Dear Loneliness:
Urban Solitude on Screen
Black Ocean and Taipei Suicide Story contain sensitive content about suicides that may not be suitable for young people and children.
Dear Loneliness:
Urban Solitude on Screen
Projecting loneliness and alienation against a dystopian backdrop, this screening bears witness to real-life anxieties that exist in the urban condition. Liu Yujia’s Black Ocean intensifies the sense of solitude across the barren landscape of oil refineries in the Gobi Desert, where human presence is rarely seen. In the film, images of deserts are interlaced with text from Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities (1972), stringing together an imaginary world of cities depicted in the novel with otherworldly landscapes.
Taipei Suicide Story directed by KEFF attests to the impact of loneliness in a suicide hotel where guests spend one night to decide if they will give life another chance. The lives of a receptionist and a guest intersect when they begin to form an unexpected friendship. The dark and absurd plot of Taipei Suicide Story conveys a profound reflection on the complex relationships between despair, apathy, and isolation.
The screening will be followed by a post-screening talk in English with director KEFF.
About the Directors
Liu Yujia (b. 1981, Sichuan Province) graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2004. In 2009, she earned a master's degree at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. Through her works in video and photography, Liu explores the boundary between reality and the virtual realm. She currently lives and works in Beijing.
KEFF is a Taiwanese American multidisciplinary artist, writer, film director, producer, and open-format DJ based in New York and Taipei. He recently completed the NYU Graduate Film program on scholarship. His first short film Secret Lives of Asians at Night (2019) was supported by the Spike Lee Film Fellowship and awarded the Jury Prize for Best Asian-American Film by the Directors Guild of America. His second short film and NYU thesis Taipei Suicide Story premiered at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival (Cinéfondation) and won the Grand Jury Prize (Narrative Feature) at the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival.
Image at top: KEFF. Taipei Suicide Story, 2020. Photo: Courtesy of the artist