User:CherylnVerlin/Vivian Qu

Lead
Vivian Qu (Chinese: 文晏; Wen Yan) is a Chinese film director, screenwriter and producer who directed the award-winning 2013 film Trap Street. She also produced Night Train, released in 2007, Knitting, in 2008 and Black Coal, Thin Ice in 2014, which won that year's Golden Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

In 2017, her second directing feature Angels Wear White was entered into the main competition section of the 74th Venice International Film Festival and won the best film of Chinese films from first and second-time directors in the Pingyao International Film Festival. It later won her a Golden Horse Award for Best Director in Taiwan.

Early life and education
Qu was born and brought up in Beijing, China. She used to study art design. In the 1990s, she went to the United States and studied art history and fine arts in New York City. She says that the subject of cinema combined all her interests, in "writing, photography, music... together in one art form".

Life and career
'In 2017, Vivian Qu’s second feature-length film Angels Wear White'' was shot in Hainan Island in China. The story happens in the Chinatown where a huge statue of ‘Forever Marilyn’ witnesses all the dark and suspicious activies going on in the Warmness Hotel. It focuses on two parallel storylines that tell the life and plight of two teenage girls, one as an “illegal” teenage worker without an ID at a hotel reception (Xiaomi or Mia), the other one as a schoolgirl that encountered sexual assault in that hotel (Wen). Mia witnesses the rape happening at the reception desk and there is this decision on whether to report the crime or not, while Wen has been through the aftermath of that crime from different perspectives that impacts her life. Qu tells the depressing incident in a critical tone and applies a soft compassion to the marginalized groups of women who have encountered sexual and physical abuse. As the film centres around these groups of women, Qu entitles the film to spread her voice for the objectifying women within the Chinese society. '''

'''While Qu dedicates to amplify facts of harm and suppression to the marginalized women on screen, Qu also pays close attention to female filmmakers’ position in the Chinese film industry. Along with the gender equity movements like Time’s Up and #MeToo in the U.S., Qu expresses her concern that women are generally given less opportunity in the Chinese film industry. In Cannes in 2018, Qu states that women filmmakers are receiving less budgets for their proposals and are commonly thought to be only able to produce romantic genre. Such phenomenon substantially reduces female filmmakers’ opportunities and intensifies the gender inequality and sexism. Another issue mentions by Qu that exacerbates the situation in the Chinese film industry is that investors and the capital press filmmakers use young casts for the roles that are written for people much older. This aging process puts more stress on women producers and actresses. '''

'''Qu’s directing style is largely influenced by French filmmaker Robert Bresson, and she uses a similar storytelling method to set the ending and the opening of the film in a way corresponding to each other. Her Angels Wear White won the best film of Chinese films from first and second-time directors in the Pingyao Awards and screened in Venice Film Festival in 2017. Qu also won the Best Director award at the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan. After that, Qu decides to continue her life as a director instead of going back to being a producer. She also agrees on Ang Lee’s claim that exploring new technologies is an important orientation for the young generation directors. '''

As Scriptwriter

 * 2004 Letter From an Unknown Woman[citation needed]
 * 2013 Trap Street

As director

 * 2017 Angels Wear White
 * 2013 Trap Street

As producer[edit]

 * 2014 Black Coal, Thin Ice
 * 2013 Chunmeng
 * 2008 Knitting
 * 2007 Night Train