Director Li Lu Wants to Make Film About The Brutal Realities of Your 20s

Editor’s Note: Filmmaker Li Lu and I have known each other for years, and I have always found her knack for storytelling and artistic vision particularly honest and poignant. When I heard that she wanted to make a feature film about a twenty-something woman’s struggle with her artistic ambitions and saw the beautiful Proof of Concept trailer, I knew that if this story would resonate with other aspiring artists in their 20s with my talented friend at the helm. Read more about Li Lu and her vision below and contribute to their Seed & Spark campaign!  -RA

It’s not news that your 20s are difficult–we’re all launched into the world after graduating college as fledgling adults. Everyone’s trying to balance chasing their dreams with being able to pay their rent. On top of that, we’re battling inner critics and outsiders’ expectations. The emotional tug-of-war between our ambitions and insecurities is the story that filmmaker Li Lu and her team would like to tell in their forthcoming film There is a New World Somewhere. 

Lu, an alumna of USC School of Cinematic Arts, has written and directed short films that have screened at festivals around the world, including the Hong Kong Film Festival and NewFilmmakers at the Anthology Film Archives. There Is a New World Somewhere will be her first feature film and the most personal one to date. TIANWS tells the tale of Sylvia, a struggling artist in New York City, who returns to her hometown of Austin, TX for a friend’s wedding. There she meets Esteban, a jaded stranger, with whom she embarks on a trip of self discovery that takes them through the cities of the Deep South, starting with New Orleans, LA.

“I feel like I’ll never be more attached to this story. [Sylvia] is a young woman trying to find her footing, trying to avoid distraction,” said Lu during an interview over the phone, “I have not seen many films portray the struggles of a strong female protagonist in a truly intimate and vulnerable way.”

To help tell this story of the brutal reality of your twenties, Lu has assembled a team of young, ambitious, and talented filmmakers to bring her vision to life. The crew hails from all over the country–from Los Angeles to Houston to New York. Some she’s known since high school–and some she’s never met in person. One of the producers, Jonathan Yaniv, is based here in NYC and has never even met Lu in person. Their contact is limited to Skype, phone, and email. Even so, he has already built a strong rapport with Li–strong enough to launch into the arduous task of producing a feature film.

“I actually worked on another project with Igor [Kropotov], the cinematographer,” said Yaniv, a NYU Tisch School of the Arts alum. “We had a good working relationship, and he recommended that Li and I speak.”

Yaniv and two other Tisch alums founded Whiteboard Pictures, one of the production companies behind TIANWS. This project is Whiteboard Pictures’ first foray into feature films. “[It’s] an incredible process so far. I’ve been learning so much,” said Yaniv.

Lu has also been able to contract ambient folk musician Benoît Pioulard along with her high school friend Zahid Dewji to craft the soundtrack for the film. Pioulard is a well-known recording artist, with seven studio albums to date. Last year, Li had made an hour-long piece of video art, projected as backgrounds during Pioulard’s live performances. When it came time to building the creative team, his spacious yet lush musicality was a perfect fit for the visual language of a film populated by both frenetic energy and sparse emptiness.

At its heart, this film is about Sylvia returning to her hometown and meeting Esteban, who exists as a cautionary tale of how life as an artist can break you.

“Esteban […] was a musician who never got attention that he deserved. By going through that, he’s jaded; he doesn’t want to keep trying because he’s tired of being hurt by his dreams,” said Lu.

Lu has rounded up a solid team and has a script ready to go, but the next thing that needs to be done is to start securing funding. Instead of using Kickstarter, she has launched her campaign on Seed & Spark, a crowd funding platform solely for independent filmmakers, which according to Lu is a “much more curated approach to each film project and filmmaker.”

After securing funds comes the daunting task of finding actors talented enough to carry out Lu’s vision. A lot hinges on being able to cast the perfect Sylvia, a nuanced character, who could make or break the project.

“The number one thing I’m looking for is a kind of otherness, a steely demeanor to protect herself–you can almost see how she’s breaking in moments alone, both fragility and a sense of inner strength,” said Lu, a perfect storm of attributes that is “quite hard to find.”

As vital to the project as talented actors is the backdrop, which plays an important role in its own right. As Sylvia and Esteban leave Texas via Interstate 10, which connects California to Florida, they head into Louisiana. The change in landscape mimics the change in tone as the characters travel from Texas to Louisiana to New York.

“The landscape mirrors the inner state of the characters–heading up toward New York [there are] beautiful places like New Orleans and also long patches that are bleak and unforgiving,” said Lu. “Landscape is a huge character.”

Just by speaking with Lu and Yaniv, it’s apparent that the team attached to the project is dedicated. They may not have a multi-million dollar budget, but they’ve got passion in spades.

“Your 20s are this volatile up and down period,” said Lu about what viewers should take away from her film, “despite all that, [you] put yourself out there because you should try for that big goal, that impossible dream. You should live life without regret.”

 

TIANWS is currently in pre-production. Be sure to donate to their campaign on Seed & Spark and follow the film’s progress on the social media.

Story by Roselyn Sebastian