Cannes Young Lion award winning short - WaterAid

WaterAid For Dennis from Mu-Ming Tsai on Vimeo.

Cannes Young Lion award winning short I directed. I remember getting a call from Sean the producer one Friday night about needing a director Saturday morning, between two days of my shoot on "A Matter of Time." I thought that since I was in the mood of shooting, I might as well shoot another short commercial in between. As the saying goes in the film business, "showing up is half the success," who would've known that this ad we did in 48hrs. got screened at Cannes?

Special thanks to Dennis, who was actually on the streets and let us interview him. Working with a creative team from Crispin Porter Bogusky, the idea was to give him a hotel room, let him shower and have "clean water" for a day; at first I had ethical concerns about the idea but after interviewing him and seeing how clean water made a big difference for him, I was moved. I think the best thing about filmmaking is when you learn or gain empathy about subjects you never would've understood or thought you could identify with. This was a memorable and rewarding experience for me.