Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Liu
Hi Jay, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born and raised in the great, embattled city of Hong Kong, and moved to Chicago in 2017 for my undergraduate studies at Northwestern University. I did radio/TV/film there, and three years later, I moved to LA for grad school in film production at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. I’ve been in LA since then. Growing up, I was always drawn to the spectacle and audiovisual power of cinema. This is going to surprise people who know me, but the first few films that made me fall in love with film were IMAX spectacles like Avatar and The Dark Knight Rises. I would imagine movie characters jumping across the rooftops of my elementary school. Nowadays, my taste has shifted (even though I still enjoy a good blockbuster), but that attraction to the emotive power of the audiovisual image still hasn’t changed.
Nowadays, I make films about my intersectional identities between queerness and my origins from Hong Kong. I think I have a lifelong interest in the topic of intimacy, and how that manifests in vastly different playgrounds and arenas in the world. I make a lot of gay romances, because I think matters of the heart are the most powerful. Since 2019, I’ve also done a lot of work about Hong Kong. I grew up in a racial majority, so being Asian didn’t matter much to me, but since the 2019 Hong Kong protests, that part of my identity has almost become a mission for me. So my latest film, “Anywhere the Wind Blows,” is a combination of the two. It’s a gay romance about an immigrant activist from Hong Kong. I will continue to make films for, by, and about my communities.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I know I’m luckier and more comfortable than most to have received a safe and comfortable upbringing. But the challenge of breaking into the industry arrives the same, unless you were born with connections. I wasn’t, so right now my biggest challenge is just figuring out life post-graduation. I’ve been using this time to do odd jobs here and there, including writing about film and directing a film festival in LA about Hong Kong cinema. The festival is called the Hong Kong On Screen Film Festival and we will be screening both classic and new Hong Kong films around LA in August. But my main goal is to get a job in post-production and work my way up from there, which I have been pretty close to achieving.
Another big challenge I’ve been facing is the onslaught of rejections from film festivals and grants for my latest projects. I have been lucky enough to screen “Anywhere the Wind Blows” at several notable places, but as any unconnected indie filmmaker can attest to, every acceptance hides ten rejections underneath. And even though this is normal, it is not easy to cope with, and I wish there is more talk about it. Working in film is a lifetime of rejections, and it takes an enormously strong heart to survive in this industry. I am still equipping my mental health for that.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As I mentioned, I write and direct films, but I am also an editor. I enjoy post-production more than most. I have a very meticulous personality and I really enjoy putting a film together or adjusting it frame by frame. I think filmmaking is a constant series of problem-solving, and post-production is the most rewarding stage. Editing can be really frustrating, because it is the stage when you confront all of production’s mistakes, but the payoff when it all comes together is so satisfying. And editing is also where I can work on a more diverse range of projects aside from my own films. A project I’m currently editing is another USC thesis film about negro league baseball, which is obviously something very far from me. Yet the process is the same to me – finding the story, the characters, the emotion. So I’m grateful for the chance to expand my horizons through editing.
As for my own films, the most prominent so far is definitely my USC thesis “Anywhere the Wind Blows,” which premiered at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, and just competed at the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival. Hopefully, there will be more film festivals to come. I was so inspired by that project that I am currently developing a spin-off short documentary about a very rare and precious prop you see in that film. It will be a documentary about changing trends in Hong Kong culture from the vantage point of that prop and its owner, and it will be completed this year or next.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Judging by the way I look and speak, not a lot of people know I am actually also a British citizen. I think this strange confluence of identities have been one of the biggest influences on my artistic voice. Legally I am British, in reality I grew up in Hong Kong, and now I have been living in the US for almost a third of my life, yet I am still considered an “alien” in American legal terms. I’m not exactly third culture, and I am very grateful that I grew up so connected to Hong Kong culture, but even that is fading as I’ve lived abroad for so long. At the same time, I grew up bilingual and I am now very connected to English-speaking culture. So I don’t really know what my national self-identity is, and that has emerged as a major theme in my work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jayliufilms.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j.liu_
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jay_liu_
