LEXI, 22min., USA, Experimental
Directed by Chloe Chen
Lexi, a desperate actress, can't perform well in front of the camera because of her tragic past and introverted and manic-depressive personality. She can only release herself when she is alone. When she was hesitating whether to give up her acting career, the director who cooperated with her ten years ago talked about his SINS......

Director Statement
When the world pursues positive mindsets, pessimists are like walking naked under the scorching sun. Should we continue to drag my body like driving cattle, or should we let it be? It is only when everything is gone that we discover the existence of love from ourselves. Even if we are sad, even if we are desperate, we can still shine.

I have watched many great films during my first year at NYU. Among these, the most impressive ones are Girlhood and Madeline’s Madeline. I was amazed by the dance scenes in Girlhood. There’s both euphoria and sadness in the dance scene, which depicts the pain of youth quite well. Madeline’s Madeline uses a very different visual and auditory language to show a process of subverting power relations (rebellion of youth, questioning of the creative leader.) It visualizes the character’s emotions. Both films emphasize long takes, which could be boring, but I immersed myself in them. I was attracted to this kind of untraditional way of telling stories. As a result, I adopted some characteristics of slow cinema. What’s more, the content of my film is similar to La La Land and Modern Love season 1 episode 3: Take Me As I Am, Whoever I Am. La La Land is most commendable for embedding traditional musical elements into modern films, making people feel that music and dance are flowing and integrated with modern cinema. Color is an essential aesthetic element in La La Land. The color of the whole film adopts saturated warm tones and unnatural light effects, creating an elegant, dramatic retro visual effect. It is also endowed with significant meanings and a variety of expressions. The heroine of Take Me As I Am, Whoever I Am is a well-written bipolar character. At the beginning of the story, Lexi (Anne Hathaway) is at the grocery store during a euphoric, manic high. The grocery store scenes are shot like a musical. However, she can shift from mania to depression within very short periods. Both La La Land and Take Me As I Am, Whoever I Am tend to be retro, and I really like their style. As a result, I imitated some of their camera movements and set design. I utilized much high saturated color so that the film would look retro. I also let the DP use a diffuser so that the image will have a film look. Not only do I like the retro visual effect, but also like retro music. I love disco and funk very much, that’s why I chose the song Be My Lady by Kool & The Gang. It’s one of my dream to shoot a dance scene with disco music.

This film is inspired by a real conversation between my boyfriend and me. He asked me to act a role in his short film. But when I practiced the line, I couldn’t make him satisfied. She was a very energetic character, and I couldn’t perform the line very well. I realized that I had changed a lot, and this was not how I used to be. I fell in love with movies when I was in junior high school. My teacher always invited us to engage in role-play or dramatization, from which my interest in writing scripts and directing actions originated. I could let go of myself before on the stage in front of everyone, and I even won a prize at school, but I couldn’t do this anymore. This made me feel sad and think about what could have caused this drastic change in my personality.