Of The Unknown
TFI Suppport
The Power of Words 2014
Logline
A short visual meditation, Of The Unknown is set in Hong Kong where millionaires and the ‘working poor’ live side by side in one of Asia’s wealthiest and most densely populated cities. The film explores how our notions of freedom and happiness are shaped by the place we occupy, both literally and metaphorically, in our society. What is the importance of freedom when one faces a daily struggle for survival? Is it even possible to have dreams, or to dream, if one was never given any opportunities in life?
Mandela quote: "Where poverty exists, there is not true freedom."
James Marsh
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
James Marsh is an award-winning documentary and fiction filmmaker. His breakthrough documentary, 1994's Troubleman, chronicled the last years of soul singer Marvin Gaye and his murder at the hands of his father. Marsh’s first dramatic feature, The King, was co-written with Oscar nominated screenwriter Milo Addica and was an Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005. It starred Gael Garcia Bernal and William Hurt. In 2008 he made the documentary Man on Wire, about Philippe Petit's walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 81st annual Oscars, the BAFTA Award for Best British film, the Independent Spirit Award, and many others. His latest film, The Theory of Everything, is a critically acclaimed biopic on Stephen Hawking starring Eddie Redmayne. His 2014 The Power of Words film is titled Of The Unknown.
Eva Weber
DIRECTOR
A London-based, German director working in documentary and fiction, Eva Weber has found acclaim with short films like THE SOLITARY LIFE OF CRANES, REINDEER and FIELD STUDY. Her films have won numerous awards at international film festivals, and she is the recipient of a Sundance Institute Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award. Eva’s film THE SOLITARY LIFE OF CRANES was described as “one of the most absorbing documentaries of the year” by The Observer, and selected as one of the top five films of the year in Sight & Sound’s annual film review. The multi-award-winning documentary was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK. Her mid-length film BLACK OUT (“An eye-opening doc…moves seamlessly between the straightforward and the poetic” – The Hollywood Reporter) received its US premiere at LA Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS. Her most recent fiction short FIELD STUDY was funded by the British Film Institute and nominated for the 2015 European Film Awards.
Other films include: THE INTIMACY OF STRANGERS (President’s Award at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival), CITY OF CRANES (Award for Best Documentary Short at LA Film Fest, broadcast on Channel 4 and POV), STEEL HOMES (premiered at IDFA with the North American premiere at Sundance), REINDEER (premiered at LA Film Fest with subsequent screenings at Sundance, Telluride, and AFI Fest), OF THE UNKNOWN for the Tribeca Film Institute’s “Power of Words” series in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation (with festival screenings at San Francisco Film Fest, Telluride and AFI Fest), and her most recent film SKYWARDS (premiered at Telluride Film Festival). She is a Sundance Screenwriter, Director and Composer & Sound Design Lab Fellow; and a Fellow of the Yaddo and MacDowell Artist Colonies.
Nia Ashley
FILM FELLOW
Nia Ashley is a Brooklyn native studying English, Film and Africana Studies at Barnard College. A young veteran of New York City theatre, Nia only discovered her love of filmmaking at 17. Since then she has produced, directed, acted in and written a variety of projects: short films, commercials, new media projects for TED and a feature film: Black Swan Records, which is currently in preproduction. Nia also runs Young Gotham Arts, a non-profit arts company that produces work of young playwrights and filmmakers in New York City. The Power of Words film is titled Of The Unknown, by James Marsh and Eva Weber.