A Deer of Nine Colors -- Patron
This edition provides support for the upcoming film "A Deer of Nine Colors" premiering November 2025 at the Thailand Biennial. Perks include: - Redeemable Physical Print after film premiere. - Redeemable Digital Artwork. - Access to exclusive film screenings. - Credits as Patron upon film completion.
SYNOPSIS:
“A Deer of Nine Colors” is a modern folktale short film written and directed by Andrew Thomas Huang. The film follows a young Thai trans cabaret performer who learns from a vision that she is a reincarnation of an extinct deer. Embarking on a mystic quest to unearth her past life, she enlists the help of a wildlife biologist to find her true name. When the biologist subjects her to lab experiments to retrace her memories, she relives her past as the last deer of her kind, roaming the forest on all fours lonely and hunted. As the biologist falls in love with the young woman and tries to control her, the young woman dreams of escape and fantasizes about blissfully reincarnating into the enlightened Nine Colored Deer who roamed the mythical Buddhist paradise of Himavanta. When the biologist tries to entrap her for good, the young Woman fights back, escapes and musters the courage to name herself. In doing so, she achieves true bliss and transforms into the Nine Colored Deer and ascends to the mythical forest of Himavanta where she roams wild and free for eternity.
DURATION & FORMAT:
For the Thailand Biennale 2025 in Phuket, the film will appear as a nonlinear multi-channel video art installation with multiple screens. The film installation will be displayed with puppets, sculptures and props from the film in the exhibition space. The online short narrative film will be 12 minutes.
Directors Statement:
As a sci-fi fantasy lover, I am passionate about world building. Growing up as a queer Chinese American in Southern California, I have spent my career as a writer, director and artist revisiting my heritage and researching queer narratives from around the Asian continent. With a background in animation, puppetry and visual effects, I am excited to use these skills to blend Asian mythology with LGBTQIA stories and frame them through a contemporary futuristic lens. Inspiration for “A Deer of Nine Colors” came from my travels and research on religious syncretism and animal wildlife on the island of Phuket. While there, I became interested in local animal folklore and came across one of Thailand’s most well known extinct animals, Schomburgk’s deer. This ex tinct deer has become a symbol of the consequences of urban development, climate change and ecological erasure in Thailand, and it spurred me to research more popular Buddhist mythologies around deer, which led me to the Chinese myth of the “Deer of Nine Colors” based on ancient fresco paintings in China’s Mogao Caves. The climax of this film will be Nuan’s decision to claim her own agency, in which she transforms into the Nine Colored Deer. I will use my VFX and puppetry background to render this transformation as a beautiful moment of blissful transcendence. The puppetry and creature work in the film will also be displayed as a sculpture for the Thailand Biennale, which will take place in November 2025.
About the Writer | Director
Writer-director & executive producer Andrew Thomas Huang crafts hybrid fantasy worlds and mythical dreamscapes. A Grammy-nominated music video director and visual artist, Huang’s collaborators include Bjork, Thom Yorke and FKA Twigs among others. His films have been commissioned by and exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Sydney Opera House, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Huang has also directed television for Terence Nance’s RANDOM ACTS OF FLYNESS on HBO. Inspired by his Chinese heritage and East Asian mythology, Huang is passionate about queer Asian storytelling that interweaves magic, history and folklore. Huang has received support from the Sundance Directors & Screenwriters Labs, Film Independent, Cinereach, IFP (Gotham), and SFFILM. Huang graduated with a degree in Fine Art and Animation from the University of Southern California.