“The Invisible Man and The Blind Girl” is an award-winning short narrative film that follows a lonely man, William, who has become invisible to everyone but a blind girl. When he discovers that he can help her regain her eyesight, it comes at a cost that threatens their newfound friendship—but shows that love always wins. Written and directed by award-winning Chinese documentary filmmaker Xaio Ma, and starring Ashlyn Jade Lopez (“The Vampire Diaries”) and Bryan Schany (“Big Country Blues”), the film is an Official Selection in competition at Dances With Films, screening on Sunday, June 16, 2019, at 2:45 p.m., at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres, located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California.
This charming 15-minute short film was Xiao Ma’s third narrative short film and his thesis project at Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts, from which he graduated in 2018.
The film won the 24th College Feature/Short 1st Place prize at the 24th Annual Palm Beaches Student Showcase of Films and the 2019 Gold Remi Award at WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, where the film held its World Premiere in April.
Writer/director Xiao Ma says, “One day, I was thinking about the concept of 'loneliness.' I imagined someone sitting in the corner having lunch all by himself. No one can see him; no one can even hear him. My wish was for this lonely soul to find someone who cares for him. This was the inception of my film.”
He adds, “Self-hatred is a curse that imprisons William into a lonely, desperate space—to the point where he has literally become invisible to the world. His relationship with a blind girl, who can actually see him, awakens him to life again, and gives him the opportunity to make a selfless decision.”
Producer Yining Xu comments, “We saw this as an opportunity to show Xiao’s skills as a director. His work in China for CCTV has given him a strong background in conveying a story to a wide audience.”
Ma concludes, “Our hope for this film is that it will emotionally impact audiences and help them realize that every person is special and deserves to be loved and seen—and I would love to develop it into a feature film project.”
Worldwide Rights for “The Invisible Man and The Blind Girl” are available.
- For tickets to the West Coast Premiere, please visit: danceswithfilms.com/the-invisible-man-and-the-blind-girl
- For the Facebook Event page, go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/443063483157157/
About Xiao Ma
Xiao Ma was born in Lan Zhou, China. He worked in the documentary industry in Beijing for over four years before he came to the US. He has written, edited and directed documentary subjects in the categories of psychological, e-commerce, historical. Many of his projects have been broadcast on China's national channel, CCTV. The psychological documentary “Decoding Instinct,” which he wrote, directed and edited for one episode won the International "Gold Panda" Award for Documentary at the 2013 Sichuan TV Festival. He also edited and directed one episode of the commercial documentary, “E-Business War,” which won the 2015 Jade Mountain Best Documentary Film Award of the Zheng Jiang International Documentary Film Festival. He is also the chief director for the five-episode documentary series, “Disputed Cases in Forbidden City.” Xiao graduated from the Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts in 2018. He finished three narrative short films in school, and his thesis project, the 15-minute short film, “The Invisible Man & The Blind Girl,” won the 24th College Feature/Short 1st Place for the 24th Annual Palm Beaches Student Showcase of Films and the 2019 Gold Remi Award of WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. Now, the film holds its West Coast Premiere at Dances With Films in Hollywood, California on June 16, 2019.
- Website: www.mx-film.com
- Trailer: https://vimeo.com/300903515
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/443063483157157/
