Directing
Lei Lei
Born 1985-01-01 · Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China
Lei Lei (1985, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province) is a Chinese animator, filmmaker and artist. He graduated from Tsinghua University in 2009, with a master's degree in Animation. Since then, he has worked as an independent filmmaker and experimental animation artist. His animated short This Is Love (2010) was awarded Best Narrative Short at Ottawa International Animation Festival. From then on, many of his short films have received awards at festivals worldwide and he has been selected for many artist residencies. Since 2017, Lei has spent most of his time in Los Angeles, where he is a full-time faculty member at the department of Experimental Animation, CalArts. Ningdu is selected for the IFFR Tiger Award Competition 2022.
Acting credits
5.0As Tang Sanzang and his disciples arrive at Lion Camel Ridge, they encounter villagers captured by demons. Wukong's attempt to rescue them goes awry, and he and Zhu Bajie fall into a trap set by the three demon kings. Overwhelmed by their enemies, Wukong seeks help from the Buddha and learns the value of unity and teamwork. With the help of his brothers and a Bodhisattva, they work together to save the villagers and continue their journey westward, stronger and more united than before.
Monkey King Fight Lion Camel
2024
NRWhat happened to Lupita after the frustrated attempt to get into the dance battle? And what's up with Huo now, the dancer that Lupita idolized? What remains of that life-changing afternoon in Lupita's best friend memory?
Lupita From Now On
2022
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Uncle Nine: The Curious Case of the Ancient Coffin
2021
NRSearching for the house his father grew up in, director Lei Lei charts the story of a childhood in rural China using a mix of found footage, collage, and animation techniques: a moving account of all the things the father thinks he was not good at.
That Day, on the River
2023
6.0An exhaustively created moving image mural of Beijing and her inhabitants, painstakingly extracted from an archive of half a million 35mm negatives.
Recycled
2013
Behind the camera
NROne day, a heavy rain floods a small, peaceful village. A brave child swims to the universe to save the day.
Hu Lulu Hong Longlong Hua Lala
2010
NR"What did you dream about and what was your daily life as a teenager?” An older woman recalls her youthful memories in China during the 1970’s while unfolding in front of our eyes the recreation of the modern times from the past. Until one day, the first breathless animal appears, a White horse…
Breathless Animals
2019
NR"What did you dream about and what was your daily life as a teenager?” An older woman recalls her youthful memories in China during the 1970’s while unfolding in front of our eyes the recreation of the modern times from the past. Until one day, the first breathless animal appears, a White horse…
Breathless Animals
2019
NR"What did you dream about and what was your daily life as a teenager?” An older woman recalls her youthful memories in China during the 1970’s while unfolding in front of our eyes the recreation of the modern times from the past. Until one day, the first breathless animal appears, a White horse…
Breathless Animals
2019
NRWith animation from Lei Lei and beatboxing from Eloi Dequeker, this is the story of "guy with a hat" as he heads to the cinema in the supercar.
Animafest Zagreb
2014
NRSearching for the house his father grew up in, director Lei Lei charts the story of a childhood in rural China using a mix of found footage, collage, and animation techniques: a moving account of all the things the father thinks he was not good at.
That Day, on the River
2023
NRLove – and ping pong - can be liberating in a world of sameness.
Magic Cube and Ping-Pong
2009
NRThe young Chinese animator also known as “Ray” Lei crafts a hallucinatory short that follows a doe-eyed protagonist on a quest through an imagined world.
This Is Not a Time to Lie
2014
4.5“Our family is special”, says filmmaker Lei Lei’s father Lei Jiaqi. On the audio track of this inventive, poignant essay film he starts to talk about the struggles of his family, amid China’s troubled times of the 1960s. When his own father, Lei Ting, is sent to the countryside, he stays behind with his sister and his ill mother. When Mum passes away, and the system forbids Ting to come back to live with his children, the kids are kept in an orphanage.
Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish
2022
4.5“Our family is special”, says filmmaker Lei Lei’s father Lei Jiaqi. On the audio track of this inventive, poignant essay film he starts to talk about the struggles of his family, amid China’s troubled times of the 1960s. When his own father, Lei Ting, is sent to the countryside, he stays behind with his sister and his ill mother. When Mum passes away, and the system forbids Ting to come back to live with his children, the kids are kept in an orphanage.
Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish
2022
NRThe fragile materialities of Yangzhou wood engraving and analog film converge in Lei Lei’s fractal portrait of labor and craft. Exploring techniques of light and poetry, wood and celluloid, re-engraved montages demonstrations of expertise with a cacophonous electronic soundtrack and the personal histories of the women whose labor sustains these traditions.
re-engraved
2024
NRDuring a mahjong game, a bad situation occurs. Everyone waits for the last player to show up. The three have no choice but to wait and sit there silently in tears. However, they do believe that the fourth player will come. They look up to the sky waiting for this miracle to happen.
Missing One Player
2015
NRAfter A Bright Summer Diary (IFFR 2020) and Ningdu (IFFR 2022) we once again welcome Lei Lei to Rotterdam with this compelling tribute to bygone images and memories. As always, the mundane comes alive through a conscientious montage of gorgeous compositions. A two-part quest for what has been lost through time, Break no.1 & Break no.2 fires the imagination.
Break no.1 & Break no.2.
2024
NRNo synopsis available yet.
A Gift for You
2023
NRA guy suddenly finds himself naked. Where are his clothes!?
My...MY...
2011
6.0An exhaustively created moving image mural of Beijing and her inhabitants, painstakingly extracted from an archive of half a million 35mm negatives.
Recycled
2013
6.0An exhaustively created moving image mural of Beijing and her inhabitants, painstakingly extracted from an archive of half a million 35mm negatives.
Recycled
2013
NRIn 2013, Lei Lei and Thomas Sauvin collected numbers of black-and-white photos from Chinese flea markets and imagined that all of them belonged to one fictional Chinese person. Through rendering, collage, and a cyclical process of hand coloring, scanning, and printing, connections among the photos were created.
Hand Colored no.2
2017
NRIn 2013, Lei Lei and Thomas Sauvin collected numbers of black-and-white photos from Chinese flea markets and imagined that all of them belonged to one fictional Chinese person. Through rendering, collage, and a cyclical process of hand coloring, scanning, and printing, connections among the photos were created.
Hand Colored no.2
2017
A happy planet of pear people is invaded by some mean reverse pear head aliens. A film about peace, tolerance and forgiveness. Drawn with pens on exercise books.
Pear or Alien
2008
The story is a narration of a pseudoscience on cotton plantation. The protagonist waters the cotton with music and love, resulting in the greatest harvest that sky is the only way for the cotton to go. Landing from sky, the cotton turns from cloud into candies in kiddy’s hand.
The Universe Cotton
2009
4.0A boy and his mother sit in a cardboard car in front of painted landscape. This postcard from his childhood is what triggers Chinese artist Lei Lei to go on a journey down the rabbit hole of memory. Put together with his signature style of melancholic collage, time jitters in and out of its usual flow as screenshots, found photos and propaganda images appear in succession as if pulled through an archaic machine to explore how truth is coloured by nostalgia.
A Bright Summer Diary
2020
4.0A boy and his mother sit in a cardboard car in front of painted landscape. This postcard from his childhood is what triggers Chinese artist Lei Lei to go on a journey down the rabbit hole of memory. Put together with his signature style of melancholic collage, time jitters in and out of its usual flow as screenshots, found photos and propaganda images appear in succession as if pulled through an archaic machine to explore how truth is coloured by nostalgia.
A Bright Summer Diary
2020
NRShort animation about a running girl by Lei Lei
Ready to play
2021