"Eight to Nine O’Clock" dir. Frank Kunao Yan

Hello! We are a group of filmmakers gearing up to make a film called "Eight to Nine O'Clock," directed by Frank Kunao Yan and produced by Qianfan Chen. It's a first feature, low-budget film about love, family, and the pandemic that reflects the current times, and we can't wait to make it - but we're here because we can't without your support!

We are also accepting direct donations and potential sponsorships and executive producer credit. Please email us for more information at [email redacted].

ABOUT THE FILM

After having a hard time finding a job in New York, JIAQI decides to take a job offer back in China as suggested by her mom. However, her flight is canceled by the Chinese Covid Circuit Breaker Policy, and she is stuck in Los Angeles where she has never been.

As Jiaqi's anxiety rises, she finds a rare connection with a hotel cleaner, EDA. Through their increased interactions, Jiaqi gradually realizes that Eda’s character is impacting hers, and their relationship goes beyond her expectation - until her boyfriend suddenly shows up...

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

Extended version below.

When I was offered the opportunity to pursue an MFA at Columbia University, I was overjoyed - but I soon realized that the high expenses would be a heavy burden for my family. In a debate with my family before going abroad, my mother finally agreed to let me go, based on what I’d told her years before. She reminded me: "You said that there are so many stories in the world, it would be such a pity if no one told them. You also said that if you didn't study film, you would regret it for the rest of your life." I remember crying with her that night.

But little did I know that, three years later in 2023, I would be making my thesis film about these three most unpredictable, turbulent, and unforgettable years in film school.

I spent my first year at Columbia University in online classes, while also dealing with Covid-19, US-China Trade War and strict quarantine policies in China. And as I spent extended time away from my family, I experienced a complex self-identity and a growing division in different parts of the world.

Feeling a need to document these experiences, I began to write a story of the present: about intimacy, identity, social circumstances, and film itself. Interestingly, real life also started to change alongside the story. My hometown suddenly started to open at the peak of the Pandemic, and thousands of cases suddenly popped up while the official reports remained silent. I realized I had many complex reactions and feelings that I wanted to document through the film.

Now, I have decided to make this as my first feature and as a retrospective of the past three years. I hope this story can break through the traditional film narrative to try a new structure and possibility.

WHY WE NEED MONEY

People always say that movies burn money, but in the spirit of NYC independent films, we are not afraid of low-budget production, encouraged by filmmakers before us. The films made by Jim Jarmush, by Sean Baker, by François Truffaut and so on are always inspiring for me in terms of how independent films can also be attractive and profound.

Our project got our start with a $10,000 prize from Columbia University. And while I will also invest my own savings to shoot it, and our crew will largely be volunteers, we still need a lot of financial support. This support will largely help us to complete the production, take care of our cast and crew, and improve the quality. We will also retroactively compensate the crew's efforts with subsequent potential profits, while we will guarantee humane working hours and weekend breaks. We are grateful to have a great team in order to make a good movie as gratitude for everyone who support us.

After the Pandemic, I realized more and more that film is not a necessity of life, nor should there be only one kind of film. Art will always be the first one bearing the brunt when incidents like these happen, but we should not exclude art from our lives completely, and especially film.

We certainly won't let you down, and we'll be ready to kick off the project this summer in New York and Los Angeles with your support!

PRODUCER'S STATEMENT

This story that I want to create came from our own lives: the three years changed by the pandemic. 

On December 26th, I received a phone notification that China would lift its three-year Zero-Covid policy on January 8th, 2023, and reopen its borders, bringing people back to their normal lives. I was in a bit of a trance when I put my phone down. The notification seemed to easily bring an era to an end, but the emotions and changes remaining in our lives wouldn't go away so easily.

These three years have been a time of rapid growth for me: Being out of a familiar environment, out of my comfort zone, out of my teenage naivete, and getting into the realities of life, into the shining Manhattan, into the unpredictability of life due to the pandemic.

At the ages of 22 to 25, the golden age of my youth, I learned to keep my feet on the ground and to cherish people and opportunities in my life. Because life changes all the time, only those with solid knowledge, experience, and serious thinking can quickly deal with the problems that come up in an emergency. Because of experiencing life and death, I know how to cherish the people around me, the happiness of everyday life, and cherish the fact that I still have the right to do what I love at this moment.

The reason why I am determined to make this film the best it can be is because the characters in the story, Jiaqi, Ada and Pinggu, are like a microcosm of us, the generation that lived through the pandemic. They are lost and clinging to each other in the era of the pandemic. The theater, film, and art we love have been hit the hardest. How do they deal with their dreams and how do they find their way through the fog? It is a treasured experience that we want to record.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Frank Kunao Yan (Writer/Director), a young filmmaker born in China, finished his bachelor majoring in screenwriting and now studies in Columbia University Film MFA Directing Program. His works feature people’s relationship and one’s psychological as well as spiritual feeling in a subtle and authentic way. Affected by the director Edward Yang’s works, he tried to explore cinema in a more realistic and minimized way in the context of modernity.

His short film, “Summer Swing”, was selected to La Semaine de la critique shortlist, Student Academy Award Semi-Final, Shanghai International Film Festival and many worldwide film festivals. His short film, “Before Leaving”, is distributed by Lights On company.

He also works as screenwriter, editor, producer, curator and play director in various fields.

Qianfan Chen (Producer) is a bilingual producer based between the US and China. She holds a BA in Journalism from Guangzhou University, and is in pursuit of her MFA in Creative Producing at Columbia University. She worked as an assistant producer in Tencent Pictures and worked as one of the producers for TV series “Drama Detective” made by Bilibili Inc.

Since beginning her career in film production, now she directs and produces narrative and documentary projects in the U.S., China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Her films have been screened at the New Era Film Festival, Glade Film Festival and Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival.

Having studied in both China and the United States, Fan is proud to bring a global perspective to her work; meanwhile, she also pays particular attention to the voices of Asians and marginalized people.

FULL DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

When I was in high school, I left my hometown to attend a boarding school in Shijiazhuang. There, I experienced a life that was quite intense and closed, until a rare opportunity came to participate in the school's English Play Competition - a chance to escape from the school’s obligatory noon break. It became one of the most relaxed and enjoyable memories at the time.

From then on, I began to love acting and directing. There was a bookstore in the school, and although not allowed in school, we still enjoyed passing around film magazines and novels to connect with the outside world. I remember one day when I secretly read "Movie World Magazine" and suddenly thought: if one of my films could have some impact on even one person in the future, then I will be very happy. Later, I started to study film theory late at night and finally was lucky enough to be admitted to the screenwriting major at the Communication University of China.

Looking back now, I always feel that those thoughts at the time were naive and simple. It has been seven years since I started making films, with the both pain and joy, but in the end, those beautiful moments still encourage me. I still remember the first time I saved up money with my classmates to take a night-train from Beijing to Changsha to shoot our short film "Stop by Home." We revised the script in our seats. In college, I went to a village near Beijing Airport to film a documentary about a Workers' Literature Group, and discussed literature with the workers until late at night. And in my senior year, I made a short film called "Summer Swing," which tells a youth story set in the era of the "Server Punishment" in 1980s China. In order to display the vision and costumes of the 1980s, we shipped '80s clothes and props from our parents’ homes to decorate and design. Fortunately, the short was selected to the Shanghai International Film Festival, and the Student Academy Award Semi-Finals in 2020. It’s played in theaters across China, France, Germany, Italy, the list goes on.

After graduation, I received a scholarship from Columbia University to continue my learning, but the high expenses were also a heavy burden for my family. In a debate with my family before going abroad, my mother said that if it weren't for the two sentences I said when I chose my major in college, she would definitely not have let me study film. I completely forgot what I'd said. But later she reminded me: "you said that there are so many stories in the world, it would be such a pity if no one told them. You also said that if you didn't study film, you would regret it for the rest of your life." We both ended up crying.

At times like this, I feel that making films is really difficult - but my thesis film is about the last three turbulent and unforgettable years.

I spent my first year at Columbia University in online classes, while also dealing with Covid-19, US-China Trade War and strict quarantine polices in China, as well as learning how to communicate with my parents (I hadn't spent so much time with my family since middle school).

Before I left for New York, I made a short film called "Before Leaving" to commemorate my time with my grandparents and asked them to star in it. The film was distributed by Lights On and will soon have its premiere in France. The following year, when I arrived in the US, the great contrasts of a different lifestyle strongly impacted me. Accompanied by the turmoil of the worldwide environment, my feelings about everything around me turned more precarious. More and more, I experienced a complex self-identity and a growing division in different parts of the world, as what the character in my story is experiencing now: Jiaqi is determined to return home, but her flight is canceled by the Chinese Covid Policy and she ends up waiting in an unfamiliar city. It was exactly what was really happening to people in my life.

As the Pandemic in China became worse, I felt helpless for the life-changes they are experiencing as my relatives are on the front lines of the Pandemic. On the other hand, film, which I have been studying, was facing a low point as well. Domestic theaters were shutting down, friends were switching careers, and I felt the powerlessness and fragility of film. Last summer, I shot a short film about cinema itself to souvenir the cinema, with which I earned a chance to collaborate with ASCAP for a scoring workshop. The film is very close to being released.

Based on these life experiences and memories, I began to write a story of the present, about intimacy, identity, social circumstances, and film itself in 2021. Interestingly, the story also changed along with reality. My hometown suddenly started to open at the peak of the Pandemic, and thousands of cases suddenly popped up while the official report remained silent - everything would become so different tomorrow. This is a feeling I wanted to document through the film.

Now, I have decided to make this as my first feature and as a retrospective of the past three years. I hope this story can break through the traditional film narrative to tell an authentic story of the times.