Director Biography – Chia-Hsin Lee (IN AN EMPTY WOOD)

In the summer of 2017, while I was being a volunteer art teacher in Taiwan, I met a fellow volunteer who shared the same belief with me as if we were twins. But instead of being close, we were very jealous of each other, for I used to be a conservation activist which she currently is, and she was once an artist which I currently am. Our path seemed to have exchanged. In the frustrations of coping with this jealousy, I wrote this poem.

During the months of film production, Erin McDermott helped design the visuals, and my CG teachers Dariush Derakhshani and Andrew Bac helped with the technical aspect of making my first CG film. Sound was an important element in this film. Hao Feng provided his voice and acting, Kion Heidari wrote and sang the ambience score, Ben Scanlan was the percussionist, Alberto Cruz recorded the sounds, and Ben Huff did the incredible sound mixing.

And last, thank you, my Blue, whom I believe is doing something amazing on the other side of the world. This film is to you.