Conversation Among the Ruins
Jiamin Zhao 赵珈敏
Cinematic Directing MFA, ‘25
“This project is an attempt to bring people closer to their own relationships and unspoken emotional landscapes through shared human experiences.”
“这个项目旨在通过共同的人类经验，使人们更贴近自身的关系与那些未曾言说的情感风景。”
Artist Statement
Conversation Among the Ruins is an exploration of social alienation, liminal identity, and transgenerational trauma. At its core, the film examines the fragility of human connection in modern society, where individuals struggle with boundaries, expectations, and isolation. By exploring the intimate yet fractured relationship between two women, the film seeks to uncover universal struggles: our inability to reconcile desire with reality and the yearning for belonging in an increasingly fragmented world. It delves into this fragile dynamic, revealing how the very mechanisms of desire and connection can inadvertently recreate the conditions we strive to escape.
呢喃河探讨了社会疏离、边缘身份与跨代创伤等主题。影片聚焦于现代社会中人类连接的脆弱性——个体在界限、期待与孤独之间不断挣扎。通过展现两位女性之间亲密却破裂的关系，影片试图揭示普遍的人类困境：我们无法在欲望与现实之间取得平衡，以及在愈发碎片化的世界中对归属感的渴望。影片深入探索这种脆弱的动态，揭示出欲望与连接的机制如何可能无意间重复那些我们试图逃离的处境。
About Artist
Jiamin Zhao 赵珈敏
Cinematic Direction MFA, ‘25
Jiamin Zhao (she/her) is a Chinese filmmaker based between Beijing and Chicago. Her work, across fiction and documentary, explores themes of social alienation, cultural memory, and the reproduction of desires in the complex relationships between interior experiences and the external world. She graduated from Columbia College Chicago with an MFA degree in Cinema Directing.
赵佳敏（她）是一位往返于北京与芝加哥的中国电影创作者。她的作品涵盖剧情片与纪录片，聚焦于社会疏离、文化记忆，以及在内在体验与外部世界的复杂关系中欲望的再生产等主题。她毕业于芝加哥哥伦比亚学院，并获得电影导演 MFA 学位。