lookingchina2015-blog

[lookingchina2015-blog]

Seat Selection: check!

Got it all sorted! Looks like I have an aisle seat for all 4 flights!

Bad News: Looks like there won’t be individual TV’s or power... Ah!

Looks like I’ll need to bring all the books I can!

[lookingchina2015-blog]

Off to a confusing beginning...

So, I’m trying to reserve my seat -- mainly to make sure that I get an aisle seat for the 15-hour flight to Shanghai -- but the whole website is in Chinese. So, I translated it to English -- technology, eh? But, it still won’t let me click “seat selection.”

... currently on hold with the airlines. Maybe I’m trying too early? 

[lookingchina2015-blog]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wucQhpZmwoE)

Beijing Normal University

This is the university we’re staying at in Kaifeng, China for the 2015 Looking China Project!

[lookingchina2015-blog]

Looking China 2015

“The journey is more important than the destination!”

If you don’t know what the 2015 Looking China Project is, please allow me to fill you in!

The 2015 Looking China Project a project to invite international film students to “observe and record the stories of China through foreign eyes... By shooting with their own cameras and working on their own videos, they can tell Chinese stories and promote Chinese culture from their own perspectives and in their own ways.”

This program is sponsored by the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture (AICCC), Beijing Normal University and Huilin Foundation.

The project was started by Huang Huilin, President of Huilin Foundation and Dean of AICCC in 2011.

100 students were chosen world-wide from 20 universities in 19 countries! “They are divided into 10 groups and stationed in 10 cities with different characteristics, including capital city Beijing, ancient capital and famous historical city Kaifeng, coastal cities Xiamen and Qingdao, northwest city Lanzhou, and Southwest city Guiyang.” As well as Xi'an, Guilin and Hangzhou.

These students make a 10-minute film about Chinese culture with a theme.

The theme this year is “individual, family, and nation!” Last years theme was “the city, the people, the culture.”

I am one of 8 students chosen from York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada!

This is the 4th year that the Looking China Project is taking place. Previous students and their films have won more than 10 international prizes!

The project began this year on May 4th (which is Youth Day in Beijing) and ends with a ceremonial screening of all the films on August 5th -- we’re lucky to be the last group participating, and therefore, get to be present for the ceremony!

It’s very brave and trusting for China to allow us into their country to represent the culture through film! It also puts a lot of pressure on us as filmmakers! What an amazing opportunity! I’m so grateful to be a part of it!

Wish me Good Karma on the journey!