China, Canada / 2025 / Fiction / 84min / HD & SD / B&W and Color

Sha Qing is a Chinese filmmaker who began his film career as a sound recordist and editor, and he started making his own films in 1996. His unique creative style has earned him critical acclaim and many awards. Sha Qing’s work has been celebrated as “the radical exercise of filmmaking and poetry,” which “reaches a deep introspection on the fundamental solitude of humankind.” His earlier films, such as “Wellspring”, have won awards including the Prize for Most Promising Asian Documentarist, the Silver Prize at Visions du Réel, and the Best International Documentary at Hot Docs. His 2016 documentary ‘Lone Existence’ (previously titled ‘Fading Reflections’) received awards at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and the Taiwan International Documentary Festival, and it was exhibited at Cinéma du Réel and the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, among others. “Hideaway” is Sha Qing’s recent narrative feature created over many years of work.

                                     Sha Qing’s Filmography

Director’s Statement: Intuition leads the way. While people often evaluate works through rational reasons, for artists, intuition remains an undeniable starting point. In 2011, reminiscences penned in earlier years suddenly sparked an impulse, evolving in my mind, in the form of a film. Two years later, after filming my childhood memory scenes, the project paused for unforeseen reasons. During the prolonged wait, I scrutinized this work repeatedly, questioning whether it was limited and biased by personal experiences. It wasn’t until 2019, after completing all filming, that the true motive behind the creation became clear. During the years of making the film, I witnessed more and more individuals and groups being controlled by fear in unequal relationships. They remain silent, endured, from birth to death. Fear stems not only from the oppression of power but also from not daring to lose what one already has. And, all this is becoming increasingly evident today.
Indeed, one grows in the process of creation. It instilled in me a desire to continuously observe the world, and made me realize that in the maturing art form of cinema, there are still expressional spaces to explore. When in an equal and open relationship, the viewers can freely incorporate their own experiences and emotions, thus achieving a more enriched exchange.