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[About the project]
A Dinner Guest is a thesis film project for the MFA degree at Columbia University. The story is centered around the Dings, a Chinese American family residing in upstate NY. On the eve of a holiday, the Dings hesitantly invites Mrs. Tao, a Chinese woman who is on the verge of losing her US visa, to stay at their house, and her presence drives a wedge between the family members. Meanwhile, Mrs. Tao forms an unlikely bond with their 12-year-old son Eli.
A Dinner Guest is a short film that speaks about the fractured identity of immigrants in America, the different ways their homesickness manifests, and the hardships they go through in the current America political environment.
[Logline]
A Chinese American family hesitantly allows Mrs. Tao, an undocumented immigrant from China, to stay at their house. The 12-year-old Eli finds himself caught in between his parents’ nerves and his unlikely bond with Mrs. Tao.
[Crew Bio]
[Synopsis]
A Chinese American family hesitantly hosts Mrs. Tao, a Chinese immigrant for dinner, and gives her a room to stay. We learn that Mrs. Tao's visa status is in limbo. As the family prepares for a big meal, Eli, though initially indifferent, bonds with Mrs. Tao over the art of Chinese paper cutting, as his parents argue over how much Eli should know about the world crumbling around him. However, the night sours when Mrs. Tao finds out about her deportation from the United States. She holds her composure, but breaks down when she slices her finger open teaching Eli paper cutting. They are both able to find solace as Eli comforts her.
[Why your project matters/statement]
Homesickness has changed and evolved into many things in my life. When I was a little boy at a summer camp, it was a piece of paper where I wrote my mother letters. When I grew to be a teenager and came to America for school, it became a plane ticket for flying
thousands of miles. Now an adult, it became hours spent wandering in a grocery store, looking for snacks my mom made me as a child. I wanted to make a story about the different ways people experience homesickness, and the anxieties immigrants mask in their everyday life.
People uproot and leave their home for many different reasons. Some look for a better life, some are forced or displaced. But they all share a similar kind of pain that is homesickness. I think A Dinner Guest is about this pain they share. The story is also about immigration and assimilation, and how through assimilation a part of who you are is forever lost. I as an immigrant often felt as if having multiple broken identities, therefore I pass the broken identities to the characters that I write. This trauma happened to the Dings, is happening to Mrs. Tao, and will happen to Eli, he just doesn’t know it yet.
This film is also set against the backdrop of our currently political climate, where there’s much anxiety shared by the many immigrants in the United States. But at its emotional core, the story is about Eli, a twelve-year-old boy’s coming of age during a time of turmoil. This is a story about Eli understanding his own identity better by coming to understand someone else’s pain.
[How Your Donation Helps]
We will use the money to cover part of the production costs of making a movie, including paying for the cast and crew's meals and travel, paying for production design and props, and paying the cast and crew for their hard work. All in all, we want to use this money to
make sure everyone is happy, comfortable, and well-fed on set!
[Back Rewared]
Whatever the size of your donation, your name will be in the credits as a thank you for supporting us!
---Gifts $25-100 receive an Instagram shoutout
---Gifts $100-500 will receive the early Vimeo link of the film
---Gifts $500-$1000 will receive an Associate Producer Credit
---Gifts $1001-greater will receive an Executive Producer Credit
[Social Media]
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