Paradise Program
Do you hear the clock?
ABOUT
Cyan is having a lovely date with his fiancé, Indigo, in the woods, but it’s all digital consciousness. The Paradise Program has built a world based on Indigo’s memory where the two can visit one another. In reality, Indigo is in a coma and has only ten minutes left to live before the doctors must shut down his brain activity. If Cyan is in the program when this occurs, he will be trapped in the Paradise Program forever. Indigo knows what is about to happen, and he breaks the rules of the Paradise Program by planning their wedding in the simulation. Time is up. Cyan must make a choice.
YEAR 2019
RUN TIME 10:05 Min
EMAIL shanshanzhangwork@gmail.com Website:
CAST & CREW CREDITS
DIRECTED BY Shanshan Zhang
SCREENPLAY BY Shanshan Zhang
PRODUCED BY Sihan Xu | Shanshan Zhang
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Haoran Luo
EDITED BY Shanshan Zhang
ORIGINAL SCORE BY Norvin Tu-Wang
PRINCIPAL CAST
Ignacyo Matynia | Nick Genta | Tianyi Ba
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
My short film Paradise Program is part of a feature script. The storyline involved in this segment of the larger narrative concerns time, death, and love. Everything is possible in the future, with high technology altering our bodies and minds. But these advances also challenge humanity. I believe that in the future people do not define love by gender because timeless love can overcome everything even death.
DIRECTOR BIO
Shanshan Zhang is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and advertising director from China. She received two BAs, in Television Directing and Editing and in Advertising Directing, from the Communication University of China, Nanjing. After working with film director Zhangke Jia as an assistant producer for two years, Shanshan went on to earn her MFA in filmmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2019.
AWARDS
BEST SCI FI SHORT FILM – 2020 South Film and Arts Academy Festival
FULL FILM
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Shanshan Zhang is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and advertising director from China. She received two BAs, in Television Directing and Editing and in Advertising Directing, from the Communication University of China, Nanjing. After working with film director Zhangke Jia as an assistant producer for two years, Shanshan went on to earn her MFA in filmmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2019.
(Update provided in May 2019)