By: Sarah Chaisson-Warner
Chloe Zhao, the first Asian woman to be nominated for and win the Academy Award for Best Director, began her career directing short films nearly twenty years ago.
While Zhao originally studied economics and political science while an undergraduate at Mount Holyoke College, she developed a passion for storytelling and sought a career in filmmaking by enrolling in the graduate film program at New York University in 2010. But her education in political science held an important role in her filmmaking journey:
“It goes back to when I was a teenager in China, being in a place where there are lies everywhere,” she told Filmmaker Magazine in 2013. “You felt like you were never going to be able to get out. A lot of info I received when I was younger was not true, and I became very rebellious toward my family and my background. I went to England suddenly and relearned my history. Studying political science in a liberal arts college was a way for me to figure out what is real.”
Known for sharing the stories of characters from marginalized backgrounds and her distinctive use of natural environments in film, she honed her style and point of view through the three major short films she directed – “The Atlas Mountains,” “Daughters,” and “Benachin.”
THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS
Zhao’s first short film was “The Atlas Mountains,” a 10-minute short she wrote and directed while a student at New York University. The film tells the story of Helen, an unhappily married American woman who forms a relationship with Tarik, an immigrant worker she hires to fix her computer. Set on a cold December night in a single living room around Christmastime, the film starred Abby Royle (“Law and Order: SVU” and “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”) and Amir Darvish (“Rock of God” and “Mercury: The Afterlife.”)
“The Atlas Mountains” debuted in 2009 and served as an early demonstration of Zhao’s point of view, including themes of both loneliness and belonging, as well as her signature style favoring pared-down productions and sets.
DAUGHTERS
Zhao’s next foray into short films focused on another 10-minute drama, this one set in rural China. The film focuses on Maple, a fourteen-year-old girl whose mother becomes pregnant with a boy. When her mother forces her into an arranged marriage, Maple risks everything to escape it and create a new path for herself.
Zhao once again hit the festival circuit with her second short film, premiering “Daughters” at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. There it won numerous awards, including Best Student Live Action Short. It went on to win first place for Student Live Action Shorts at the prestigious Palm Springs International ShortFest and the Special Jury Prize at Cinequest.
While the full short film is not publicly available online, you can watch the trailer here:
BENACHIN
“Benachin” tells the story of a young man attending his family’s annual Chinese spring festival dinner. The dinner becomes complicated when he invites his new Senegalese girlfriend to join his family in the celebration. Starring Stephen Lin and Ayesha Attah, it was released in 2011 and screened at New York University’s annual First Run Film Festival.
Benachin, which is the name of an iconic West African dish where rice, meat or fish, and heavy vegetables are cooked in one pot to create rich, diverse flavors, demonstrated to audiences Zhao’s continued commitment to the approach she championed in earlier shorts – tight, focused films that share the stories of underrepresented communities utilizing pared-down productions.
MOVING TO FEATURE FILMS
Having honed her point of view and style through these three short films, and having built her professional reputation on the festival circuit, Zhao moved on to directing feature films, starting with her debut feature film, “Songs My Brothers Taught Me.” Released in 2015, it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
But Zhao’s first feature was not an easy endeavor. In a Master Class discussion at Emerson in Los Angeles, she recounted the many challenges she experienced along the way. The film had a limited budget, and the children she wanted to cast in the film were starting to age out of their roles. Footage was stolen from her apartment as well.
But Zhao kept moving forward, filming the feature on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota with several non-professional actors, which has since become a hallmark of Zhao’s style and approach.
“What they’re gonna give you that professional actors will have to work so hard to get there… is presence and authenticity,” she said. “That presence, when it’s serving the scene that you write, it looks like you’ve done incredible directing to get this performance out of this person, but it’s in the writing.”
That kind of authenticity has long been an important factor for Zhao in creating her short films and feature films, and she espoused the necessity to listen more than you speak when working in communities outside of one’s own.
“I find that sometimes when I go into a community that’s not my own, or a community that has a lot of issues attached to it, I have to resist wanting to say something about how I think they could be better, or how I think the government has wronged them. A lot of times, they tell me what they think I want to hear because they’ve been interviewed many times by journalists. And usually, there’s something that these people who are interviewing them want them to say, because people go in with an agenda. I hear them saying things to me almost like they’re programmed to do it. You have to wait for that to be finished, and then you can ask, ‘What football team do you support?’ or, ‘Tell me about your high school sweetheart.'”
Her second feature film, “The Rider,” was a contemporary western drama that followed a young cowboy’s journey to discover himself. The film was inspired by Brady Jandreau, a cowboy she became friends with on the reservation where she shot “Songs My Brothers Taught Me.” Jandreau had suffered a severe head injury while competing in a rodeo competition.
The film once again cast several non-actors on the ranch where the film was shot. Released in 2017, it was met with critical acclaim and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Film and Best Director. It later played at Cannes Film Festival and was selected for Director’s Fortnight.
Following “The Rider,” Zhao went on to direct several other feature films, most notably “Nomadland” starring Frances McDormand and “Hamnet” starring Jesse Buckley and Paul Mescal. Both were nominated for an Oscar in the Best Picture category, with “Nomadland” taking home the statue for both Best Picture and Best Director (along with a Best Actress award for McDormand).
Zhao’s storied career in filmmaking – whether through short films or feature films – centers around one major necessity: Passion. Zhao told IndieWire in a 2020 interview:
“I’m not the kind of filmmaker who just makes films. I have to be in love with my subject matter and want to learn more about it. Someone once said to me that passion doesn’t sustain, but curiosity does. I have to be excited by little things I discover along the way.”
BUILD YOUR FILMMAKING CAREER
Follow in Zhao’s footsteps and start your career making short films! Our Short Film Fund offers an opportunity for emerging screenwriters and filmmakers to receive much-needed financial support to get their work produced and distributed. Our partnerships with ARRI Rental, Oscar-nominated producer Maria Gracia Turgeon, and Tribeca short film programmer Kimberley Browning elevate the films that come through our Fund with free camera equipment, mentorship, and film festival strategy.
Sarah Chaisson-Warner
The former Founder and Editor in Chief of Athena Magazine for Girls, Sarah is an award-winning screenwriter. She writes across genres – her feature scripts and television pilots range from LGBTQ period pieces to grounded sci-fis to mysteries. She has spent the last 20+ years working in state and national politics, allowing her to seamlessly intertwine themes of political intrigue into her scripts. Sarah enjoys spending time with her spouse and children, playing tennis, and traveling.
