Table for One

Against all odds, an ageing table tennis icon returns for her last shot at Olympic gold.

We need your help to tell the story of this kiwi sporting legend.

Chunli Li has given her entire life to table tennis. Competing against athletes half her age, New Zealand’s Chunli Li begins her qualification to Tokyo 2020. Despite being a Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, she’s never achieved an Olympic accolade in a long 40-year career. Now 20 years past her prime, Chunli has one final chance to qualify for the games and cement her legacy by fulfilling her lifelong dream.

Table for One is a short documentary about Chunli’s last hurrah. Equal parts sports film and music video, we will explore the inevitability of age, the culmination of one woman’s life's work, and the triumph of an unbowed spirit. 

This project has been lucky enough to be selected for short documentary initiative Loading Docs, which contributes $6,000 plus post-production if we reach our minimum crowdfunding goal of $2,500. But it’s an all or nothing campaign, so we need your help! 

Donate to bring this project to life. All contributions will go toward paying for camera equipment, lights, Mandarin-English translations for a bilingual film, and travel to Brisbane where Chunli is playing her Olympic-qualifying match. 

We will make this film to document an incredible sportswoman pursuing the dream she’s always held onto. Her mindset and work ethic are beyond inspirational and it's something we feel needs to be shared.

Your contributions, shares, and support go further than you know. A donation of $10 or $5, the price of a morning coffee, can make a huge difference.

Loading Docs is an award-winning short documentary initiative to develop New Zealand filmmaking talent. Loading Docs is funded by NZ On Air with support from the New Zealand Film Commission and Te Māngai Pāho.

About the Filmmakers

Jenny Gao - Director

Jenny is a photographer turned filmmaker. Her love of journalism and arthouse cinema found a happy medium in documentary. She is currently in production of several shorts that explore our relationship with the natural world and our relationship with ourselves. A big fan of combining new and traditional media, when she’s not diving deep into projects for the big screen, she can be found sharing adventures near and far on Instagram. 

Mia Maramara - Producer

Mia is an emerging filmmaker who has written, directed, and produced work that has screened both locally and internationally. She created and produced The Year of Yes for the TVNZ Web-series Competition which won Best NZ Pilot at the NZ Webfest 2019, and is co-producing the short documentary Kaimanawa, which was shortlisted for Fresh Shorts after pitching it at last year’s Doc Edge Pitch. She is currently in development for Grafted, a feature film that recently received NZWG Seed Funding.

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