MUSE TV recently talked with the director of the film Stealing School Li Dong which is set to be released this Friday, February 26.
April, a brilliant programmer with a promising future, is accused of plagiarism by Keith, a teaching assistant who drags her in front of an academic hearing to prevent her from graduating. While operating under the guise of an impartial panel, the three tribunal judges each have their own illicit motivations and personal biases that will secretly steer the course of the trial. By aggressively questioning a colorful group of witnesses, both April and Keith build their cases while becoming increasingly acrimonious towards each other. As tensions rise, the facade of civility and political correctness begins to erode, revealing sinister and unflattering sides of all parties concerned. Behind the closed doors of a prestigious institution of higher learning, what began as a seemingly honorable pursuit of justice slowly turns into a chaotic display of corruption, pettiness and naked self-interest.
Li Dong is an award-winning writer and director currently living and working in Toronto. Li graduated from Dalhousie University in 2006 with honors in English and history and then went on to graduate from Dalhousie Law School. After law school Li played poker professionally before he was hand-selected by Oscar-nominated director Werner Herzog for his “Rogue Film School”. He has since gone on to write and direct numerous short narratives, documentaries and music videos. His first feature film, “Stealing School” premiered at the Napa Valley Film Festival in 2019 and was released in Canada by Game Theory in June of 2020.
Stealing School will be released in the US by Vertical Entertainment on February 26th, 2021. See the trailer now at https://youtu.be/6NiNcNIqXqo.