Bright Moonlight Stories mark, the character 月 painted in one cream brush stroke

明月光

Bright Moonlight Stories

We make short animated documentaries. One film for each Chinese character. Where the character came from, and the people who lived around it.

Four characters so far Two of us
A switchback road cut into a cliff at night. A line of tea porters walks past a small fire, tiny against the drop, under a snow covered peak and a full moon.
From 山 shān Tea porters on the night road

The films

One character, one film

A character is a small piece of evidence. It was drawn by someone, for something, a long time ago. We start there and go and look at the people it came from.

日

rì

the sun

Finished

月

yuè

the moon

Finished

山

shān

the mountain

Finished

木

mù

the tree

In production

Close on an older porter at night. He carries a wooden load frame of pressed tea bricks on his back, holds a staff, and breathes out into the cold.
From 山 shān. A porter, his load frame and his staff.

The character is the way in

The films are short. They are drawn and animated, not archive footage.

What we keep coming back to is the people. Someone walked that road at night with a load on their back. That is the part we want to draw.

Mark, in a dark shirt against a pale wall, looking past the camera.
Mark, Manchester
Natasha at Xijiang Miao Village in Guizhou, wearing a tall silver headdress with hanging bells and a wide silver collar.
西江苗寨 Xijiang Miao Village, Guizhou

Who makes them

Two people

It is a small outfit. There is no studio floor and no room full of desks. Two of us make the films. We live and work in Guernsey.

Natasha K. He

From Guiyang, in China

The artwork is hers. She designs the sets and the staging, works on the research behind each story, and runs everything the films do online.

Mark Flynn

From Manchester, in the United Kingdom

Animation and music. He builds the films out of Natasha’s artwork, using AI tools for the motion, and cuts them together.

A minute each

Teasers

日 rì and 月 yuè
The sun hands to a pale light
山 shān
You are made of a mountain
木 mù
A family that cannot be outwaited

Where the films live

Watch on YouTube

The films are free and they are all on the channel. Subscribing there is the thing that helps most, because it is how the next one finds people who have not heard of us.

Subscribe on YouTube

Elsewhere

The list

Know when the next one is out

木 mù, the tree, is being made now. Leave your address and we will write to you when it is finished.

Confirmation is in two steps. We send you an email with a link in it. If you do not click that link, you are not on the list.

We use your address for one thing, to tell you a film is out. Nothing else, and we do not pass it on. There is an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the emails.

The form opens a new tab when you submit it. That is MailerLite, who hold the list for us.