Private Project

A Winter Without Snow

Yong, 14 years old, lives with his parents in a remote village in northern China. He loves the land he tends to and the animals he cares for, but he hates school and the town he goes to school far away. He decides to tell his parents he wants to drop out of school and come back home to be a farmer. They are furious because they have spent a lot of money to educate him and are counting on him to have a better life for all of them. After a violent argument, Yong runs away from home into the bleak wild and the empty road along, he feels freedom.

  • Yubo Song
    Director
  • Yubo Song
    Writer
  • Jianfeng Xie
    Producer
  • Ruifeng Hao
    Producer
  • Chao Chen
    Key Cast
    "Yong Zhang"
  • Junfang Li
    Key Cast
    "Yong's Mother"
  • Jianjun Gao
    Key Cast
    "Yong's Father"
  • Zhiping Yan
    Key Cast
    "Yong's Grandfather"
  • Taoguang Yan
    Key Cast
    "Teacher"
  • Yubo Song
    Key Cast
    "Chang Liu, Yong's Friend"
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    26 minutes 52 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 9, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    12,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    China
  • Language:
    Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
  • The 25th Annual DGA Student Film Awards
    Los Angeles
    United States
    Jury Award in Asian American Category
Director Biography - Yubo Song

Yubo Song is a director, writer, and editor that currently lives in San Francisco, California, but grew up in China. Yubo had his bachelor degree on film in Sichuan University of Media and Communications and worked one year in an advertising company in Beijing as a director but he still loves on making film so he comes to the U.S. to improve his skill and build his career. He is currently an MFA student at California College of The Arts and is set to graduate in 2019. Yubo always inspired by his original family and the place where they are, a small town in northern China. The experiences learn abroad propelled his creative thinking and skill in filmmaking to a new level, also let him realized how important the original culture is. Yubo’s dream is to be an independent filmmaker and make a film about his hometown and the unique original culture.

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Director Statement

I wanted to make a film about the place I lived in for over 15 years. My whole family still lives there. the experience I had from living there impacted me in profound ways and shaped me as an artist and filmmaker. I have an emotional connection to my hometown and the original culture is very familiar to me. Due to crazy urbanization, the small village will disappear soon and the town is changing quickly, and so this film becomes the collective memory of my generation.

When I was in high school I saw my classmates make different decisions when they graduated, some of them going to college in the city and others dropped out of school and went to work. Everyone’s life went an entirely different way just because of an exam called The National College Entrance Exam. That was also was a fork in the road in my life. I went to the city and then went abroad but some of my classmates are still in that small town. Sometimes I wonder what if I never left the village what would I be doing now?

Adolescence is a very important time for a person whether psychologically or physically, it is a transformative journey from being a kid to an adult when you start to explore the world and self-consciousness starts to awaken.

Yong is one of the teenagers, who knows what he wants but nobody can understand him, he suffers, fights and leaves. Just like him, I too was rebellious. I understand him because he is me and that is why I made this film.