All, or Nothing at All

• Q&A with Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang on April 11 at FLC
• Q&A with Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang on April 12 at MoMA

The innovatively conceived and constructed feature debut from Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang takes place entirely within the overwhelming, majestically artificial confines of the vertical Global Harbor shopping mall in Shanghai. Against a gleaming and glittering backdrop of endless escalators, perfume samples, skin-care product demonstrations, breakdancing, and elaborately foamed coffee beverages, we are introduced to alternate yet thematically overlapping narratives centered around two pairs of strangers nursing or running from romantic crushes on each other—pursuits experienced in Zhang’s visual approach as both profoundly human and technologically mediated. Threading various narrative avenues and aesthetic textures, All, or Nothing at All offers an entertaining examination of a new generation of young adult disaffection amidst the overload of contemporary living that conceptually parallels the multistory consumerist landscape where it’s set. Zhang conceived the film to be presented in two versions, the second of which inverts the order of the film’s two halves; we will be presenting both versions at this year’s festival.