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Daniel Hui

Daniel Hui

Directing

Biography

Daniel Hui studied at the California Institute of the Arts. He collaborates with the Network for the Promotion of Asian Culture and writes articles for their website. He is one of the founding members of 13 Little Pictures, an independent film collective whose films have been screened with acclaim in several festivals around the world. He made his debut as a filmmaker and writer in 2007 with the short The Bracelet. Many other shorts have followed since, and in 2011 he made his first feature film, No Images, which won the Pixel Bunker Award for International New Talent at Doclisboa.

Known For

An Invocation to the Earth

Deep in the tropical rainforest of Southeast Asia, a series of incantations invoke the spirits of yore, including those of the nimble, tricksy Kancil (mouse-deer) and the ferocious Buaya (crocodile). The ancient animals enact their folkloric vendetta in a furious dance of dominance, yet long-overdue vengeance is shrouded in smoke. Meanwhile, an effigy of a tree is burning, summoning a whole other host of spectres and ancestors. Conceived during the month of the Hungry Ghost Festival in 2019, while large-scale fires were consuming the forests of Indonesia, Yeo Siew Hua’s An Invocation to the Earth confronts climate collapse through the lens of pre-colonial folktales and animistic rituals. Through spoken spells and bodily entanglements, the video conjures up the fallen environmental defenders of a region ridden with ecological threats in the hope that their spirits will be reborn once again.

An Invocation to the Earth

2020Movie