Shot entirely from an apartment on the 36th floor of a high-rise building, the images in this experimental animation survey large parts of Hong Kong’s cityscape, drawing attention to the individual lives hidden inside its buildings - together alone, collectively sequestered. Initially recorded in 2020 and completed in 2023 with the advantage of critical distance, TWENTYTИƎWT / 二〇二〇 attempts to encapsulate the darkness, confinement, and uncertainty of the year 2020.
In the 3D-stereoscopic version of the film (二〇二〇), an extreme distance of up to two meters is used between the two synchronised cameras capturing the stereoscopic scenes. Through this experimental technique, the viewers' interocular distance is widened, making them giants and the city a miniature. Shooting with two cameras so far apart results in much greater depth perception at far distances, and buildings appear like cardboard cut-outs or dollhouses. This expanded stereoscopic approach creates a strong defamiliarisation, through which the city is further estranged and reconfigured.
- 13th StopTrik International Film Festival, Lodz, Poland, 8-10 Dec 2023 (二〇二〇, anaglyph version)
- 13th CutOut Fest, Queretaro, Mexico, 16-19 Nov 2023 (TWENTYTИƎWT)
- Kyiv International Short Film Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine, 16-19 Nov 2023 (TWENTYTИƎWT)
- 10th New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival, New Chitose Airport, Hokkaido, Japan, 2-6 Nov 2023 (TWENTYTИƎWT)
- 17th Byron Bay International Film Festival, Byron Bay, Australia, 20-29 Oct 2023
- 27th International New Media Art Festival Videomedeja, Novi Sad, Serbia, 12-14 Oct 2023 (二〇二〇)
- LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine, 4-8 Oct 2023 (TWENTYTИƎWT)
- Image Forum Festival, Tokyo, Japan, 30 Sep - 6 Oct 2023 (TWENTYTИƎWT in a special screening curated by Ip Yuk-yiu)
- 13th StopTrik International Film Festival, Maribor, Slovenia, 27 Sep - 1 Oct 2023 (二〇二〇, anaglyph version)
- 8th Digerati Emergent Media Festival (formerly Supernova Digital Animation Festival), Denver, US, 14-17 Sep 2023 (TWENTYTИƎWT)
- World Festival of Animated Film, Varna, Bulgaria, 6-10 Sep 2023 (TWENTYTИƎWT)
English title: TWENTYTИƎWT (pronounced “Twenty-Twenty”; primarily refers to the film in 2D)
Chinese title: 二〇二〇 (“2020” in Chinese characters; primarily refers to the stereoscopic 3D version of the film)
Director: Max Hattler
Production: Max Hattler
Editing: Zhang Riwen, Max Hattler
Animation and Compositing: Zhang Riwen, Ty Lok Yi, Liu Da, Max Hattler
Photography: Max Hattler
Sound: Eduardo Noya
Available formats: UHD, 1080p HD, DCP
Country: Hong Kong, Germany
Frame rate: 24
Length: 7'00"
Year: 2023
This work was supported by Relentless Melt with a project grant from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, and by a GRF grant from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project No. 11602919). Additionally supported through an ACIM Individual Research Fellowship from the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong.
Special thanks to Matthew Gidney, Ip Yuk-yiu, and Maryam Katan.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID
"Some other films that really stood out: (...) the urban building atmosphere of 二〇二〇 by Max Hattler." Vassilis Kroustallis, Zippy Frames, 2023
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