” Out of focus ” – created by Gengyuan Zhang, Chunjiang Liu, Jingting Hu, Joyel Nelson, Yating Huang, Anthony Ricci (RUFA students) – chronicles the silent crumbling of assumptions: the ones we construct about others, and the ones we use to shape the stories we want to tell.
Alessandro is a young filmmaker in search of success. When he reunites with Matteo-an old classmate now a brilliant drag queen-he decides to document the “extraordinary” journey he assumes lies beneath the surface. But Matteo’s life defies the expected narrative arc of struggle and redemption: there is no pain to be revealed at all costs, but rather a luminous presence made up of grace, certainty, and uncompromising identity.
As Alexander deepens his investigation, eager to construct a narrative of hidden pain, the distance between the two grows. The obsession to find a wound becomes a mirror: the director’s insecurities emerge, expose themselves, and challenge the very act of looking.
Through deliberately blurred focus, shifting lights and fragmented frames, the film builds as a meditation on perception, projection and the silent power of authenticity. The extraordinary, the work suggests, is not always born out of suffering. Sometimes it simply is, and it is we, not the subject, who must readjust our gaze.
The project, along with all the finalist works from the “Normal is Extraordinary” international contest , will be on display at the MAXXI Corner from Dec. 5 to 8 (free admission).
