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​HI JACK​​​

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​Logline:

 

A fresh-off-the-boat Chinese teenage girl goes on a road trip with the uncle of her host family and tries to save herself from the potential danger of sexual assault.

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Artist Statement:

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Hi Jack is rooted in a personal experience I had years ago. Sexual harassment is no longer absent from public conversation, yet visibility does not equal resolution. We have arrived at a place where we can speak, but we are still far from understanding what to do with what is spoken.

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This film does not offer answers. It is an uncomfortable journey for both the protagonist and the audience. Questions arise easily. Why does she go with him? But these questions assume clarity where there is none. By the end, we still don’t know if Jack will cross a visible line. Maybe he won’t. And if he doesn’t, what, then, has happened? What is she meant to do with that?

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The story lives in that uncertainty. It examines the blurred boundary between discomfort and what can be named as wrong. Aria, as a teenager, does not yet have the language or tools to protect herself from harm that leaves no physical trace. Jack is not a mastermind. He doesn’t need to be. He operates within ambiguity, where intention is deniable and consequences are rare.

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If the film offers anything, it is not hope but recognition. That this kind of experience is not rare or exceptional. It has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen, quietly and persistently, to teenagers, to people we know, and to strangers.

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