you are viewing the trailer (click here to watch the whole film)
you are viewing the whole film (click here to watch the trailer)
马克来了 (WELCOME, MARK), 2019, 25 min.
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Director - Zach Weintraub
Starring 贾宁 (Linda Jia) and Mike Lawrence
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Jia Ning, a Beijing fashion photographer, agrees to help translate for Mark, an amateur British journalist coming to China for the first time.
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I lived in Beijing for two years. During that time, I worked as an English teacher and felt like the world of moviemaking that I’d previously lived and breathed was disappearing in the rearview mirror. Fearing an identity crisis, I resolved to shoot something - anything - before going home. WELCOME, MARK was made on an old Hi8 camera by myself and two friends during my final week in China. The film is a testament to some of the nastier foreign attitudes I encountered during my time there, and a tribute to a place and period that I treasure.
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RELATED LINKS:
FADDY Magazine, Oct. 2019 - a recent issue of the fashion magazine featuring a cover photo and multi-page spread shot by Jia Ning.
A skate clip I made in Beijing, in which co-star Mike (he plays "Mark") is heavily featured out of character.
The song from the mall montage is 电光霹雳舞士 by 薛莹.
The song from the opening credits is 蓝天白云跟我来 by 孙佳星. I can't find it online but here's a child performing it on China Central Television.