Marina
Marina is a story about a girl who inherited Spinal Muscular Atrophy from her mom. Before she lose the control of her body, does she have the right to decide her own life and death?
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Story ChenDirectorA Woman's Gaze
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Story ChenWriterA Woman's Gaze
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Charlie LiaoWriter
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Elizabeth GrothProducer
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Gong HuaProducer
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Yi YunProducer
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Yaqing ChenProducer
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Lily Brooks O'BriantKey Cast
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Lance MarshallKey Cast
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Mel HouseKey Cast
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Project Type:Short, Student
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Runtime:13 minutes 2 seconds
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Completion Date:November 10, 2017
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Production Budget:20,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:Yes
Story Chen is an award-winning director with expertise in films, commercials and music videos. Her narrative film “A Woman’s Gaze” made into Cannes Short Film Corner and won the Best Short Film Award in the Hollywood International Film Festival LGBT Competition Unit.
Born and raised in China, Story puts in a touch of Chinese culture in many of her films. She focuses on depicting true emotion and struggles of real life. Aspired to become a narrative film director, Story believes that great stories sprout from reality. She also proves to be successful in producing popular music videos and commercials. From high-end commercials for brands like Lush and Marc by Marc Jacobs to engaging music videos for Chinese top singer Jiang, Ying Rong and Hong, Chen, the story always comes first.
Currently Story is based in New York and Beijing, but has producing experiences in Paris, LA and Iceland.
As ALS gets more acknowledged by the world, there is a similar disease that affects only children - Spinal Muscular Atrophy. While the topic of adults’ freewill draws more and more attention recent years, children’s ability to understand the world and their own life has been underestimated. Many children with terminal diseases are deprived of their rights to make decision for themselves. Marina tells the story of a child from the child’s perspective.
Nowadays, adults advocates for their beliefs and rights, yet children are too young to speak for themselves, or are deemed too young to be taken seriously by most of the world. The screening of Marina will not only bring awareness to the rare disease of SMA, but also draw mass attention to the freewill of children. It would be an honor for Marina to spur a conversation about such topics that I think are urgent but often neglected.