LOGLINE:

“Prison” (working title) is a fantastical short film set in the cold, white winter. Within its bars, two prisoners reach for warmth and intimacy only to be met with a brutal separation.

GENERAL PROJECT STATEMENT:

“PRISON” reinvisions a confined space into a theatrical stage, showcasing how a forbidden desire transforms when it's repressed and met with violence. The film explores the longing for human connection, a yearning both tender and valuable, under an illogical world built to deny it.

Visually, the world of “PRISON” is stark yet dreamlike: thick wooden bars that frames the white snowy exterior, cold air that spills through the corridors, guards with their hidden faces, the uneasy breaths that travel through the walls.

Funding for the project will go towards building the necessary visual elements to build tonality and emotion, for both its characters and the audience. This includes all building materials to emulate a fantastical prison setting. Additionally, our goal is to intentionally source unique and historical costumes and props in order to create a specific artistic world.

OUR FUNDRAISING GOALS:

More specificities of production costs will include building three different locations of the prison space. All three require wood, cement, screws, tools, and additional crew to safely craft the space. This also includes transportation for building materials, and equipment. Additionally, costs will mainly go towards providing food and fuel for cast and crew, both during the building and principle shoot. Lastly, funding will help support the film’s festival route submissions, ensuring the hard work of all cast and crew have an outlet to showcase the final product.

OUR FUNDRAISING BUDGETS

“WOW WE ARE SO GOOD” - 7K

“WE ARE BREATHING” - 6K

“WE WILL MAKE THIS WORK” - 5K

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Dear all,

My filmmaking practice is rooted in the absurdity of daily life, the stresses of work culture, and the dread of endings; these are subjects I distort and exaggerate into surrealist worlds. Absurdity at its core has shaped how I approach tone and structure, embracing the illogical, the cyclical, and the grotesque. I want my films to confront the illogic of modern life, but also to invite viewers in through a sensory visual experience. That sensibility is at the core of my work.

“PRISON” started with the feeling of warmth and the jarring emotion that comes from things ending, the intense emotions of being left empty by the absurdity of the world. In the film the prison and the guards take form as one, acting against the prisoner and her companion alone in this foreign world by themselves. My creative practice has always been an introspective part of my life, and film became a way to externalize the things I struggled to articulate. It’s the bridge between my inner world and external reality.

The themes and ideas I have been exploring during my four years at Pratt have been building towards this project. Your donations and support will finally allow me to actualize the visceral world of my dreams, and help me make the thesis film I want to leave behind at Pratt Institute.

Thank you,

Vivian Xiao

BIO

Xiao Xiao is a Chinese filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work blends offbeat surrealism with immersive visuals to create tactile worlds that evoke the strange and uncanny. Drawing on the absurdity of daily life, her films embrace the illogical, the cyclical, and the grotesque, crafting narratives that confront chaos and the unspoken stresses of modern life.

Her most recent film, Squelch, a sensory microfilm, was awarded the Barrett Endowed Scholarship and is now entering the festival circuit. In addition to directing, Xiao’s experience as a cinematographer and gaffer has honed her skill in manipulating colors, lighting, and shadows, informing her own filmmaking in crafting nuanced moods and immersive atmospheres.