Award-winning Narrative Short Before Christmas comes to Big Bear Lake
Los Angeles , The upcoming narrative short film, “Before Christmas,” will make its West Coast premiere at Venice’s prestigious Columbia Gorge International Film Festival, also known as Festival Angaelica, on September 22.
“After seeing the Chinese photographer Chen Ronghui’s photos showing the harsh working conditions in Chinese Christmas factories, I decided to make a film about how Chinese lower class laborers struggle to survive in society,” said BeforeChristmas writer and director Chuyao He. Based on true story and filmed entirely on location in China, Before Christmas is an honest and compelling narrative short film that illustrates the problems of social development in the Chinese commercial economy. In the story, an 18-year old man, played by Hou Deyang, enters the “merciless commercial world” as a hard laborer, which leads to him failing his last struggle with innocence.
“With an all too true plight, director Chuyao He is able to capture how social development can victimize hard workers, especially those seeking new jobs and moving in from the countryside,” Asian American International Film Festival selection committee introduced. The film explores the identity crisis suffered by most Chinese laborers, especially Chinese teenagers from rural areas who are forced to abandon their educations for factory work. It unfolds the predicament of working class Chinese from the countryside left behind by an ever-advancing society. The goal of Before Christmas is to give a voice to the Chinese lower class who don’t have voice but shouldn’t be silent.
Before Christmas will premiere on Friday, September 22, at 12:30 PM at Big Bear Lake Performing Arts Center, 39707 Big Bear Blvd, Big Bear Lake.
This event is open to the public.
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For more information, please visit http://www.angaelica.
