Directed by Jason Wen
Nameless is a crime short film. A young man, a mob hitman, and an undercover agent all have their eyes on a mysterious package that has different values for each of them. Blinded by their narrow vision, they got themselves into a chaotic situation… Belief and seeing are both often wrong. We only see parts of a story at times, because we only see what we want to believe.
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Director Biography – Jason Wen
Hongjian Jason Wen is a filmmaker based in New York City, Shanghai, and Beijing. He was born and raised in China, and then moved to New York City and graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2019. For the past 6 years, he worked on a variety of productions including narrative films, documentaries, and commercials as Director, Writer, DP, or Editor. He enjoys working in various roles in filmmaking because he believes all those experiences could bring him a deeper understanding of cinema and contribute to his work as a director.
He started as a cinephile, and studied linguistics before attending film school, these experiences shaped his own understanding of cinema. He believes “how to tell a story” is as important as the story itself. He loves exploring the possibilities of film language and wishes to tell stories in a way that only cinema could achieve.
The biggest motivation for him to become a filmmaker comes from his interest in studying people. He likes to explore the inner mentality of human beings, which could only be revealed under pressure in extreme situations. He gathers inspiration from both self-reflection and social observation. He believes that cinema is a tool to accomplish the long and arduous quest after truth.
Director Statement
Belief and seeing are both often wrong. We only see parts of the story at times, because we only see what we want to believe. When we are blinded by our narrow vision, we make wrong moves.
In the story, I wish to use the characters chasing after the McGuffin (cellphone) blindly without thinking and judgment to reflect a pretty common social phenomenon: a lot of people think that they “have to” chase after certain things only based on social influences, but without truly understanding what they are chasing after. Driven by their inner anxiety, people who lack the ability to think independently would act on the basis of their narrow cognitions. They become so impatient and don’t even want to spend time making their own judgments. This may lead to devastating consequences.
Crime/Mystery Film & Writing Festival 