ALMATY INDIE FILM FESTIVAL
Leaf Of Faith
Overview
A plant, Lilly, is brought inside an apartment which appears to be a loving home. She quickly discovers that her owner has killed every single plant he has owned before her. Lilly knows she will be the next victim if she doesn’t escape!
Director Biography — Alice Yu Li
Alice Yu Li is a student at Media Design School in Auckland, New Zealand. She took Bachelor of Art and Design where in her final year had the opportunity to direct Leaf of Faith.
Alice has spent much of her life developing skills storytelling and art, starting initially from making comics based off her favourite books as a kid. After graduation, she intends to keep bringing ideas to life as a 3D artist.
In Alice’s spare time she likes to upcycle and craft with whatever is lying around my place. Like using paperclips to make jewelry or making cardboard sculptures out of cereal boxes.
Director Statement
The story was initially being inspired by my own slowly wilting potted ferns. There’s something weird about thinking we’re in touch with nature by taking a plant home, depriving it of all the resources it needs and forcing it to rely on our care. One of the dead plants that Lilly encounters is a bonsai because it’s seen as an art to cut their branches off to morph it into whatever is deemed appealing. Finally, the last one is a cactus to show how even the most durable of plants was killed.
Leaf of Faith is about a plant realising that being outside and free is better than human ownership because we aren’t capable of taking care of nature. It was vital for Lilly to actively pull herself out of the pot and to leap off the window. The pot essentially being the plant version of a prison made by humans. The rooftop Lilly wakes up in is overtaken by plants to represent a place where nature has reclaimed a manmade structure.
While the story had a message, there was some innate comedy about seeing what a plant finds horrifying. We decided to play up the horror of finding the dead plants as it also shows the human’s incompetence.
Credits
- Director
- Alice Yu Li
- Producer
- Darcy Alexander Black
Specifications
- Project type
- Animation, Short, Student
- Genres
- comedy, horror
- Runtime
- 3 minutes 2 seconds
- Completion date
- October 11, 2019
- Production budget
- 0 USD
- Country of origin
- New Zealand
- Language
- English
- Aspect ratio
- 16:9
- Film color
- Color
- First-time filmmaker
- Yes
- Student project
- Yes
- Digital Cinema Package
- Unavailable
Awards & Festivals
Festival and award information has not been added yet.