Sundance Film Festival: Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung

Artist Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung is going to have two short films being played down at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival including Gas Zappers and Because Washington Is Hollywood For Ugly People. Here's some information on the shorts from his site:

Gas Zappers (2007)
Directed by Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung
Music by Noah Vawter



Gas Zappers is a short animation about climate change. The main character, the ironically overappropriated and fuzzy polar bear, abruptly finds itself in a position to save its home living environment through dextrous maneuvers in an Al-e Gore-ical world. The idiom of the video game is exploited to challenge and illuminate the simplistic notion of quick fixes to environmental issues. Aesthetically, graphical and musical styles from the glory days of video games conjure the triumph and delight of virtual success. As the bear progresses with celebrity companions through different climate change scenarios such as Venice underwater, confrontations with bulldozers, and anthropomorphized killer oil derricks, it narrowly succeeds each time thanks to its renewable energy defenses. A narrative unfolds that, like the artists’ previous works, waggishly interrogates the spectacular mode of ecological policy.

Because Washington Is Hollywood For Ugly People (2007)
Directed by Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung
Narration written and performed by MC Paul Barman
Music by John Blue

Because Washington Is Hollywood For Ugly People is a video/ animation that employs images from popular culture, political figures and imagery found in the internet. The piece adopts the form of viral advertising in a reduction of contemporary events to a cartoon like mythology while touching on issues such as identity politics, U.S. foreign policy, sexuality and power.

A quick rundown of Hung from his Sundance Bio:

Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung is a new media artist based in New York City. He works in various media including Internet art, interactive installation, video animation and performance. His works have been exhibited at venues including New Museum (New York, U.S.A.), Yerba Buena Center Of The Arts (San Francisco, U.S.A.), Postmasters Gallery (New York, U.S.A.) and Cartwrighthall Art Gallery (Bradford, United Kingdom), to name a few. He won the "VIPER International Award- Internet" in Switzerland and was given an "Honorary Mention- Net Excellence" in the 2002 Prix Ars Electronica. In 2007, Hung received the Media Arts fellowships from Renew Media to develop an online game about Global Warming.

You can check out more about Tin-Kin Hung at the Sundance Festival Shorts Page, as well as his site.