Director:  Joe Turner Lin
Writer:  Joe Turner Lin

Producer:  Dennis Lee, Francisco Ordoñez
Executive Producer:  Milton Liu
Co-producer:  Julie Anne Meerschwam

Director of Photography:  Adam Silver
Cast:  Tokio Sasaki, Kit Paquin, Jessica Hirota, Kelli Ching, Ken Cypert, Hsuch Jung Lin

Shooting Format:  HD 24p Varicam
Running Time: 18:45

Aspect Ratio: 1.85
Languages:  English and Japanese with subtitles

SYNOPSIS:

For Tokio, the day is a time to sleep. At night, he works the graveyard shift at a high-speed photomat, with a girl named Jennie. One fateful night, a photo gets jammed in the machine, and Tokio finds himself looking. In his loneliness, he begins to steal photos of her, imagining that if he can collect enough photos, and move them around fast enough, he can animate her face with her soul. When Jennie discovers that Tokio has fallen in love with someone else, she calls the girl in to the photoshop. Tokio must confront the reality of his love, and in doing so, the pain from his past.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:

Between undergrad and grad school, I spent four years working in the film industry in New York. But the winter months were tough, especially then, and there was little work to be had.  So I started working a temporary position.  At night,  I rarely saw the sun.  I would go to sleep at dawn, and wake up after sunset.  It was then that I realized: the day is a time, but the night is a place. The landscape of New York is different at night. There are no crowds, there’s so much less interaction.  It is, in fact, the perfect place to hide.  It is the perfect place to be still.

Thought and analysis are designed to help ease the long journey between inaction and movement.  But sometimes they serve as roadblocks too. How does one break free of the inertia of loneliness, when fantasy and obsession have created an illusion of real interaction?  I asked myself that question a thousand times, deep in the night, awake at my desk or walking the streets.  And I came up with this answer.  Faith and acceptance are the only way to unravel the knots of paralysis.

I wrote the film to reflect this: Life is about taking risks.  Without it, you can only live an empty fantasy.  Take a leap of faith and connect, because no matter what the consequences, it will eventually lead you to hope.  “Seibutsu (Still: Life)” reminds us of the chance meetings with people that, each in their own way, help us through the darkness before the dawn.

AWARDS:

China-American Festival of Film and Culture 2006, Winner

San Diego Asian Film Festival 2005, Grand Jury Prize

Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2005, Semi-Finalist

Palm Springs International Short Film Festival 2004, 2nd Place Best Student Live Action Short

Angelus Awards 2004, Semi-Finalist

Student Academy Awards, Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 2004, National Finalist

Columbia University Film Festival 2004, Faculty Honors, Audience Award, Best Cinematography

SCREENINGS:

HDFest 2006

Chicago Asian-American Showcase 2006

DisOrient Asian American Film Festival 2006

Pawky Short Film Contest 2006

Asian Pacific American Film Festival 2005

Breckenridge Festival of Film 2005

Mecal International Short Film Festival Barcelona 2005

IFP Market 2005

IFP Buzz Cuts 2005

Cinema St. Louis 2004

Los Angeles International Shorts Film Festival 2004

Tubingen International Shorts Film Festival 2004

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Link to stills: Seibutsu Gallery