Pet Paradise
Director:
Zhang Yejiao
|
5min9sec
Synopsis Statement
There is a hospital that specializes in plastic surgery for animals. In this utopia, patients can be anything they want to be. Peggy is the earliest resident of the pet park. She helps doctors take care of other patients here: a snake who wants to grow eight feet, a mouse who does not want to be a mouse, an old parrot who cannot talk but only pluck its feather, a dog who accidentally turned into a celebrity after experiencing cyber violence, and a spotted rabbit who wants to bleach itself. Other animals do not know that Peggy, who is now slim, was a fat pig who could hardly walk a year ago. Actually, she suffers from severe bulimia due to body anxiety, but she never eats in front of anyone. Only in the late nights, does she look at her other self in the mirror, steal food from the refrigerator, and then continuously induce vomiting… There are unspeakable dark secrets in every ward, but can plastic surgery really turn their predicaments around?
Director's Statement
Zhang Yejiao, born in Xinmin of Liaoning Province, lives in Shanghai. He graduated from the School of English Studies, Shanghai International Studies University with a bachelor's degree and graduated from Bard College in the United States with a master's degree in photography under the ICP&bard MFA program. From 2018 to early 2021, he was a part-time lecturer at Mono No Aware, a film organization in Brooklyn, New York, USA, teaching courses using Super 8mm film and 16mm film. From 2018 to the present, he has been a lecturer on the art image and experimental films in “Emergency Break” workshop. In 2018, her photography work GUILAN was shortlisted for the Three Shadows Photography Award. In 2018, another photography work titled Her Own Room won the first prize of MAP Toulouse 2018, France. In 2021, the short film Calling the Flowers was shortlisted for the dynamic image award of the A.I.R. Biennale in New York.