Recently, the 44th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France in 2022 announced the list of winners. Li Mingyang's graduation short film "SARIRA" stood out from 8200 works and successfully won the International Special Jury Prize. This is another achievement of the film after being shortlisted for the Busan International Film Festival's Wide Angle Lens Asian Short Film Competition.
The International Jury of Clermont-Ferrand wrote in its acceptance speech to the Stuart:
For tackling the perpetual fight between eternity and mundane life with humour, perfect rhythm and breathtaking cinematography,the SPECIAL JURY AWARD goes to SARIRA."
Founded in 1979, the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival (hereinafter referred to as the "Short Film Festival") is the world's largest short film festival. It is divided into a French competition unit, an international competition unit and an experimental short film unit. In terms of the number of moviegoers and the number of professionals attending, the short film festival is the second largest film event in France after the Cannes Film Festival, and has the reputation of "short film Cannes". The film career of the famous French director Jean-Pierre Genet (director of "Angel Amelie" and "The Long Marriage") began with Clermont-Ferrand.
Poster for the 44th Short Film Festival
The film "Relic" tells the story of a monk who is unable to recite the sutra because of a toothache. The film takes the small as the big, with a bad tooth as the entry point, and the sound as the medium. It tells the story of a monk who cannot recite the sutra and is bound by the times, and behind it is the collision of the city and religion.
Synopsis: As the rapidly developing city is connected to the relict temples, the silent temples begin to fill the city's industrial noise. The monk who could not recite the sutra because of the toothache was mixed in, a bad tooth, an ancient Buddha, a temple, a monk who could not speak. The roaring excavator sailed toward the temple, and the firm faith faced the times, and began a review, a parting, a return.
Poster for the film "The Relic"
The film expresses the sense of solemnity and ritual brought by religion through the ultimate black-and-white images and 4:3 frames, and the conflict between society and religion, belief and reality through the core of dualistic opposition. At the same time, the director found a real monk and the temple for live shooting, showing the suffering and rebirth of a monk in a calm and restrained lens language in a real environment.
Stills from the film "The Relic"
Short film director Li Mingyang entered the Vancouver Film Academy in Shanghai in 2019 to study film production, and his representative short films during his school years include "Brown Night" and "Sheli", of which "Brown Night" was shortlisted for the "One Kind of Inclusion" section of the Bangalore International Short Film Festival, one of the most important film festivals in India. "Relic" was created after "Brown Night", and in the process of creating the two films, Li Mingyang was full of his own thoughts on the choice of themes, script creation, and shooting process. He said: "Although the two short films are not long, I think my life is also very short. Both films contain some of my thoughts and life experiences after my enlightenment. ”
Editor: Zhou Minxian
Comprehensive: Shanghai Vancouver Film Academy public number, Douban, Weibo Li Mingyang, etc