In the span of about one month, from Thanksgiving through Christmas, I traveled 41,104 miles. One crazy combo included flying to Pune, India via Paris (an unexpected reroute), returning via Incheon, Korea, sleeping one night in SF, then going back to Asia the next morning, landing in Shanghai. I sat in Dreamliner seat 40A three times in a row, and spent one night at home in SF three separate times in between international flights, never staying in one bed for more than three nights. All told, I'm blessed but exhausted!
While on my unexpected 3 hour pitstop in Paris, I squeezed in a production meeting regarding our Marie Antoinette project, and managed to visit the much talked about Conciergerie exhibition, "The Metamorphosis of an Image: Marie Antoinette," which directly addresses the controversy of her misrepresentation. It's gratifying to see the wider public is finally awakening to the issue we highlight in our project!
In China, we held the world premiere of "Tale of the Tibetan Nomad" at Theatre Above in Shanghai. "Tale" is a cooperation with Stan Lai and a partnership with UC Berkeley Arts + Design. Adapted from world-renowned play, A DREAM LIKE A DREAM, we had the support of HTC Vive to show the piece to theater audiences (thank you!). My producing partner, Yiju Chen, and I will be distributing this project in 2020 and look forward to sharing it with you!
Heading to Nanjing, I met historians at the Museum of the Nanking Massacre to further research and develop my screenplay, Goddesses of Nanking, which was awarded the SF Film Rainin Grant this fall! During my trip, I connected with some wonderful Nanjing residents who have shared their own personal stories surrounding their knowledge of the history of the Sino-Japanese War and that of their beloved city.
Finally, on my last leg in Shanghai, I was invited by Jiaotong University to give a series of lectures on VR and Immersive Filmmaking. The afternoon lecture was in Mandarin Chinese for local students and teachers and the evening lecture was in English to foreign graduate students from all over the world. Thank you to Prof. Guo for having me.
I will have more updates around my India trip soon. As it is a new decade, I am adopting a new social media platform: I recommend following my Instagram stories @carolliufilms to catch me where I am! All the best to you for 2020!