- Livia Ungur is known for Hotel Dallas (2016) and Prodigal (2015). She is married to Sherng-Lee Huang.
- SpouseSherng-Lee Huang(? - present)
- BFA: Hunter College (2013).
- Based in Brooklyn, New York.
- MFA: Yale School of Art (2015).
- Collaborates with her husband Sherng-Lee Huang as artist duo Ungur&Huang.
- She makes video art, films, sculptures, installations and performances. Since 2015, she has exhibited works for example at the National Gallery of Art in D.C., the Stavros Niarchos Center in Greece, the National Library in Buenos Aires, the Black Maria Film Festival, Kassel Dokfest, Stuttgarter Filmwinter and the 66th Berlin International Film Festival.
- [on financing Hotel Dallas (2016)] I received a grant [Alice Kimball English Travel Fellowship] from Yale, where I was attending graduate school. That covered eight weeks of travel in Romania, during which we shot most of the movie. Another grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts helped us complete post-production and get us to our premiere in Berlin. The budget was lean. Sherng-Lee did most of the shooting, and we split the editing. I played the lead, and Sherng-Lee and my parents played major roles as well. None of us had ever acted before. Landing Patrick Duffy was a big piece of the puzzle. We approached him with a rough cut after the Romania shoot. We found his manager's email on IMDB and wrote to him cold. We never thought he would agree, as we obviously could not pay the fees that he deserved. But less than a month later, we were shooting with Patrick in L.A. He was so brave to take a chance on this crazy project made by complete unknowns. And, of course, his performance was flawless. [2016]
- I identify more as an artist than as a filmmaker; Hotel Dallas (2016) started as my thesis project at the Yale School of Art. It's an unconventional film, combining fiction and documentary, as well as found footage, poetry and musical numbers. The film takes chances stylistically, but at the same time, I hope that it's fun and engaging. I believe that audiences are willing to be challenged if you can meet them halfway. Negotiating that halfway point is the tricky part! [2016]
- [on Hotel Dallas (2016)] I wrote and directed the film with my husband Sherng-Lee Huang. The push-and-pull of the collaboration is what made the work unique, but the process could be a pain in the butt! I am a video artist by training, while Sherng-Lee has a more traditional filmmaking background. Hotel Dallas (2016) is like an argument between these two perspectives playing out on screen. We clashed a lot -- especially in the editing phase. We live and work in a small Brooklyn apartment, with a small dog named Dexter. He's quite sensitive, and whenever we have an argument, he hides in the only place in the apartment that offers any separation: the bathtub. Dexter was a helpful barometer for us, actually. How do we talk about the film and have productive disagreements without sending Dexter to the tub? He forced us to be better collaborators. [2016]
- When I have a meaningful encounter with art, whether it's a film, a book or a sculpture, I feel more alive, more empathetic and more connected to the world. David Foster Wallace said that great fiction makes us "feel less alone inside." I think cinema can do that, too. [2016]
- [on her biography and Hotel Dallas (2016)] I grew up in Romania in the '80s. It was a time of food shortages, secret police and paranoia. But once a week, we turned on the TV and watched a fairy tale about rich Americans in cowboy hats, hanging out at their big, white mansion. Dallas (1978) was the only American show allowed on TV; it was our window into life in the West. I eventually moved to the States in 2004, but watching "Dallas" was the first step of the journey. I essentially play myself in the film. (...) The Hotel Dallas is a real place in Romania. It's a life-size replica of the "Dallas' mansion, built by a Romanian superfan. Patrick [Patrick Duffy'] plays a soap-opera character who dies on screen and wakes up in the Hotel Dallas, in an alternate-reality version of his show. [2016]
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