Braid (Bian Zi) a film by Tisch Asia’s Chun-Yi Hsieh at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival
Braid (Bian Zi), a film by Chun-Yi Hsieh, a third-year graduate film student at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia, has been selected for the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival’s Best Narrative Short competition. Braid is one of 60 films selected out of 2,862 submissions and will compete for more than $15,000.
Having lived in New York in 2007, Tribeca Film festival is one of the film festivals Chun-Yi had always wanted for his film to premiere at.
Braid (Bian Zi) unravels the hardships of a single father trying to raise his young daughter in the best way he knows; the image of a braid appears throughout the film both in a literal and figurative sense. While the father tries and continually fails to fulfill his daughter’s needs and whimsical wishes, she never ceases to quietly observe the beauty and hope that still remains before them. The film serves as a universal exploration of every parent’s struggle with responsibility and accountability for the lives of their children.
Chun-yi is currently developing his thesis short entitled Cold Feet. The film is about the hesitation of a man who is about to marry his pregnant fiancé. He is also developing a documentary project about the brutal pet dog business in Taiwan on top of two feature film scripts – a road-trip romance between China and Taiwan and a Taiwanese gangster redemption story. After completing his education at Tisch School of the Arts Asia, Chun-yi hopes to be based in Taiwan.
“As China grows their economy. I think more and more investors will want to find opportunity to enroll the China market. As a Chinese speaker, I think it’s a good trend.” Says Chun-yi.
For students looking to apply to Tisch School of the Arts Asia, Chun-yi’s advice is to “prepare yourself to face the program. Start to read books and to watch movies as much as you can, it will give you a huge benefit when you are in the program because you will not have enough time to do it. It’s a great school if you are interested in Asian cultures or if you want to make films in Asia. I am glad I studying in Tisch Asia.”
