The Chemical Factory

TYPE: Documentary Short
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Production

LOGLINE

While reminiscing about childhood in 1980's Oregon, Andrew Leung faces cultural divide through the story of his mother's struggle in 1960's communist China.

SYNOPSIS

A vignette centered upon a Chinese immigrant mother (Cheuk Yee Chan) recounting her life growing up during the tumultuous 1960's communist China to her American son (Andrew Leung). A story of mass hunger, family separation, and world gone sideways emerges as a stark contrast to buffet restaurant in Springfield Oregon.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

My name is Andrew Leung and I’m an award winning concept artist seeking funding for the animated documentary “The Chemical Factory”. It’s a short prestige film that is a vignette centered upon a Chinese immigrant mother (Cheuk Yee Chan) recounting her life growing up during the tumultuous 1960's communist China to her American son (Andrew Leung). It is a multi-lingual film in both English and Cantonese, a language spoken by over 6 million people in the world, that has been systematically phased out by the Chinese government. A story of mass hunger, family separation, and world gone sideways emerges as a stark contrast to buffet restaurant in Springfield Oregon. Distilled from an original 6 hour interview, the short documentary is recounted as an animation to visualize a world that has been erased by shame.

While the blueprint for the short, the animatic itself, is finished, I’m seeking funding to finish animating the short in high definition photoreal computer generated imagery. Using my extensive experience from Hollywood as a concept artist for films like Black Panther and The Jungle Book, animation, and visual effects, I hope to direct a team to carry the short across the finish line.

The film will also leverage Unreal Engine software, the latest in cutting edge real-time CGI technology which has only recently become usable for filmmakers. It will allow for a high production quality that was only previously available to big budget studios with powerhouse rendering farms, now for a fraction of the cost.

With your help, I hope to finish this deeply personal film. It will not only fill the gap of what it means to be Asian and growing up in America, but also resonate what is also a truly American story. In addition, it will also work as a proof of concept for the eventual feature length documentary about the story of an immigrant surviving Chinese prison to reach 1970’s New York City, contrasting the story of her son growing up middle class in suburban Oregon.

KEY CREW

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