ZIYAN ZHENG

Growing up in China, I watched my mom, who works in the film industry, edit projects at home. Under her guidance, I started learning to express myself through the language of film and video. In middle school, I founded a film club. Clubmates would produce short films and documentaries. Gradually, filming has become an indispensable part of my life.

In my junior year of high school, I went to The King's Academy in the United States, seeking a better opportunity to study filmmaking. Being apart from my family for a year, I found that my most inspiring script ideas came from my life stories and memories. Going through my experiences, I realized that humans are somehow not self-aware: we are partially dominated by our subconscious.

Enthralled by inexplicable but intense emotions, I believe that the subconscious would be a precious element in my filmmaking. It pushes me to explore my unknown territory whenever I brainstorm film plots. There are copious moments when people question themselves in terms of their behaviors, which serve as the key to my creation. I hope that my films will become the gateway, through which people can dig into the unnoticeable bulk of their subconscious. The goal of my films is to probe into that unconscious part of the human mind with my audience which may bring in-depth inspiration and findings.