Ramen Western
Directed by Meloddy Gao- SHORTS - NARRATIVE
- USA
- Adventure, Animation, Coming-of-Age, Family, Fantasy, Western
- English, Chinese (Mandarin)
- 2026
- 8 mins
- East Coast premiere
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shareMabel is a young Chinese American girl living in Chicago’s Chinatown. Unsure of what to write in her “What the American West Means to Me” paper, she sets off on a train with a bowl of sentient ramen to find answers. She traverses through the Rocky Mountains, abandoned ghost towns, until finally arriving in California, only to discover that her ancestors never left. On a journey beyond their wildest dreams, Mabel and her ramen sidekick reimagine what the American West means to them.
Meloddy Gao is a Chinese American filmmaker, multimedia artist, and community organizer. Originally from Indiana, her work is shaped by her experiences growing up as the child of immigrants in the midwest suburbs. She is a 2025-2026 Visual Communications’ Armed with a Camera Fellow, where she is directing an animated film titled RAMEN WESTERN. Meloddy’s first film, SWIMMING LESSONS, a documentary about her family’s lost goodbyes, is currently in the festival circuit.
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Armed with a Camera (In-Person)
Armed with curiosity, these filmmakers turn the camera into a tool for uncovering family histories, cultural legacies, and the search for belonging.
