Shot entirely from an apartment on the 36th floor of a high-rise building, the images in this experimental animated documentary survey large parts of Hong Kong’s cityscape, drawing attention to the individual lives hidden inside its buildings - together alone, collectively sequestered. Initially recorded in 2020 and completed in 2023 with the advantage of critical distance, TWENTYTИƎWT / 二〇二〇 attempts to encapsulate the darkness, confinement, and uncertainty of the year 2020.
In the 3D-stereoscopic version of the film, an extreme distance of up to two meters is used between the two synchronised cameras capturing the stereoscopic scenes. Through this experimental technique, the viewers' interocular distance is widened, making them giants and the city a miniature. Shooting with two cameras so far apart results in much greater depth perception at far distances, and buildings appear like cardboard cut-outs or dollhouses. This expanded stereoscopic approach creates a strong defamiliarisation, through which the city is further estranged and reconfigured.
- Winner, International Short Film Competition, Exground Filmfest, Germany, 2024
- Lodz Student Jury Special Mention Borderlands, StopTrik International Film Festival, Poland, 2023
SCREENINGS AND EXHIBITIONS
- 6th KLAPPE AUF! Short Film Festival, Hamburg, Germany, 4-5 Apr 2025 (Official Competition)
- All that is Solid: Animate OPEN, QUAD Gallery, Derby, UK, 24 Jan - 16 Feb 2025 + UK tour
- 30th Leuven International Short Film Festival, Leuven, Belgium, 29 Nov - 7 Dec 2024 (Labo Programme)
- KLEX - Kuala Lumpur Experimental Moving Images & Music Festival, Malaysia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec 2024
- 37th Exground Filmfest, Wiesbaden, Germany, 15-24 Nov 2024 (International Competition)
- TOFUZI International Animated Film Festival, Batumi, Georgia, 11-16 Nov 2024 (Official Competition)
- 18th Big Cartoon Festival, Moscow, Russia, 25 Oct - 5 Nov 2024 (Official Competition)
- Fredrikstad Animation Festival, Fredrikstad, Norway, 24-27 Oct 2024
- ReAnimania Festival, Yerevan, Armenia, 20-26 Oct 2024
- Instants Video, Marseille, France, 18 Oct 2024 - 19 Jan 2025 (exhibition)
- 34th Message to Man International Film Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia, 18-27 Oct 2024 (In Silico Experimental Short Film Competition)
- Courant 3D, Angoulême, France, 7-13 Oct 2024
- London Animation Club, Garden Cinema, London, Mon 7 Oct 2024
- 19th Simultan Festival, Timisoara, Romania, 3-6 Oct 2024
- Facade Video Festival, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 27-29 Sep 2024
- Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria, 4-8 Sep 2024 (Ars Electronica Animation Festival programme)
- 20th International Short Film Festival Detmold, Detmold, Germany, 19-25 Aug 2024
- 48th Open Air Filmfest Weiterstadt, Weiterstadt, Germany, 15-19 Aug 2024
- 23rd Countryside Animafest Cyprus, Salamiou, Cyprus, 9-12 Aug 2024 (International Competition)
- 29th OpenEyes Filmfest, Marburg, Germany, 25-28 Jul 2024 (Competition)
- 17th Fest Anca International Animation Festival, Zilina, Slovakia, 25-30 June 2024 ("Contemporary Abstract and Non-narrative Animation")
- World Festival of Animated Film - Animafest Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia, 3-8 Jun 2024 ("Time for the Masters")
- 21st Vienna Shorts, Vienna, Austria, 28 May – 2 Jun 2024 ("Animation Avantgarde")
- 20th Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, Greece, 15-26 May 2024
- 41st Busan International Short Film Festival, Busan, Korea, 22-28 Apr 2024 ("Beyond Shorts: 3D Shorts")
- 36th Filmfest Dresden International Short Film Festival, Dresden, Germany, 16-21 Apr 2024 (National Competition)
- International 3D-Stereo Film Festival, Moscow, Russia, 4-6 Apr 2024
- 20th Akbank Short Film Festival, Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, Turkey, 25 Mar - 4 Apr 2024
- ANIMAC, Lleida, Spain, 15-18 Feb 2024
- 13th StopTrik International Film Festival, Lodz, Poland, 8-10 Dec 2023
- Relentless Melt No. 29: Animated Abstractions from Hong Kong, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK, Wed 29 Nov 2023, 14:00 (screening curated and presented by Max Hattler, hosted by Animation Research Centre and Prof Birgitta Hosea)
- 13th CutOut Fest, Queretaro, Mexico, 16-19 Nov 2023
- Kyiv International Short Film Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine, 16-19 Nov 2023
- 10th New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival, New Chitose Airport, Hokkaido, Japan, 2-6 Nov 2023
- 17th Byron Bay International Film Festival, Byron Bay, Australia, 20-29 Oct 2023
- 27th International New Media Art Festival Videomedeja, Novi Sad, Serbia, 12-14 Oct 2023
- LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine, 4-8 Oct 2023
- Image Forum Festival, Tokyo, Japan, 30 Sep - 6 Oct 2023 (special screening curated by Ip Yuk-yiu)
- 13th StopTrik International Film Festival, Maribor, Slovenia, 27 Sep - 1 Oct 2023
- 8th Digerati Emergent Media Festival (formerly Supernova Digital Animation Festival), Denver, US, 14-17 Sep 2023
- World Festival of Animated Film, Varna, Bulgaria, 6-10 Sep 2023
- Relentless Melt No. 26: New Animated Abstractions, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, Hong Kong, 15 May 2023, 18:30 (screening + discussion, curated by Max Hattler)
English title: TWENTYTИƎWT
Chinese title: 二〇二〇
Director & Producer: Max Hattler
Editing: Zhang Riwen, Max Hattler
Animation and Compositing: Zhang Riwen, Ty Lok Yi, Liu Da, Max Hattler
Photography: Max Hattler
Sound: Eduardo Noya
Available formats: UHD, 1080p HD, DCP
Country: Hong Kong, Germany
Frame rate: 24
Length: 7'00"
Year: 2023
This work was supported by Relentless Melt with a project grant from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, and by a GRF grant from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project No. 11602919). Additionally supported through an ACIM Individual Research Fellowship from the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong.
Special thanks to Matthew Gidney, Ip Yuk-yiu, and Maryam Katan.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID
"Max Hattler’s experimental animation TWENTYTИƎWT summarizes a year of global change in an impressive cinematic condensation. High above the rooftops of Hong Kong, the film reveals what being alone in a megacity means, tracing stories hidden behind the glowing facades. Static, linear perspectives and a long zoom make the bleak emotions and limitations of the year 2020 intensely palpable." Louise Linsenbolz, Vienna Shorts, 2024
"When we see the individuals, we don't see the whole picture. When we see the whole picture, it's just a picture of individual people. In big cities, we live close together, but we are alone, alienated - and the sounds we make end in a collective murmur. We are awarding Max Hattler the prize for his clearly structured study of our contemporary society for his film TWENTYTИƎWT." Jury Statement (by Nina Friemann, Jutta Wille und Marko Stojiljkovic), Winner International Short Film Competition, Exground Filmfest, 2024
"For an interesting and non-trivial form which forces the viewers to submit to the presented history, and for creative transposition of fears and uncertainties of contemporary people." Jury Statement, Special Mention Borderlands, StopTrik International Film Festival, 2023
"ein Mosaik der Isolation innerhalb der Hochhauswildnis." Falter.at, 2024
"Some other films that really stood out: (...) the urban building atmosphere of 二〇二〇 by Max Hattler." Vassilis Kroustallis, Zippy Frames, 2023
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