Today we’d like to introduce you to Jiayan “Jenny” Shi.
Jiayan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Growing up in China, a rapidly developing country with a complex population composition, I witnessed many social issues and conflicts. With an aspiration to give voice to the voiceless, I gained my master’s degree at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and became a passionate video storyteller covering social justice issues concerning people of color.
My foray with social issue documentary was a trip to South Africa in 2017 for an assignment to cover gender and sexuality issues. I conducted research on and was shocked by the racism, patriarchy, and hate crimes caused by homophobia. The sensational headlines and bloody images made me sympathize with the black LGBT community who are always targeted and in extreme danger. However, a black lesbian soccer player I met in a township broke the miserable stereotype with her optimism and bravery. Despite facing bullying and the risk of being killed, she kept playing soccer, which is typically male privilege. She led a lesbian soccer team that aims to end homophobia and quest for LGBT respect. I directed, shot, edited and produced a short documentary-style video on her, which inspired people beyond her community all through the lens of my camera.
After realizing how worse the minority groups are misrepresented, I started to produce short documentaries that aim to break stereotypes. In”Native Dreams Matter“, I learned the history of the federal government’s controversial “relocation program” on Native Americans as well as the shocking fact of how few education resources urban Native American children have. In “Increase The Peace“, I gradually understood the meaning of forgiveness and appreciation when I saw a young activist, who grew up in a family once involved in gangs, on a quest for peace in his community.
In my last quarter at Medill, I started to follow a Chinese family searching for their daughter Yingying Zhang, a visiting scholar who was kidnapped by a former Ph.D. candidate from the same university in Urbana. The combination of criminal justice, cross-cultural experience and race made this case sensational and unique. Having been accompanying with the family for over five months, I realized how desperate and hopeless they were in this unfamiliar country, and how hard it was to find their daughter. After I graduated from Medill, I continued working on this project and decided to pursue my career as a documentary filmmaker and video journalist.
Has it been a smooth road?
Being a documentary filmmaker is not easy, especially for emerging filmmakers like me who are not from this country. On one hand, I kept investing in my own independent documentary project which requires money and energy. On the other hand, facing the visa issue and the limited employment resources for international students, I had to find a stable job that allows me to stay in the U.S. and continue working on my project.
After struggling for several months, I became an intern at the Kindling Group, an award-winning nonfiction media company based in Chicago. During this five months internship, I worked closely with the director, the producer and editors of the ITVS co-produced web series “Pulling the Thread”, which helped me develop the skill sets I need as an independent documentary filmmaker. Meanwhile, I got accepted to the Diverse Voices in Docs program at Kartemquin Films. With support from Kartemquin, I learned how to create proposals and demos, and how to pitch my project to funders. During the weekends when I didn’t work at Kindling, I still traveled to Champaign and filmed my project. Although facing a lot of life and work challenges, I never stop pursuing my dream of being a professional documentary filmmaker.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
Currently, I’m a freelance video journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Chicago. I direct, shoot, edit and produce in-depth video stories and also work on different types of documentary projects with award-winning filmmakers.
I am a Kartemquin DVID fellow and I’m working on my first feature-length documentary Finding Yingying. Finding Yingying is a feature-length vérité documentary that tells the intimate story of a Chinese family who arrives in Illinois to search for their daughter, an international student kidnapped within her first weeks in Illinois during the summer of 2017. Although a suspect has been arrested, Yingying is still missing and is presumed dead. Facing the challenges of being foreigners dealing with a complicated U.S. criminal justice system, Yingying’s heartbroken family attempts to seek justice and find closure as the murder mystery unfolds. A student short version of this project earned a nomination for a Student Academy Award and won a Chicago College Emmy.
Because of this documentary I have been working on, I gained expertise in producing long-form and in-depth projects that explore complex issues. I was selected to be a DX fellow at the 2018 Double Exposure Documentary Film Festival. My work has been screened at the American Documentary Film Festival.
What’s more, I am also working on multiple projects as a researcher, digital content editor and translator including the Kindling Group’s multi-platform public media project “Veterans Coming Home” and the 2019 Sundance selection “American Factory” (by award-winning Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar). I’m also a reporter with The Real Chi, covering stories in the west side and the south side of Chicago.
Holding a master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University, I have developed skills in the areas of documentary, photography, news graphics, and design, news reporting and writing. I bring my solid multimedia skills, cross-cultural perspective, humanizing storytelling, inquisitiveness, and passion for video journalism to my clients.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
For journalists like me, Chicago is the best place to explore diverse cultures and complicated social issues. There are so many untold stories that I’m passionate about.
The cold winter is the biggest challenge for me when I’m on set. I will never forget my experience producing a video story called “Courage in Little Village”, which provides a riveting look at an undocumented woman’s hard life and a big dream. I still remember those chilly mornings when I filmed her and her mother selling tamales at 4:30 a.m. But when she told me this video inspired many little girls in her community, everything paid off.
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