THE CAPITAL 2029: An alternative world where every citizen is imprinted with a barcode. Anyone, who wants to fight against this National Surveillance System, is either fled or jailed. A wounded prisoner escapes. He looks for help in a community hidden from THE CAPITAL. Yet the community administrations jail him again. They fear any new fugitive from THE CAPITAL would put them in grave danger. Yet a doctor fights to help him. During her treatment to the young prisoner, her hidden wound seems to be cured until one day...
Tina’s work is rooted in the history of her family and kin in the diaspora. She got her start working in documentary and graphic design in Hong Kong, where she learned both high-concept world building and the micro-narration of authentic characters. The fragments of her memory– the aroma of homemade Char Siu and the chants of thousands of individuals – drives her forward to tell stories, no matter the risk or pain they might take. She hopes her work will speak to viewers living in mixed cultures, navigating their ambiguous identities, and envisioning a decentralized and depolarized community.
Director Statement
The story is inspired by a theory of incurable wound. My mother brought it up with me when we are on video chat during pandemic. She said sometimes when a patient is recovering from a wound, the scab would still feel painful, because the scab is a fake tissue surface. The flesh underneath festering still. I perceived it as a metaphor for history and aftermath surrounding my community. Trauma on a whole generation and their descendants hasn't been cured yet.
I chose the genre of sci-fi to connect the story with a wider range of audience. All the residents in this diasporic community think they’ve established a new system that respects freedom and human rights. Wuyi, as a prisoner, longs for the quality of life with freedom here. Lu, as a sister, haunting by her defiant brother’s suicide, hardly starts a new page of her life here. NJ, as one of the organizers of the Public Housing system, struggles to secure this fallible utopia. All of them escaped was not able to escape from the influence of their past. After all, the trauma of loss and the trauma from being dominated continuously impacts on them, just like the wound on Wuyi's arm.
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