Away
A woman with a traumatic childhood initiates a journey to the darkest boundaries of human beings.
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Nicole ChenDirector
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Nicole ChenWriter
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Christina DengProducer
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Dawn GloverKey Cast
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Caitlin SymesKey Cast
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Project Type:Experimental, Short, Student
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Runtime:7 minutes 33 seconds
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Completion Date:November 11, 2017
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Production Budget:1,000 NZD
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Country of Origin:New Zealand
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Country of Filming:New Zealand
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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 - SAE Institute Auckland
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BELIFF London Film FestivalLondon
United Kingdom
August 10, 2018
United Kingdom Premiere
Best Experimental Film -
International Student and Newcomer Movie Awards
Indonesia
January 25, 2019
Indonesia Premiere
Gold Award Winner
As a child, I lived just next to the Hong Kong border during the Golden Film era. I grew up watching every single movie I could lay my eyes upon. To me, Hong Kong was an unreachable heaven. And so was filmmaking. But deep inside I knew I had found my passion.
As an adult, I started studies at the University of Auckland for 2 years not knowing where I was heading. After a 5-year working 9-5 in another profession, I couldn’t be surer of where I should be. So, I went back to study, to a Film School this time. There, I developed my own personal style and started making films that reflected my personality and my view about the world. My previous film, Jianjie, was critically acclaimed and screened at 2016 Norwich Radical Film Festival and the 2017 New York State International Film Festival, as a Semi-finalist.
I have always been attracted into exploring characters living right at the edge of the abyss in human kind, a step away from greatness and destruction. I love those films that are based on true events, or those that explore a new angle of an event to reveal the complexities of human kind. I want to explore human emotions in situations where the characters are trapped, fighting to find their way out. I want to talk about us, humans.
I was shocked by how many people out there having experienced being abused and neglect in their childhood yet no one talks about it. I was inspired of a friend’s story, who is a workaholic, smart and so good at his job. Yet he hardly has any friends. After many years of our on-and-off friendship, he finally chose to open up to me. That was a heartbroken story. Reorganized family, unequal treatments with half siblings and sexually abused by many men from the Church who have families and kids too. And after so long of the same pictures going on my mind from time to time, I finally realised that I was one of the victims too. And the more people I talked to, the more stories I heard, and they don’t come out easily. It is a memory to erase and bury. However, it never really goes way.
Therefore, I made a film. A film to reveal the emotions and feelings of the haunted side of such memories. This film is called 'Away', but what I want is the opposite: to bring those feelings close, to talk about those hidden memories, to remember, to heal, to be 'here'. And I want to share with all who wished to be away yet stayed to share their stories.