Fri, Feb 3 / 7pm
Dir. Johnny Ma
2019, Canada, China, France, 105 min
Chinese with English subtitles
Join us for a post-screening discussion with Johnny Ma.
Zhao Li is the manager of a small Sichuan Opera troupe, living and performing together in a rundown theatre located in the outskirts of Chengdu, China. When she receives the notice of demolition for the theatre, Zhao Li hides the news from everyone else, fearing that this could spell the end of her opera troupe: besides the physical demolition of their space, it’s the life of her “family” that is at stake. As she struggles to search for a new theatre for them to both sing and live in, the opera and its fantastic characters slowly begin to seep into her real world…
Johnny Ma was born in Shanghai, China, and immigrated to Toronto, Canada at age 10. He is a graduate of the Columbia University MFA program and an alumni of the Sundance screenwriting and Venice Biennale College Labs. In 2016 his debut feature Old Stone premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and won the Best Canadian First Feature Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Canadian Screen Awards (Canadian Academy). Most recently, To Live To Sing world premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival Director’s fortnight and Johnny made a short film contribution to Pablo Larrain’s quarantine anthology Homemade, available on Netflix.
