MAI LA THAI
AWARDS
WEBBY AWARDS
ORIGINAL CONCEPT / SHORT FILM
BRANDED CONTENT
TELLY AWARDS
CONCEPT & ART DIRECTION
TELLY AWARDS
ORIGINAL SHORT FILM
Title: "Goal"
Running Time: 1:10 min.
Medium: 16 mm film
Artwork: Various Media
2007
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Background: This art film was commissioned by Nike for the 2006 FIFA World Cup
"Play Beautiful" social media campaign. They asked me how I would interpret soccer as an artist living in New York City. Soccer was not as popular in the US back then as it is worldwide. I had no prior experience in filmmaking and did not know much about the sport, but what I witnessed was a collective experience of passion from the fans and the players. It's a sport that can bring grown men and women down to tears of joy or disappointment in an instant. I connected with that feeling of passion for something and that lead me to visualize and realize what that would look like. I even got to experience my own microcosm of Joga Bonito - the Beautiful Game.
Writer/Director/Exec. Producer: Mai La Thai
Producer: Chesley Helmsfield
Director of Photography: Valentina Caniglia
Editor: Kevin Grassman
AWARDS
WEBBY AWARDS
ORIGINAL CONCEPT / SHORT FILM
NYC INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Title: "Boat No. _ _ - _ _ _ _"
Running Time: 10 min.
Medium: 24p Digital Video
Artwork: Craft Paper
2010
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Background: For the first time in her life, Mai turns the camera on herself and reveals where she comes from. Inspired by her family’s personal plight to freedom from the Communist takeover, Mai La Thai channels her earliest childhood memories. She reinterprets the events through the eyes of a child of the long and difficult journey at sea. A narrative story unfolds through her minimal technique of combining paper cutouts, mechanical choreography, and deliberate omission of text or dialogue.
Writer: Mai La Thai
Producer: Mai La Thai
Director: Mai La Thai
Art & Performance: Mai La Thai
PREMIERING
TIMES SQUARE, NEW YORK
AWARDS
VEER FILM COMMISSION
ORIGINAL CONCEPT
PREMIERING
ONLINE CAMPAIGN
Title: "A Beautiful Death"
Running Time: 3 min.
Medium: Digital Video
Artwork: Various Media
2013
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Background: Veer is a stock photo agency based in Seattle. They asked me to come up with a film idea for their "kill off bad stock photography" campaign. The campaign launched around Halloween targeting creative professionals in the design and advertising industry. I was one of 5 artists selected from a nationwide search. They wanted to run a marketing campaign poking fun of themselves and at the stock photo industry. I was given a set of images from their collection to sacrifice. Feeling sympathy for the chosen images, I wanted to give them "A Beautiful Death" by having them dissolve, fade, and disappear into the light.
Writer/Director: Mai La Thai
Executive Producer: Mai La Thai
Director of Photography: Mai La Thai
Editor: Derek Davidson
Music: Podington Bear
Art & Performance: Mai La Thai