Swimming in the Whale

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Creative Statement

The story comes from my life in a band in Shenyang and from what I felt during the pandemic. The film depicts an absurd journey and an unconventional father-son relationship. Ding Mao, a musician whose life has stalled in 2020, and Ding Jianguo, a laid-off worker in 2000, are the same person: forking and rejoining paths in the same garden. This is a soundscape film. It will use a large amount of non-realistic sound effects and treat ambient sound like sampled music. Sound takes part in the storytelling and drives the film.

Synopsis

Guided by a strange sound, electronic musician Ding Mao returns to a small city in Northeast China to perform. The show is unexpectedly cancelled, and his life comes to a standstill. During this time he learns that his father, missing for many years, has died. An American girl enters his life and brings colour into it. After an absurd journey wandering through the Northeast, Ding Mao realises he must face his father's death. A dream takes him back to the childhood he spent with his father; when he wakes, he finds that he and his father are alike, as if by fate. Ding Mao finally finds the source of the sound: it leads back to his childhood and to his father.

Genre:

Road Movie, Drama

Director/Screenwriter:

Zhong Kaifeng

Producer:

Zhang Jing

Production Company:

Shanghai Tianling Culture Co., Ltd.

About the Director/Screenwriter

Zhong Kaifeng: screenwriter and director. Graduated from the film and television directing program of the Central Academy of Drama in 2018. He writes fiction and music and makes films. 2019: co-writer of Iron Pillar Mountain (executive producer Emir Kusturica). 2020: director and screenwriter of the short film Chorus. 2021: director and screenwriter of Swimming in the Whale (in development). Swimming in the Whale won Most Promising Project at the project market of the 8th Chongqing Youth Film Festival, received a Selection Award at the project market of the 2021 Hi! Shorts Xiamen Short Film Week, and was named among the top ten of the 7th Youth Film Program (Qingcong Project). In 2022 he completed the proof-of-concept film for Swimming in the Whale.

About the Producer

Zhang Jing: young film producer who studied directing at the Yunnan Arts University and then at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. 2021: producer of the film Farewell, My Hometown, winner of the New Currents Award at the 26th Busan International Film Festival. 2019: producer of Farewell, My Hometown, which won the Best Director Award in the WIP program of the 3rd Pingyao International Film Festival. 2018: line producer of Long Day's Journey Into Night, selected for Un Certain Regard at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival and nominated for five awards including Best Feature Film at the 54th Golden Horse Awards. 2017: line producer of Secret Goldfish, the promotional short for the 54th Golden Horse Awards. 2016: line producer of Love of the White Whale, which won an Outstanding Production Award at the Lily Awards.

About the Production Company

Shanghai Tianling Culture Co., Ltd.: a cultural entertainment company that seeks out high-quality intellectual property worldwide and works on development, production and licensing to manage IP across its full life cycle.

Logline

Electronic musician Ding Mao returns to his hometown to perform and learns that his father, missing for many years, has died. A dream takes him back to the childhood he spent with his father; when he wakes, he finds that he and his father are alike, as if by fate.