Interviews & Reviews

Home Away is an award winning Art House Drama Film. 

It’s the story of Mr. Zhou who, in order to purchase the VIP membership of a nursing home, wants to seize the opportunity of the relocation of his house by arranging a fake marriage with Mrs. Dong to acquire more money out of the compensation. But Mrs. Dong, fearing karma, has her doubts all along. 

Zhou Ping, Mr. Zhou's son, on the other hand, sees the relocation as an opportunity to buy a school estate for his daughter. Yun, Mrs. Dong's nanny who's from Sichuan Province, is suddenly informed that her brother has been hit by a car in her hometown, and, therefore, in urgent need of 100,000 RMB to pay for the operation. When she comes to know of Mr. Zhou's plan of the "fake marriage", she offers to help him out but asks for 100,000 RMB in advance.

Having learned about her father-in-law's intention of marrying Mrs. Dong, Huang Lili, Zhou Ping's wife, has stolen his household register. As a result, Mr. Zhou, when he is about to give the bankbook with a deposit of 100,000 to Yun, finds that his household register is gone in which the bankbook is tucked. In the meantime, Mrs. Dong is suffering from a fall after an eye operation and her daughter finds out that Yun has been seeing doctors using her mother's Medicare card. Unable to get in touch with her, Yun's husband who has been in the countryside has also arrived in Shanghai.

First of all, this film allows us to ask many important questions about Chinese Society.  Then HOME AWAY has the big value to have a strong visual identity given by Jong Lin’s cinematography and the frames and camera movements perfectly chosen by the director Oliver Yan to convey the conditions of the main characters. 

The choice from the beginning to shoot the first sequence behind a glass it’ very strong. And from this incipit we can deduce the quality of the work of this director. The visual impact this film has is so strong that it makes the audience fell in front of a documentary in stead of a feature without losing the pleasure of the aesthetic research that is very rigorous and consistent with the theme and mood of the film.

This sense of strong reality is convey also by the choice of an essential sound design, which everything is diegetic.

The performances of the actors Huang Lu and Xu Caigen are also very really realistic and authentic and make each scene really believable.

The rhythm of the editing has the power to perfectly present each part of the film to the audience. 

The pace of the script is perfectly balanced and never predictable, essential and precise.

So a great proof of talent for the director of this film. 

We really hope to see his next feature soon! 

Oliver Yas is the talented director who wrote, directed and produced this precious film. 

Oliver Yan was born and raised up in Shanghai. 

He graduated from his first university in 2002 which studied physics. He made his first short film R that is no dialogue in 2008, screening in Cannes Film Festival short film corner and won Best Foreign Short Film in Washougal international Film Festival that year. In 2011, He wrote, directed, shot, edited and produced his first experimental feature Flipping (68mins) won Best Foreign Feature and Best Screenplay (nominated) in 2012 Madrid International Film Festival. His first feature film HOME AWAY which he wrote, edited, produced and directed has won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematographer, Best Lead Actor, Best Editor in NYC Indie Film Awards 2017. Won Best Original Screenplay and nominated as Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematographer, Best Lead Actor, Best Supporting Actress in 2017 New York City International Film Festival. Won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematographer, Best Lead Actor, Best Supporting Actor in Los Angeles Film Awards 2017. Won Best Original Screenplay for Foreign Language Film in 2017 International Filmmaker festival of World Cinema Nice. Oliver Yan won Best Director in Florence Film Awards 2019. On July 28th, 2019, won Best Screenplay and Osaka Governor's Award for "Home Away" in Kadoma International Film Festival. Won Best Picture in Venice Film Awards on May 2020, Won Best Script in Montreal Independent Film Festival on October 2020

Home Away by Oliver Ryan won Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay in the April 2020 New York Movie Awards monthly competition.

MAKING THINGS RIGHT is a Psychological Horror Directed by Logan Garrett.  Born as a student project, we cannot infer the limit of this condition in production. 

It deals with the story of Brian and his religious girlfriend Abby, who is pregnant. Not being able to afford a ring, he steals one off of the corpse he finds in a swamp. Just when he thinks all is well, he watches her hand slowly turn black and weathered, while Abby and others around her are totally oblivious. Brian descends into madness as he must decide whether or not he must take a drastic action to stop the decay from reaching the unborn baby.

MAKING THINGS RIGHT is a very ambitious project by Logan Garrett, who tried to deals with the delicate theme of making rash decisions based on outdated religious notions.

Shooting this short film Garrett shows us a very strong ability to deal with this subject in very conscious point of view and of course it was not an easy goal to pursue. 

The actors Louis Bosch and Summer Ertel are very well directed and the script and symbols used in the story help us to maintain a strong sense of reality also in the horror genre. 

Dialogues are well written and acted, the camera movements and rhythm of the editing although very simple, they convey a strong sense of suspense and danger during the whole film. 

The sound design also underlines the sense of fear of the main character who is the only one who know what is really happening. We are very curious to see next works of this director.

About his biography we can add that Logan Garrett hails from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He is currently a senior at the Savannah College of Arts and Design (SCAD). He has a minor in Production Design, and is soon completing his B.F.A in Film and Television Production. For him "Telling stories is what I do. No matter what is placed in front of me, I see it as a tool for story telling.” 

The short film MAKING THINGS RIGHT won a Honorable Mention for the Original Story in the September Monthly competition of the New York Movie Awards. 

Congratulations to all cast and crew!