The film OUT THERE, directed by the Japanese director Takehiro Ito and starring Taiwanese actor and photographer Chun Chih Ma, will have its U.S. premiere with the filmmakers in person as part of the opening weekend First Look Festival on Saturday, January 7, 2017 at the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI).
OUT THERE, which was made in Taipei and Tokyo, tells a story of a director looking for a new actor to resurrect a stalled documentary project on the Taiwanese director Edward Yang. This actor is Ma (as himself), born in Taiwan, who wanders around Tokyo and searches for the feeling of being home. Traveling back and forth through secret gates between Tokyo and Taiwan, OUT THERE is in turns a documentary, a film within a film, a love story, and a story about wandering, also a film in which the cities are among the main characters.
As Takehiro Ito’s feature debut, OUT THERE is a hybrid of fiction and documentary, whose innovative form and subject has made it selected for the official international competition of FID Marseille and Turin International Film Festival 2016. Now it’s going to be presented at the sixth edition of the First Look Festival, MoMI’s annual showcase for outstanding new international cinema expanding the art form, runs from January 6 through 16, 2017 with works from more than twenty countries, nearly all of which are New York premieres.
OUT THERE
Dir. Takehiro Ito, starring Chun Chih Ma, Haruo Kobayashi, Ayu Kitaura
Showtime: Sat, January 7, 4:00 p.m.
Location: Museum of the Moving Image, Redstone Theater (36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, New York)
Feature / Japan, Taiwan / 2016 / 148 mins / Japanese, Chinese, and English with English subtitles / U.S. Premiere
*With Dir. Takehiro Ito and Leading actor Chun Chih Ma in person