Haohao Yan’s semi-autobiographical short The Speech focuses on three young girls during the SARS outbreak in China in 2003. This extraordinary short, which was selected for the CAA Moebius Showcase 2020 back in May is also in competition for the Best of the Fest Award and the Best U.S Student Short Award at Palm Springs International ShortFest, which screened online also back in June.
Synopsis: May 2003, Beijing, China. The SARS outbreak is real. The city is closed. Most students have been sent home. Inside a private boarding school, three eight-year-old girls have to find a way to make sense of the world.
The Speech Official Trailer by Haohao Yan
Director Haohao Yan is a Chinese director and screenwriter who came to the U.S to pursue her B.A. in Film and Television Production at UCLA School of Theater Film and Television. She received her MFA in directing from the American Film Institute Conservatory in 2019. Her thesis film The Speech is a short film about three eight-year-old girls’ quarantined life during the 2003 SARS epidemic in China premiered at Palm Springs International ShortFest 2020.
Prior to her directing career, Haohao received her BA in Producing from UCLA School of Film and Television, where she mainly focused and worked on Chinese-American co-production films.
Producer Xiaoxiao Li is also an award-winning director. A graduate of Producing at the American Film Institute, she specializes in a variety of areas such as China Co-Production, Film Distribution, and Marketing and has worked with Vogue, New York Documentary Festival, Huaxia Film Distribution, and many others.
She was invited as a filmmaker representative at the Featured Candidate of the International Youth Leadership Summit. Her film Supercar Man won more than 20 categories at International film festivals and has been highly acclaimed by critics and film festivals while garnering distribution worldwide.
Cinematographer Anton Shavlik is an American cinematographer who worked in Europe, Asia, and the Americas and his films have played at festivals such as Sundance and Palm Springs.
The Speech screened online as part of the Palm Springs International ShortFest from June 16th to June 22nd. The cast is Gloria Xiong, Chedi Chang, and Harmonie He. The crew include Writer and Director Haohao Yan; producer Xiaoxiao Li, cinematography Anton Shavlik, production design Menghan Qi, editor, and Luqi Zhao
Tell us what you think of The Speech; A Live-Action Short by Haohao Yan. What are you thinking? What more information do you need? Do you have any suggestions? Or did this help you? Let’s have your comments below and/or on Facebook or Instagram! Or join me on Twitter.
MORE STORIES FOR YOU
In Conversation with Michael Oblowitz Director of Confidential Informant
Confidential Informant stars Mel Gibson, Dominic Purcell, and Kate Bosworth
