Alena's Strawberry Farm

[Commissioned by Goldsmiths Interaction Research & France Telecom Grant 2006] Category: Documentary Genre: Social Issues Running Time: 15 min Language: English with Chinese subtitles Shooting Format: Mini DV Screening Format: Beta DIGITAL (PAL) | Digital | 4:3 Xiaoxiao Sun Credits: Director | Camera | Editor Awards & Screenings: Licence released in Japan by Media Research Inc. 2010 Selected for screening at BFI IMAX 2008 Special Jury Prize, 5th Sony China National Video Competition 2007 British New Talents Award, 14th Bradford Film Festival 2007 Final Round, Con-Can International Movie Festival 2007 Nominee, Monterrey International Film Festival 2007 Nominee, 1st CWFF Film Festival 2007 Synopsis: Strawberry picking is a dying industry in the UK and the local people don't want to do this type of jobs any more. During the picking season, hundreds of students from Eastern European, each with different goals, come to make money. They change a typical British farm into a 'migrant village'. Here, young people, each from a different country, each of a different race and each with a different sense of values adjust to living in Britain and interacting with each other. Some come to pick strawberries every year, then go home again, making it hard for them to establish roots or long-term relationships with the people they meet on the Farm. The movie presents a glimpse of a life-sized image of young people living for the present.