glides through space debris, flies through DNA skeletons and is lifted up the side and then tossed off of a lunar mountain. Their other two virtual reality works, Chalkroom, which won the Best VR Experience Award at Venice Film Festival in 2017, and Aloft have also been invited to this year’s Cannes showcase.
