I DON’T FEEL AT HOME ANYWHERE ANYMORE

Viv Li | Belgium, China 2021 | 16 Min. | OmeU

15.05. | 5pm
De France, Saal 1 | TICKETS
PART OF THE SHORT FILM PROGRAMME ESSA I

30-year-old Viv Li is studying art in Belgium and has not lived in her homeland China for the past ten years. During a nine-day Christmas vacation, she visits her family in Beijing, where she soon realises that her life away from home has left her disconnected from her former life. Her grandmother worries about her eating habits abroad, her uncle wants to know what she actually does for a living, and a meeting with her ex-boyfriend causes grief.

I DON’T FEEL AT HOME ANYWHERE ANYMORE is a wistful but witty account of a trip to Beijing and depicts the discomfort of the bird that has flown out and is returning to its nest.

Director: Viv Li
Camera: Viv Li
Editing: Viv Li
Production: DocNomads

SCREENINGS & AWARDS
(selection)
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2020 – Special Mention
Beijing International Short Film Festival, China, 2020
International Short Film Festival Leuven, 2021 – Best Documentary
Diaspora International Short Film Festival, Turky, 2021 – Best Film
Reel Asian International Film Festival, Canada, 2021 – Air Canada Short Film Award
MakeDox Creative Documentary Film Festival, North Macedonia, 2021 – Onion Seed Award
Special Mention, Leiden Shorts, the Netherlands, 2021
FEST – New Directors/New Films Festival, Portugal, 2021
Lucca Film Festival & Europa Cinema, Italy, 2021
La Plata International Independent Film Festival – FestiFreak, Argentina, 2021
International Short Film Festival Canton, China, 2021
Aesthetica Film Festival, UK, 2021
Diorama International Film Festival, India, 2021
China Contemporary Art Animation Archive, China, 2021
London Short Film Festival, UK, 2022
FIPADOC, France, 2022
Brussels Independent Film Festival, Belgium, 2022
Beirut International Women Film Festival, 2022
Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Taiwan, 2022
Filmfest Bremen, Germany, 2022
Zsigmond Vilmos International Film Festival, Hungary, 2022

BIOGRAPHY
Viv Li is a Chinese filmmaker, writer and comedian based in Berlin and Beijing. She is a Berlinale Talents Alumni, Nipkow Fellow, IDFAcademy Alumni and the recipient of Erasmus Mundus Scholarship. Viv holds a master degree in Documentary Directing from DocNomads and a bachelor’s degree with honour in Drama and Film Studies from the University of Manchester. In the past 10 years, she lived in various countries of Europe, South America and Asia, pursuing an artistic career as a director. Her films have been awarded and screened internationally including IDFA, TIFF, Silver Eye award etc. She is currently working on her debut feature, the Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest and a fiction script A Hazy Romance.