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Shadow Magic
DIRECTOR: Anne Hu
USA/China 1:52:00 35mm Color Chinese 
 Executive Producers: Charles Xue, Steve Chang, Chiu Shun-Ching, Han Sanping, Ulrich Felsberg, Eitan Hakami, Katia Milani
Peking, 1902. Celebrated opera star Lord Tan poses for his portrait at the Feng Tai Photo Studio, unaware that his promising young photographer Liu is itching to try a new technology that threatens traditional arts: the motion picture. This humorous and sensitive account of the birth of cinema in China brings to life the historic moment when the confluence of still photography, the phonograph and the motion picture created a multimedia excitement that confounded the people's perceptions and even aroused the curiosity of the Empress Dowager. British expatriate Raymond Wallace, fleeing from creditors and estranged from his family, introduces young Liu to the combustible world of "shadow magic" and the mysteries of the outside world. Liu is inspired to use this new technology to capture local life, so that Chinese can see themselves onscreen. However, his loyalties to his father, his employer and his love interest (the opera star's daughter)—not to mention his own country's distrust of the "barbarian" foreigner—soon threaten his every effort to become a professional cinematographer and impresario. Frako Loden
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