Arts & Entertainment

5 Minutes to Live: What Would You Do?

Duluth filmmaker's entry 'Tick Tock' wins top awards at Campus Movie Fest in LA.

What would you do if you only had five minutes to live? "Tick Tock," a Duluth filmmaker's entry in the 2011 Campus Movie Fest based on this question, won "Best Picture" and "Best Director." Ien Chi, a junior at Emory University in Atlanta, wrote, directed, and edited the award-winning film. He also was the cameraman.

The awards were presented June 25 at Warner Bros Studios in LA (Hollywood) during the International Grand Finale of the CMF, billed as the world's largest student film festival. Special guests at the festival included actors Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Banks, who presented the award to Chi; John Cho, and Jack McBrayer among others. The festival also included workshops, screenings and concerts.

The cast of “Tick Tock” includes Morgan Ayres, Maurice Winsell, Valee Gallant, Steve Warren, and JooJing Jeong. Ayres accepted the award alongside Chi.

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Chi describes himself as an ambitious filmmaker. “My dream is to make films that can challenge and empower people to live more positive lives.” The plot of "Tick Tock" is based on the question of "What would you do if you had five minutes to live?" Chi said. “I thought that'd make an interesting premise for a film. So I just ran with it.”

A graduate of Seoul Foreign School in South Korea, Chi, now a Duluth resident, is majoring in religion at Emory. 

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“I've been doing films since the seventh grade. So that's about seven years or so,” Chi said. “But then again, it's not like I've been making films for the whole seven years. I just made my first film ever in seventh grade and then made a couple films since.”

A You Tube video on “Tick Tock” accompanies this article. More films by Chi can be viewed on his website at www.ienchi.com


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