That Day, on the River

In Lei Lei’s THAT DAY, ON THE RIVER, newspaper clippings, historical photographs, and a film about a female basketball player serve as the source material for an exploration of his father’s childhood in provincial China.
“‘In fact, I’ve been doing well in school since I was a child,’ my father smiled. In 2016, my father and I traveled to Ningdu by bus to do preliminary research for my animated feature film SILVER BIRD AND RAINBOW FISH. We did the field recording and looked for the house where he lived as a boy and the bridge he walked on to the school. During the trip, we talked about his childhood memories and things he wasn’t good at.” Lei Lei

Production Lei Lei. Production company See-Ray Studio (Peking, People’s Republic of China). Director Lei Lei. Screenplay Lei Lei. Editing Lei Lei. Music Lei Lei. Sound Lei Lei, Li Xingyu. Sound editing Mark Lee. With Lei Jiaqi, Lei Lei, Lu Yue.

Born in China, Lei Lei is an independent animator and artist, graduated from Tsinghua University with a master’s degree in animation. Since 2018, he has been teaching animation at CalArts, Los Angeles. His works include the award-winning short animation films THIS IS LOVE (2010) and RECYCLED (2013), as well as many other shorts selected in international festivals. He has also had solo exhibitions in Beijing and Vienna, and was part of group exhibitions among others in Singapore, Netherlands, Canada, and China. BREATHLESS ANIMALS, his first feature-length film, made its world premiere at the Berlinale Forum 2019.

Films: 2009: Pears or Aliens (4 min.), The Universe Cotton (4 min.), Magic Cube and Ping-Pong (5 min.). 2010: Hululu Honglonglong Hualala (6 min.), This is LOVE (3 min.). 2011: My... My... (5 min.). 2012: Big Hands Oh Big Hands, Let It Be Bigger and Bigger (6 min.). 2013: Recycled (5 min.). 2014: This Is Not a Time to Lie (4 min.). 2015: Missing One Player (4 min.), Books on Books (7 min.). 2016: Hand-Colored No.2 (5 min.). 2019: Breathless Animals (68 min., Forum 2019). 2020: A Bright Summer Diary (29 min.). 2022: Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish (104 min.). 2023: That Day, on the River.