NY·FIRST主动放映 x KNOT Films: 水溶于水 Where Rivers Meet the Sea
策展主题 / Curator Statement: 水溶于水 Where Rivers Meet the Sea
水没有边界，或者说，水的边界只在它遇见另一种物质时才得以显现——玻璃、石头、皮肤。当水遇见水，边界消失，两者合一，无法再追问哪一滴是"我"。
法国哲学家梅洛-庞蒂曾指出，身体与世界之间从未存在一道清晰的分界线——感知本身就是一种融合，我们不是站在世界之外观看世界，而是浸泡在其中，被它塑造，也塑造着它。列维纳斯则从另一个方向逼近同一个问题：真正的他者是无法被同化的，正是这种无法溶解的差异，构成了自我存在的伦理基础。两种思路，一种说溶解是存在的本质，另一种说抵抗溶解是伦理的起点——而我们选择的九部短片，恰好悬停在这两种力量之间。
个体在关系中溶解，在技术中溶解，在他人的目光中溶解，在自己编织的叙事中溶解。我们越来越难以回答"我在哪里结束，世界从哪里开始"；与此同时，影像技术正在以另一种方式重提这个问题：当 AI 参与创作，当算法生成画面，当作者的边界开始模糊，影像还属于谁？未来又将如何被创作？
本次选片以"当水溶于水中"为核心意象，试图呈现当代华语短片创作在这一临界时刻的多元面貌，试图呈现在 2026 年的当下正在发生溶解的瞬间本身。
水是齐美尔意义上最完美的陌生人：它无处不在，却从不声称归属。本次入选的九部作品，体量各异，形式多元，创作者们站在不同的位置，以不同的方式面对同一个时代——有的向内凝视自我的边缘，有的向外触碰关系的裂隙，有的直接质疑影像这一容器本身还能装什么。
当水溶于水中，当河流汇于大海，当个体融入时代下的群体，什么都没变。又什么都不同了。我们邀请你带着这个问题入场：在一切边界都在松动的此刻，影像还能承载什么？
Water has no edge. Rather, its edge only appears when it meets something that is not water: glass, stone, skin. When water meets water, their edges dissolve. The two become one, and it is no longer possible to ask which drop belongs to whom.
Philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty argued that there has never been a clean line drawn between the body and the world — perception itself is a type of merging. We do view the world beyond it; we are merged within it, shaped by it, and we shape it in return. Emmanuel Levinas circled the same question from the other side: the genuine “Other” can never be absorbed, and it is precisely this undissolvable difference that grounds the ethics of selfhood. One thinker says dissolution is the substance of being; the other says resistance to dissolution is where ethics begins. The eleven shorts we have chosen hover exactly between these two forces.
The self dissolves in relationships, in technology, in the eyes of others, and in the stories it weaves about itself. The question where do I end, and where does the world begin has become harder and harder to answer. At the same time, the moving image is asking the same question in a new form: when AI joins the act of creation, when algorithms generate the frame, when the boundaries of the author begins to blur — to whom does an image belong? And how will the future be made?
This program takes water meeting water, river meeting sea as its central theme. It is an attempt to map the many faces of contemporary Chinese-language short filmmaking at this threshold moment, when the instant of dissolving occurs in 2026.
Water is the perfect Simmelian stranger: everywhere yet in different shapes or forms. The eleven films gathered here come in different sizes and different forms; their makers stand in different places, facing the same era in different ways — some turning inward to the edges of the self, some reaching outward into the fissures of relation, some questioning, head-on, what the vessel of the image is still able to hold.
Where Rivers meet the Sea. Nothing has changed. And nothing is the same.
We invite you to enter with this question in hand: at this moment when every edge is loosening, what can the moving image still carry? How much of yourself are you willing to dissolve?
短片 / Narrative Shorts
《杀死艾达》KILL ADA
真人短片｜2025｜蔡坤宇｜13mins｜FIRST FRAME 她的一帧 Short | 2025 | Cai Kunyu | 13 mins | FIRST FRAME
内容梗概： 一个家庭主妇 NPC 再也无法忍受玩家在自己的房子里肆意破坏，她决定反抗……
Synopsis: A housewife NPC has had enough of the player wrecking her home. She decides to fight back.
导演介绍： 1997 年出生于福建漳州。本硕均毕业于北京电影学院。参加过多部院线电影的导演组工作，也有大量 TVC 摄影指导拍摄经验。致力探索社会议题与商业类型片的结合。
Director's Bio: Born in 1997 in Zhangzhou, Fujian. Holds both a BA and an MA from the Beijing Film Academy. Has worked in the directing departments of multiple theatrical features and accumulated extensive experience as a cinematographer on TVCs. His practice focuses on bringing social themes into genre filmmaking.
团队介绍 / Crew:
制片人 王昊 / Producer: Wang Hao
编剧 林霄、王寒墨 / Screenwriters: Lin Xiao, Wang Hanmo
摄影指导 李其航 / Director of Photography: Li Qihang
美术指导 齐知强 / Production Designer: Qi Zhiqiang
录音指导 罗兆光 / Sound Recordist: Luo Zhaoguang
声音设计 何智麟 / Sound Designer: He Zhilin
剪辑 李兵晗 / Editor: Li Binghan
作曲 陈沛宇 / Composer: Chen Peiyu
调色 周墨 / Colorist: Zhou Mo
《会真记》KNOWLEDGE OF SECRETS
真人短片｜2025｜季子汀｜20mins｜FIRST PIONEER 先锋创作 Live-action Short | 2025 | Ji Ziting | 20 mins | FIRST PIONEER
内容梗概： 中日混血的文学系大学生林行简正在创作自己的剧本，在学校里他偶然获得了照顾自己尊敬的大学教授八田芳野饲养的猫的机会。在照顾猫的过程中，行简独自探索八田的家，逐渐察觉到八田教授其实隐藏着某些不可告人的秘密。同时，林也一步步陷入自己的妄想世界中。
Synopsis: Lin Xingjian, a literature student of Chinese-Japanese heritage, is at work on a screenplay of his own when he is offered the chance to look after a cat belonging to Professor Hatta Yoshino, a teacher he deeply admires. Alone in the professor's home, caring for the cat, Lin begins to drift through the rooms — and to sense that Hatta is keeping something he was never meant to know. Step by step, Lin sinks deeper into a world of his own imagining.
导演介绍： 季子汀，1997 年出生于宁波。2013 年至 2016 年就读于中国美术学院附中绘画专业，2016 年至 2020 年就读于上海大学，期间专注于实验影像与当代艺术，作品曾多次在上海、杭州展出。2021 年完成首部短片《具体生活》，入选日本 PIFF 电影节初选。2023 年至 2025 年于东京艺术大学影像研究科导演专业就读，师从盐田明彦、诹访敦彦。现以独立导演身份在日本发展。
Director's Bio: Ji Ziting was born in Ningbo in 1997. He studied painting at the affiliated high school of the China Academy of Art (2013–2016), then went on to Shanghai University (2016–2020), where his focus turned to experimental moving image and contemporary art; his work has been shown in Shanghai and Hangzhou. In 2021 he completed his first short, A Concrete Life, selected for the preliminary round of Japan's PIFF. From 2023 to 2025 he pursued directing at the Graduate School of Film and New Media at Tokyo University of the Arts, studying under Akihiko Shiota and Nobuhiro Suwa. He currently works as an independent director based in Japan.
团队 / Crew:
导演 丨 季子汀 / Director: Ji Ziting
编剧 丨 季子汀、荒木澪子 / Screenwriters: Ji Ziting, Araki Reiko
制片 丨 Siri、刘夷非 / Producers: Siri, Liu Yifei
摄影 丨 田野 / Cinematographer: Tian Ye
灯光 丨 田野、由进 / Lighting: Tian Ye, You Jin
美术 丨 罗启、郭娟 / Production Design: Luo Qi, Guo Juan
服装设计 丨 郭娟 / Costume Designer: Guo Juan
录音、声音设计与音乐 丨 青山武生 / Sound Recording, Sound Design & Music: Aoyama Takeo
剪辑 丨 洪炜 / Editor: Hong Wei
《上岸》STRUGGLING TO SLACK
真人短片｜2024｜齐炎焱｜29mins｜主竞赛 Live-action Short | 2024 | Qi Yanyan | 29 mins | Main Competition
内容梗概： Nana 毕业后在大城市职场碰壁，天真地以为回老家考教职就能获得稳定生活。然而返乡考编却因疫情后竞争激烈屡屡落榜。在等待再考期间，他辗转代课，逐渐体会到"躺平"比努力更难。代际矛盾成为他发泄的理由。当就业内卷成为时代背景，求稳成了一代人的集体焦虑，他终在反复失败中卸下自洽伪装，承认无路可走。次年，他借政策放宽以人才引进身份成为教师，他发现同事同样为"求稳"而来，所谓"上岸"不过是换种方式在现实里淬炼。
Synopsis: After hitting a wall in the big-city job market, Nana naively believes that going home to become a teacher will buy him a stable life. But post-pandemic competition is fierce, and he fails the teacher exam again and again. Drifting between substitute teaching gigs while waiting for another shot, he discovers that "lying flat" is harder than trying. Generational friction becomes his outlet. As employment competition becomes the backdrop of an era and the hunt for stability hardens into a generational anxiety, the repeated failure finally strips away his composure. He admits there is nowhere left to go. The following year, a loosened policy lets him in. He becomes a teacher, only to find his colleagues are here for the same stability. "Getting ashore" turns out to be just another way of being worn down by the current of reality.
导演介绍： 2001 年毕业于清华大学美术学院后从事影视相关工作至今。
Director's Bio: A graduate of the Academy of Arts & Design at Tsinghua University (2001), he has been working in film and television ever since.
团队介绍 / Crew:
导演 摄影 丨齐炎焱 Director & Cinematographer: Qi Yanyan
剪辑 丨齐炎焱、李勇 / Editors: Qi Yanyan, Li Yong
声音后期 丨桑泉 / Sound Post-production: Sang Quan
调色 丨高铭 / Colorist: Gao Ming
平面 丨旷姗姗、甘甜 / Graphic Design: Kuang Shanshan, Gan Tian
超短片 Short Short Film
《我取消我自己》I CANCEL MY SELF
内容梗概：《我取消我自己》(I Cancel Myself) 是"40+ 女性的一天"，细微地记录着女人在生活里的各种困境，比如她对于月经消失的担忧；更年期早期症状的困扰；她还会被男性凝视，侧目和笑话，但大部分时候隐形；她体能和精力的下降；她一个人做所有的事，但过了一定年龄后，这件事变得如此奇怪；她被拿出对比，一切看起来"更幸福"的情境，都衬托出她的"无助与孤苦"。
Synopsis: I Cancel Myself is a day in the life of a woman past forty, a quiet catalogue of the small predicaments she moves through: the worry that her period is disappearing, the early tremors of menopause, the male gaze that still finds her — sidelong looks, a joke at her expense — though most of the time she is simply invisible. Her stamina drops. She does everything alone, and past a certain age, doing everything alone becomes a strange thing to be doing. She is compared to other lives, and every scene that looks "happier" only reinforces her own helplessness and solitude.
导演介绍： 韩夏，毕业于中央戏剧学院电影电视系，现居北京。她在叙事短片、商业广告、纪录片创作领域，已有超过 15 年的经验。作品多关注都市独立青年群体、和文化场景。短片《飞蚊症》入围 2021 年山一国际女性电影节"女导演扶持计划"五强；短纪录片《第二级》获 2017 年 LIFT OFF 伦敦电影节"最佳短纪录片"；长片《卫星正偏离轨道》入围 2023 年"青葱计划"十强。她同时是播客《喷嚏》主播之一，在全平台有超过百万的关注者，是一位是集影像作者和自媒体人为一身的全方位创作者。
Director's Bio: Han Xia is a graduate of the Department of Film & Television at the Central Academy of Drama, based in Beijing. She has more than fifteen years of experience across narrative shorts, commercials, and documentary, with a recurring interest in young urban independents and the cultural scenes they move through. Her short Floaters was a top-five finalist in the Women Directors Support Program at the 2021 First International Film Festival for Women. Her short documentary Level Two won Best Short Documentary at the 2017 LIFT-OFF London. Her debut feature The Satellite Is Drifting Off Course was selected for the top ten of the 2023 CFDG Young Director Support Program. She is also a co-host of the podcast Sneeze, with over a million followers across platforms — a filmmaker and independent media voice in one.
《家庭套餐》PRINCESSES
内容梗概： 以"修鸽笼"为线索，用 5 分钟串联起三代人之间的互动，试图捕捉代际间复杂而深厚的情感表达。这种含蓄而深沉的爱既有冲突又有和解，是我们很多人共同的记忆，希望观众在平凡的生活细节中，感受亲情的重量与温度。
Synopsis: Threaded through the small task of repairing a pigeon coop, five minutes hold three generations together. The film reaches for the kind of love that runs deep but rarely speaks plainly — a love braided with friction and reconciliation, familiar to many of us. In its ordinary details, family weight and warmth come quietly into view.
导演介绍： 陈彦彬，长片首作《妖怪"秘密》获 18 届 FIRST 青年影展评审团荣誉。
Director's Bio: Chen Yanbin's debut feature The Monster's Secret received a Special Jury Mention at the 18th FIRST International Film Festival.
《高速公路》OFF THE WALL
内容梗概： 新冠疫情期间，小雨在体校学习，已有一年未见父母。得知开货车的父亲即将路过城南高速，小雨决定翻越学校围墙……
Synopsis: Boarding at a sports school through the pandemic, Xiaoyu hasn't seen his parents in a year. When he learns his father's truck route will pass along the southern expressway, he decides to climb the school wall.
导演介绍： 张中臣，编剧、导演、剪辑师。1991 年出生于安徽宿州。剪辑代表作品《妈妈和七天的时间》《一个人的葬礼》《扔你的猫》。2021 年导演长片首作《最后的告别》。
Director's Bio: Zhang Zhongchen is a writer, director, and editor. Born in 1991 in Suzhou, Anhui. His editing credits include Mama (Mama and the Seven Days), A Solo Funeral, and Throw Out Your Cat. He directed his debut feature The Last Farewell in 2021.
《今天我去动物园》ELSEWHERE
内容梗概： 小男孩独自出行，将现实与幻想并置展开。沿途中真实的见闻不断经由想像被重塑及认识，一场关于关系、理解与缺席的旅程悄然展开。
Synopsis: A small boy travels alone, as reality and imagination unfold side by side. What he actually sees along the way is continually reshaped and reviewed by what he imagines. Quietly, a journey about connection, understanding, and absence begins to unfurl.
导演介绍： 林欣谊（Camille Lin），电影导演兼摄影师，目前居住在纽约和台北两地。她毕业于纽约视觉艺术学院摄影系。她的作品巧妙地游走于现实与虚幻之间的微妙地带，追踪日常生活中潜藏的情感。胡力夫，成都出生，现居纽约，毕业于纽约视觉艺术学院摄影系。以个人视角探索亲密关系中的张力，创作游走于成长经验与想象世界之间。
Directors' Bios: Camille Lin is a filmmaker and photographer living between New York and Taipei. A graduate of the Photography Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York, her work moves through the slender zone between the real and the imagined, tracking the emotions that lie just below the surface of daily life. Hu Lifu, born in Chengdu and now based in New York, is also a graduate of the SVA Photography Department. His work explores the tensions inside intimate relationships from a personal vantage point, drifting between lived memory and invented worlds.
《邦德桥》BONDBRIDGE
内容梗概： 近未来的某个大风天，重度依赖"社交语言辅助工具 BondBridge"的程光，首次约会濒临失败时 BB 又即将没电，他试图引开苏琳给 BB 充电。两人的语言被大风吹散，反而渐生情愫渐生。BB 被意外撞掉后，苏琳的另一面也被意外窥见……
Synopsis: At a windy day in the near future, Cheng Guang, who leans heavily on a social-language assistive device called BondBridge, is watching his first date fall apart. BB is about to die, and he tries to slip away from his date Su Lin to charge it. The wind scatters their words, and somehow, in that scattering, something starts to grow between them. When BB is knocked loose by accident, and another side of Su Lin emerges.
导演介绍： 吴郗琛，B 站 UP 主中传吴宝宝，短片《猎旗少年》获评金鸡十佳短片、半夏影展年度作品等奖项，成为当年 FIRST 主动放映最受欢迎真人短片。短片《失聪》获北京大学生电影节最佳剪辑奖。2024 年导演电影《新龙门客栈》豆瓣 7.8 分。
Director's Bio: Wu Xichen, known on Bilibili as CUC Wu Baobao, is the director behind the short Flag-Hunting Boy, which was named one of the Top 10 Shorts at the Golden Rooster Awards, won at the Banxia Film Festival, and became the most popular live-action short of that year's FIRST Screening program. His short Deaf won Best Editing at the Beijing College Student Film Festival. In 2024, he directed the feature New Dragon Gate Inn (Douban 7.8).
《爱人絮语》AI'S DISCLOSURE
内容梗概： 这是一个由絮语展开的故事……一男一女观察着这个人类世界，像旁观者一样探讨着人与人的关系，看似无关紧要的聊天直到话题突然转向，场景与对话的主人公逐渐崩塌，我们才看到一些关于絮语的真相……
Synopsis: A story that unfolds through murmured talk. A man and a woman observe the human world like outside bystanders, discussing how humans connect. Their chatter seems weightless until the conversation shifts, as the scene and speakers themselves begin to come apart. Only then does some truth about the murmurs start to surface.
导演介绍： 蔡宝丰，出生于广东省广州市。本科毕业于中国传媒大学，硕士毕业于伦敦大学学院，现是一名自由职业导演。
Director's Bio: Cai Baofeng was born in Guangzhou. He holds a BA from the Communication University of China and an MA from University College London, and currently works as an independent director.
赞助鸣谢 Sponsor Acknowledgement
Rigel Atlas Boutique Consulting
Rigel Atlas Boutique Consulting is a strategy and data intelligence firm operating at the intersection of analytics, luxury, and emerging markets. We partner with brands, technology startups, founders, and institutions to transform fragmented signals into structured insights, enabling decisions that are both data-driven and execution-ready. Built on a foundation of quantitative analytics and real-world market experimentation, Rigel Atlas integrates research, AI-powered workflows, and curated industry access to design growth systems that scale.
Our core business lines include Rigel Intelligence and the Atlas Research Hub, through which we deliver strategic advisory, agentic AI tools and applied data solutions. Beyond advisory, we build intelligence-driven platforms - from private forums to experiential events - transforming networks, behaviors, and interactions into actionable insight.
REALM
REALM is a New York-based exhibition series at the intersection of architecture, real estate, and design culture. Exhibitions, panels, and conversations bring together the people shaping the future of cities—from emerging designers to established firms, and from institutional investors to academic researchers. Curation grows out of close relationships with practitioners across every field represented.
Dawn Eleven Contemporary Art Foundation
黎明十一当代艺术基金会（Dawn Eleven Contemporary Art Foundation，DeCA）是一家注册于纽约的 501(c)(3) 非营利艺术机构，致力于支持新兴艺术家与策展人的成长与发展。
通过展览、公共项目及跨领域合作，基金会关注当代社会与文化议题，搭建艺术家、策展人与公众之间的交流平台。我们希望通过开放、多元的艺术实践，激发新的思考与对话，推动当代艺术与文化的发展。
Dawn Eleven Contemporary Art (DeCA) Foundation is a 501c(3) registered Non profit. At DeCA, we are committed to advancing emerging talent's artistic and curatorial practices. We engage with pressing contemporary issues through thought-provoking, site-specific exhibitions, and collaborative projects, encouraging dialogue between artists, curators, and audiences. By fostering these creative exchanges, we invite the public to actively participate in shaping the future of art.