Zheyan Li/Yanzhen Huang

A Bedtime Story for the End

7m21s

In the near future, a global plague of "perpetual wakefulness” has taken away everyone's ability to dream. People then discover that our collective, unconscious dreams were the very energy that kept the laws of the universe stable.

As the dreams vanish, reality itself begins to fray and unravel. The rules of physics come loose in ways both poetic and strange. Countless sleepless people toss and turn in their rooms, the border between their inner minds and the outer world blurring into one.

People find a way to slow down the world's decay: meditation and prayer. Old churches and temples are used again, becoming great "consciousness amplifiers" where people gather to pray for the universe's stability. These rituals help people to briefly experience a sense of oneness, providing just enough energy to keep the universe from the brink of total collapse. Even the dead can't find peace. Their spirits join the living, praying for the world to hold together.

This film leaves behind the traditional story told through the eyes of a hero. In its place, you will find a collection of beautiful, fleeting moments—fragments floating in the space between waking and dreaming. Here, our collapsing universe is the one and only protagonist.

We chose AIGC not just for what it can do technically, but for the beautiful "mirror symmetry" it shares with our story——we are using a tool for 'creating' to show a world that's 'decaying.'

In our film, the universe is like a mind that is "losing its memory." It's forgetting its own physical rules, which causes messy "memory mistakes" .

But the AIGC we use is a system that is "learning." It learns from tons of real-life pictures and information to copy and create new things.

We will use the creative dreams of AI to show the broken dreams of the universe. Using creation to show decay, this act itself is the deepest, saddest kind of beauty in our film. 

Zheyan Li - Writer/Director

Yanzhen Huang - Sound Design 

Zheyan is a filmmaker and visual artist whose practice explores the intersection between memory, poetry, and the cinematic image. Working across experimental film, documentary, and both street and fashion photography, their works often evoke a lyrical sense of time and place—where observed realities and personal histories intertwine.

Yanzhen is a visual artist, writer, and musician whose practice explores the intersection between image, memory, and atmosphere. Working across film, painting, and sound, her works often evoke a quiet sense of time and place—where personal histories and fleeting perceptions intertwine. She is currently based in London, continuing to expand her visual language through moving image and interdisciplinary collaboration. 

zheyanli.com

https://yanzhenart.cargo.site/ 

Yanzhen Huang 

drift 

2:08 

Drift is an experimental moving-image work composed of archival footage and an original soundtrack by the artist. Structured as a non-linear narrative, the film reflects on the cyclical rhythm of war and time, where destruction turns into renewal and motion dissolves into stillness. A red ball drifts through shifting landscapes of nature and machinery, echoing humanity’s restless search for balance amid chaos. Rooted in Taoist thought, Drift wonders whether progress is truly forward or merely a quiet return within the same eternal flow. 

Yanzhen is a visual and sound artist from Foshan, China, and a graduate of Camberwell College of Arts. Currently based in London, she works across moving image, sound, drawing, and installation. Her interdisciplinary practice reflects on time, recurrence, and the complexity of human emotion, questioning humanity’s transient yet enduring existence and our shifting sense of place, identity, and belonging within the vastness of the universe. 

https://yanzhenart.cargo.site/ 

ig: @singsingsan 

Yanzhen Huang, Zheyan Li 

23.5º 

5:55 

23.5 is a film about hearts that never align, tears falling onto the dinner table, words left unspoken, and the melody born of unknown collisions. 

Yanzhen is a visual and sound artist from Foshan, China, and a graduate of Camberwell College of Arts. Currently based in London, she works across moving image, sound, drawing, and installation. Her interdisciplinary practice reflects on time, recurrence, and the complexity of human emotion, questioning humanity’s transient yet enduring existence and our shifting sense of place, identity, and belonging within the vastness of the universe.

Zheyan is a visual artist from Chenzhou, China, and a graduate of the MetFilm School in London. His practice explores the intersection between literature and the moving image through experimental film, documentary, photography, and AI-generated art. 

https://yanzhenart.cargo.site/ 

ig: @singsingsan