Pitch Video

A young Chinese American woman returns to Shanghai from New York City after her beloved grandmother passes away. Overcome with grief, estranged from her mother, and suffering from insomnia, she finds herself falling asleep on a mattress in an Ikea in Shanghai. There she befriends a gang of senior citizens—The Young Hearts—who reign over the store with their shenanigans, and finds a sense of belonging for the first time in her life.

Programs:

Hubert Bals Fund Bright Future Script and Project Development track Pre-selected International Film Festival Rotterdam - March 2020

Djerassi Residency - 2020 - on hold due to COVID-19

Invited to submit script again by Sundance Institute for Writer’s Lab - 2019

NYC Mayor’s Office of of Media & Entertainment Finance Lab - 2019

Sundance Writer’s Lab Finalist - 2017

Consulting Producer: Diane Quon

Academy and Emmy award-nominated producer, Diane Quon, worked as a marketing executive for 17 years at NBC and at Paramount Pictures before moving back to her hometown of Chicago. Diane is producing multiple Kartemquin Films documentaries including the Oscar nominated, and Peabody and Sundance award-winning film, Minding the Gap directed by Bing Liu; Left- Handed Pianist along with Chicago Tribune arts critic Howard Reich, and co- directed by Leslie Simmer and Gordon Quinn; The Dilemma of Desire with Peabody Award-winning director Maria Finitzo; and Finding Yingying with director Jiayan “Jenny” Shi. Diane is a 2019 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, 2019 IFP Cannes Producer Fellow and a 2017/2018 Film Independent Fellow. She is also developing a fiction film based on a New York Times best-selling book, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. 

I met Jingjing two years ago after a Minding the Gap screening in New York City. She had already reached out to me via LinkedIn and shared with me her short film, Cowboy Joe.  Since the success of Minding the Gap, I have had the privilege of having many young filmmakers approach me about working with them. Jingjing’s short film impressed me with its cleverness and sensitivity. It told a story that Asians could clearly relate to, but yet tells a universal story as well. Meeting Jingjing in person, I was impressed with her creativity and prolificness. She had been working hard on other scripts - both features and shorts. I wanted to help as a consulting producer on her first feature, Mattress, as I found her script to be clever and imaginative. Similar to Cowboy Joe, it is a Chinese story but has a universal message. I’d like to see this film made as I believe anyone who is searching for their place in the world and wanting to belong will relate to the main character and find hope in her story. 

I also believe the film will be made as Jingjing is smart, scrappy and passionate. She is willing to put in the hard work to make her projects a reality. She is doing the research and making the contacts needed to make her first feature including building a team, developing a budget and timeline, and finding funding, pitching/lab opportunities. At the same time, she continues to hone her skills wherever and whenever she can- writing, directing, and editing another short to get experience and taking part in a residency. She continues to improve her script by being open to feedback and doing what she can to develop a story that viewers will remember. 

Chinese Actress Zhou Dongyu as Lead Character Hazel

Potential Talent: Chinese Actress Zhou Dongyu as lead character Hazel