Screening, Talk, & Discussion of Fisherman, dir. Dir. Liang Rong, & Possible Worlds: Short Film Collection & After-Screen Music Performance from Wish band

A group of storytellers sets out from China.
They film snow in the borderlands, the fractures within families, the silence after a plane crash—
and in the blank spaces of reality, they search for other possible worlds.

They gaze at the present, and ask quietly,
What if a young man in rural China received a fountain pen from Italy?
What if a long-departed loved one returned to life?

If love and dreams are a kind of certainty,
then in all the possible worlds imagined by humankind,
they will happen.

These imaginations remind us, again and again:
boundaries are fragile, and often absurd.
Another way of living might already be at hand.

This time, we bring these imaginations to Bristol.
From opposite ends of the world, we reach toward each other—
and breathe the same second of the same world.

1:30pm Screening of feature film: Fisherman
3:45pm Screening of Possible Worlds short film collection
6pm Screening of feature film: Shards
8pm Resonant Possibilities: After-screening live music from Wish band

🎬 FISHERMAN

Dir. Liang Rong | 2024 | 106 min | Documentary Feature

Beneath a highway bridge, a fisherman lives an unusual life. He eats, sleeps, and works entirely aboard his boat. He drinks river water, bathes in the current, and sells his daily catch along the shore. By all appearances, things are getting better—his business is good, his days pass in rhythm with the river, and he speaks of fate with growing confidence. But one day, a television crew arrives. An interview is filmed. And his fate begins to shift.

🎬 Possible Worlds: Short Film Collection

Total runtime: approx. 97 min

From snow-covered forests to southern summer towns, from lost memories to surreal dreams, these five short films travel across landscapes of disappearance, obsession, reunion, and quiet transformation. Each story opens a door to another possible world—fragile, strange, and deeply human.

🎬 SHARDS

Dir. Yuzhi Jiang | 2024 | 94 min | Narrative Feature

During a winter solstice in the midst of the pandemic, a family comes together. The grandmother and mother knead dough for dumplings; the grandfather and father fold gold paper into ceremonial ingots. The son weaves between them, carrying his own quiet unrest. They speak of food, chores, estranged friends, pigeons tearing each other apart, and broken porcelain stitched back together. A dumpling skin breaks. An ingot turns to ash. The mended porcelain becomes ever more fragile.

Shards is a process film. Across a single uninterrupted day, through the repetition of domestic labour, a family fractures, repairs, reconciles, and collapses once more. Like the traditional craft of ceramic mending (锔瓷), the pieces are bound tightly together—broken, and yet whole.

🎸After-Screening Live Performance-Wish band

Dropshipped parasocial relationship with a dream — space groove rock quartet

To close the festival weekend, London-based Wish band will perform a live set in the screening space. Blending spacey grooves with emotional irony, Wish band conjures a soundscape that feels both fragile and strangely intimate. It’s a fitting finale to a weekend of cinematic journeys through possible worlds.

Curator: Jiahui Li, Jingyi Tong
Screening Coordinator: Wanxin wang
Event Producer: Caroline(CJ)
Publicity & Community Outreach: Kye li, Rhiannon Bennett
Visual Design: RePlace Design