SXSW is kicking off Friday and the lineup is looking pretty solid, especially for the docs. One documentary that caught our eye is Miao Wang's Maineland. It just so happens we have the exclusive teaser trailer to share with you today. Here are a few words from the filmmakers:
Filmed over three years in China and the U.S., director Miao Wang's documentary, MAINELAND, is a multi-layered coming-of-age tale that follows two affluent and cosmopolitan teenagers as they settle into a boarding school in blue-collar rural Maine. Part of the enormous wave of "parachute students" from China enrolling in U.S. private schools, bubbly, fun-loving Stella and introspective Harry come seeking a Western-style education, escape from the dreaded Chinese college entrance exam, and the promise of a Hollywood-style U.S. high school experience. As Stella and Harry's fuzzy visions of the American dream slowly gain more clarity, they ruminate on their experiences of alienation, culture clash, and personal identity, sharing new understandings and poignant discourses on home and country. Through lyrical cinematography from DP Sean Price Williams that transports us from China to the U.S., MAINELAND captures a new crop of future Chinese elites as they try to find their place between the collectivist society they come from and the individualist culture they come to embrace.
Check it out!