Who Is The Zookeeper
Directors: Masha Vasilkovsky, Jinghan Zhang and Ruah Edelstein
Crew:Writers: Masha Vasilkovsky, Ruah Edelstein. Producer: Jinghan Zhang.
Email:zhangjinghan86@gmail.com
Synopsis
A young soul named Lu ventures into a world of shadows reflecting a weakened state of humanity. There Lu struggles to find grounding in memories of a familiar universe governed by kindness. Despair is crushing. The escape is behind the mirror.
About the directors
Masha Vasilkovsky - Masha Vasilkovsky's films have been presented at Centre Pompidou in Paris, Annecy Animation Festival, and Museum of Modern Art New York, among other venues. Masha is internationally known for award winning animated films made in paint-on-glass technique, such as "Fur and Feathers" (2000) and "Eyes of the Azure" (2016).
Masha's animation is featured in such productions as, "Il Doctor" (2005) dir. Suzan Pitt, "Lo Azul Del Cielo" (2012) dir. Juan Uribe, and "Tell Me Cuba" (2006) dir. Megan Williams. Since 2000, Masha has directed and animated over 50 films.
Since 2003 Masha has been teaching film production at Character Animation Department of California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and at Media Entertainment Arts Department at College of the Canyons.
Jinghan Zhang - Jinghan Zhang is an independent animation artist, director and producer. Born in Northeast China, the city of Harbin, at the age of 13 Zhang moved to Beijing with her family. Upon graduating from the Beijing Film Academy, in 2015 Zhang moved to the United States to continue her journey as a filmmaker.
Being influenced by radically different cultures within China, in her work Zhang explores the depths of human nature with its higher desires for love and kindness as well as its downfalls prompted by greed, last, and betrayal. Experimenting with different visual styles, Zhang explores a visually rich world. Zhang’s films have been warmly received by the indie animation community around the world. In 2019 Zhang’s short film "Elixir" became the finalist at the USA Film Festival, received the Best Animation at the Vegas Movie Awards, the Best Animated Short at the Spotlight Short Film Award, the Best Animation at the Rome Independent Prisma Awards and was also selected at the Animation Day in Cannes.
Collaborating with the United Nations Organization for Poverty Alleviation and Development (OPAD), Jinghan created an animated opening for a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals video. Currently Zhang collaborates with Lumen Animae Studios in Los Angeles on diverse animation projects.
Ruah Edelstein - Ruah Edelstein is a Lithuanian-American animation film director and a contemporary artist known for a body of conceptual work including films, paintings, and site-specific installations.
Since 2008 Ruah Edelstein has directed and produced over 50 films. In 2012, together with filmmaker Masha Vasilkovsky, Ruah co-founded Lumen Animae Studios based in Los Angeles. The studio has presented work at Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals among others, Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles, US Open Tennis Championship, Holocaust Museum Los Angeles. Awards include: the SIMA Award and Emmy Nomination for film "Ashe '68".
Ruah is on the faculty at CalArts, teaching film production in the Department of Character Animation since 2012 and has been a guest artist at the Film University of Babelsberg, Seoul Institute of the Arts, UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television.
Filmmakers' note
It took 2,5 years to make this film. We wrote the script in Summer 2021 completing the production in early 2024. As our world moved from one crisis to the next during this period, we perceived new dimensions in the flow of the film looking at it through the prism of each hurricane unfolding during its production. Where is that cure from despair that would cause the world to move back in balance? Each one of the people on the street could be that, including you and I.