| Falsehood | |
| Director: | Kenneth Lui |
| Producer: | Lu Cien Hioe |
| Starring: | Anne Welles, Mark Irvingsen, Marie-Noelle Marquis, Stuart Proffitt |
| Music: | Kenneth Lui |
| Cinematography: | Ken Glassing |
| Editing: | Megan Madzeoff |
| Studio: | Mental Pictures |
| Runtime: | 34 minutes |
| Language: | English |
Falsehood (2001) is a short film written and directed by Kenneth Lui[1] starring Anne Welles, Mark Irvingsen, Marie-Noelle Marquis and Stuart Proffitt. Its style is a highly visual fusion of film noir against classic fairy tale motifs. It is written in the style of a courtroom drama with neo-noir elements.
The film opens on an idyllic pasture where a young Bo Peep awakens from an ill-timed nap to find her sheep missing. After searching for her sheep with no luck, she finds bloody wool remains and believes that The Big Bad Wolf has eaten her flock. Years later, the grown up Bo Peep (Anne Welles) is working as a public defense attorney and confronts her own prejudice when she's assigned to defend The Big Bad Wolf (Mark Irvingsen) in the infamous Red Riding Hood (Marie-Noelle Marquis) rape trial.
In the tradition of fables, the film makes use of the interactions between humans and imaginary characters to explore themes of racial discrimination and hypocrisy set in a dark fairy tale world.
| Worldfest Houston 2001 | Platinum Award, Best Experimental Drama |
| Edgeworks Film Festival 2002 | Best of Show, Shorts Category |
| Method Fest 2002 | Best Writer/Director, Best Actress, Best Student Film, Audience Award |
| Lake Arrowhead Film Festival 2002 | |
| “Fine Cut” on PBS 2002 | |
| “Tight Shorts” UCLA-TV 2002 | |
| International Cinematographers Guild Shortfilm Showcase 2002 | Ken Glassing - Emerging Cinematographer Award [2] |
| Cannes Film Festival 2002 | |
| Orinda Film Festival 2003 | |
| ITVfest 2011 | Best Director |
On August 16, 2002 the Sixth season of KCETs “Fine Cut – A Festival of Student Film” program aired Falsehood. Before the film began, a warning was issued for adult content, in reference to its coarse language, violence, and sexual content. An interview with writer/director Kenneth Lui was aired after the film.[3]
In 2011, Falsehood was re-released as a web series on StayTunedTV and blip.tv.[4] As a web series, Falsehood was nominated by StayTunedTV for five awards: Best Drama, Best Actor in a Drama (Mark Irvingsen), Best Actress in a Drama (Anne Welles), Best Director (Kenneth Lui), and Best Writer (Kenneth Lui).[5] It was awarded the Best Director award at the StayTunedTV/ITVFest Awards 2011.[6]