ALICIA LU
 ALICIA LU
Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
New Orleans, LA Your script or media entry stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your project ? I was born in Wuhan, China. When the pandemic started I was heartbroken by the headlines that reduced my birth city to wet markets, bat restaurants, and the virus. That’s when I knew I had to create work that proved this false and racist narrative wrong. When I was finally able to visit Wuhan after travel restrictions lifted, I was blown away by how much the city had changed since the last time I visited. It looked like a city out of the future, like a real-life Blade Runner. Then I thought, “What if I were seeing this through the eyes of a young girl who was obsessed with the movie and visiting her family’s city of Wuhan for the first time? How life-changing would that be?” That was the impetus for I ❤️ Wuhan. How long did it take you to write your script...and what was your development process? It took about a year and a half with dozens of revisions along the way. I worked with a screenwriting coach, who guided me in organizing my ideas into a tight story. That involved discarding a lot of ideas, scenes, and even entire characters that were extraneous, which felt ruthless at first but eventually became liberating. It’s true what they say: editing is so much harder than writing. But every rewrite I did, I fell a little bit more in love with the characters and new ideas came to mind that made the story stronger. If you compare my first draft and my last draft, they’re almost unrecognizable. What is your ultimate ambition as a writer or filmmaker? To write and make movies that move, delight, and entertain people, but that also help shift perspectives, open minds, and change the world one story at a time. Starting with I ❤️ Wuhan. Which film directors or screenwriters inspire you? Why? My favorite writer-director is Wong Kar-wai. To me, he is the definition of “auteur.” Every character, every scene, and every film he writes is coded in his DNA. I aspire to write the silence between two people as beautifully as he does. I also love Greta Gerwig’s early work, especially Frances Ha, and Diablo Cody’s film Young Adult. They both create female characters who are nuanced, complex, and a little rough around the edges. They’re messy and even unlikeable, but they’re also deeply relatable. And I was floored by the Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once, which was one of my biggest influences for I ❤️ Wuhan. What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show? Fallen Angels by Wong Kar-wai. It’s effortlessly cool, beautifully heartbreaking, and Michelle Reis’s outfits are *chef’s kiss*. What advice do you have for others hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have? Write the movie you want to see, not what you think people want to see or judges want to read. And write from the heart. But more important than that, remember that writing is rewriting. Don’t be afraid to overhaul your script and kill off ideas that don’t serve your story. Also, anytime you think to yourself, “Should I be writing right now?” Do it! Even when you’re not in the mood or you have no good ideas, just the act of doing it always leads you somewhere unexpected. What else are you working on that the world needs to know about? I’m in pre-production on a short film called Waikiki. We will be launching a Kickstarter to help bring it to life, so look out for that! Where can the world find you? (Website, IMDB, etc.) My IMDb, my Instagram |
