Blank Canvas
The art of family.
ABOUT
This personal documentary centers on the filmmaker’s father who hasn’t painted in ten years after suffering a stroke. Disconnected from family, with his life and career having plateaued, Fengyun spends his days watching television and doing not much of anything, but the family hopes to see that change. Prompted by his daughter’s insistence and faced with her patient camera, he picks up the brush and palette again, trying to reconnect with his artistic past and the family he has long shut out.
YEAR 2020
RUN TIME 19:52 Min
EMAIL xuecongzhao1204@gmail.com Website:
CAST & CREW CREDITS
DIRECTED BY Maomao Zhao
CHARACTERS Fengyun Zhao | Maomao Zhao | Qing Tao | Jingbo Liu | Jingbo Tao | Chao Ma | MengyaoLiu
PRODUCED BY Qing Tao | Maomao Zhao
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Maomao Zhao
EDITED BY Maomao Zhao | Shuyue Yao
SOUND DESIGNER Jiangcun Wang
MUSIC COMPOSER Andy Li
ART DESIGNER Xuetong Wang
COLORIST Maomao Zhao
AUDIO SUPERVISOR Camila Franco Ribeiro Gomide
COLOR SUPERVISOR Jeffery Chance | Jimmy Powell
SUBTITLE SUPERVISOR Logan Hamrick
THESIS PRODUCTION MANAGER Brian Reynolds
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Blank Canvas is a personal documentary. Art has always been central to my family, and when my father was diagnosed with a form of paralysis that ended his painting career, his loss changed us as well. So I was interested in considering how using my own art could reciprocally change my father’s outlooks, to push him to paint again. Realism was central to this goal: natural lighting, long takes, and generally integrating the camera into our family’s everyday life.
DIRECTOR BIO
Maomao is a documentary filmmaker from China. Her works explore personal stories and real-life situations through verité techniques of intimate engagement with her subjects. She graduated with a BFA in film production from the Central Academy of Drama where she developed skills in script writing, directing, photography, and editing, and is currently completing an MFA in filmmaking at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
FILM AND PRODUCTION STILLS
AWARDS
SEMI-FINALIST – 2020 47th Student Academy Awards (USA)
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY – 2020 5th New Era Film Festival (Beijing, China)
BEST DIRECTOR OF “LOVE IS” BLOCK – 2021 Mao International Film Week (Guangzhou, China)
NEXT WAVE AWARD FINALIST – 2020 7th Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival
FINALIST – 2020 10th China Academy of Documentary Festival
FINALIST – 2020 Hong Kong International Documentary Festival
FINALIST – 2020 7th Chinese Korean Share Your Dream Short Film Festival
NOMINEE – 2020 China-EU Young Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION – 2020 HiSHorts! Film Festival (Xiamen, China)
OFFICIAL SELECTION – 2020 Golden Tree International Documentary Festival (Germany)
OFFICIAL SELECTION – 2020 27th Minsk International Film Festival (Republic of Belarus)
FULL FILM
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Maomao is a documentary filmmaker from China. Her works explore personal stories and real-life situations through verité techniques of intimate engagement with her subjects. She graduated with a BFA in film production from the Central Academy of Drama where she developed skills in script writing, directing, photography, and editing, and is currently completing an MFA in filmmaking at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
(Update provided in May 2020)