Separation is an essay documentary that delves into the personal growth and pandemic journey of three overseas Taiwanese artists. The story unfolds during a period of transition in one's immigrant status, the exploration of one's sexual identity, and the questioning of self-reflexivity as an artist. Chen-Yi, Hsiao-Chu, and Shou-An belong to the first generation raised after the post-Martial Law era of Taiwan. Growing up, they received education about detailed Chinese history and Eurocentric values but never delved deeply into what it meant to be Taiwanese. COVID serves as a mirror reflecting their concerns - the fast-paced industry, self-worth in the capitalist world, and the crossfire of cultural colonialism. Now in their late twenties, living abroad, they must redefine who they really are and where they belong as Taiwanese artists.
Separated (short ver.) Screening 2023 On Art Film Festival, Poland 2023 Philly Film Showcase, Philadelphia Film Society 2023 Philadelphia Video Consortium 2021 Kishu An Forest of Literature (紀州庵文學森林), Taipei, Taiwan Together We Film Season 4 Showcase (其中短片頻道第四季)
The Last Rites of Spring
Poetry Film. Director & Animator. Written and Co-produced By Evan Coles.
The Last Rites of Spring is a poetry film that tells the inescapable cycle of life and death. Combining still photos and hand drawn animation, the piece shows that even at the joyful moments in life, one cannot help but see the ultimate ending approaching.
Screening 2023 MiXT: A Living Gallery, presented by The Why Collective, New York, USA 2022 Patch Work: Film and Poetry, COUNTERCLOCK Literary Art Journal
The Last Summer
Drama, Writer/ Director
Frances and Sophie run away from the library to escape from preparing for their college entrance exams. They linger in the city looking for fun and end up in a clothing store, where Frances admits that her best friend is already one foot ahead of her in the odyssey of becoming an adult.
I'll Leave Tomorrow (我明天飛)
Essay Film. Writer/ Director, Cinematographer, & Editor
A twenty five year-old filmmaker briefly came back to Taipei, her hometown, during the summer break. During her visit, she found that she was stuck between two countries and two languages.
Screening 2022 Film Diary NYC, New York, USA 2021 Nowness CN Short Film Selections
The Falling Lovers
Animation, Director & Animator
Two lovers are falling from the sky. They keep asking each other for things so they will have some buffers and won't die when they hit the floor. Inspired by Marc Chagall's The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, The Falling Lovers is a satire that shows the selfishness, absurdity, and fatality of love.
Screening 2023 HOT・BED gallery, Philadelphia, USA 2023 Big Teeth Small Shorts Film Festival, Chicago, USA 2021 Vidling & Tapeheads Film Festival, Michigan, USA 2019 Reginoal Student Film Showcase, Philadelphia, USA
Remapping Taipei: Maidenology
Experimental Documentary, Director Remapping Taipei: Maidenology discusses the representations of the city of Taipei from the perspective of urban Taiwanese girls in their early twenties. By showing a collection of clips shot in the year of 2018 and various narrative style, this montage depicts the life of these young women - sophisticated yet young at heart, complicated but try to keep their innocence .
Screening 2022 CineAsian Films Selection 2021 Millennium Film Workshop, New York, USA
collaborate projects
Latina
Dance Film, Cinematographer & Editor
Latina, choreographed by Amelia Martinez, reflects on what it is like being Latina. Martinez and her dancers, Tatiana Lawson and Kimberly Caccia Ravan, dance with yarn, braiding their unique stories together to create their own tapestry of entangled experiences.
* This project is awarded Temple University Completion Grant in 2021
Choreographer: Amelia Martinez Producer: Amelia Martinez Associate Director of Dance Production: Laurie Benoit Cinematographer: June Wang & Chen-Yi Wu Lighting: Nic Romero & Campbell Tosney Animation: Chia Hsien Lin Editor: Chen-Yi Wu
Screening 2021 Temple University Boyer College Of Music And Dance, MFA Thesis Concert 2021 University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina, USA 2020 Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance, Ending Dance Showcase
Castor
Videographer/ Editor Castor is a new body of work that begins with a childhood event in the microbiome in which artist Matthew Shackelford grew up, and from there builds a world to stage investigation and critique of the ways that adjacent regional lands are now being developed and environmentally disrupted on a wide scale.
* This project is awarded Temple University Completion Grant in 2020
Exhibition Dates: Nov 21, 2020 - April 24, 2021 Street Road Artists Space: 725 Street Road Cochranville, PA 19330 Art by Matthew Shackelford Film & Edit by Chen-Yi Wu
Screening 2023 Everyday Futures Festival Film Screening, Da Vinci Art Alliance x Moore College of Art & Design
Familial
Producer/ Editor
Bogdan witnesses his granddaughter Adalina being bullied, as they are both saddened by the event. It is up to Bogdan to be able to bring life to their solemn cabin. Watch as the two conjure up the old folktale of Masha and the bear by way of bringing warmth to their hearts, and bring happiness to their village.
Sunday, February 24, 2019 Vox Populi 319 N 11th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Talent: Parker Sera, Gerardo Salazar-Borja Stage Manager/ Producer: Chen-Yi Wu Sound Design/ Stage tech: Heather Bronge Projectionist/ Stage tech: BingLiang Li Videographer: Zach Reese Director/ Producer/ Writer: Matthew Shackelford Script advisor: Steve Cleberg Writer, Maaman Rezaee
Sprout
Videographer/ Editor
Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance MFA student Ying Yu and alum Muyu Yuan’s choreography.
"Art can describe the parts of the world we can’t tell with our language just like the beauty of how a most normal plant starts from seeding and slowly sprouting. The little life strong and fragile, soft and powerful.quite and swift. Slow and fasted. Just like the valuable life everyone have something we forget to thank ourselves how hard and how luck we are being alive."