It’s always exciting to see new directorial talents emerge, especially when they happen to be women of color.
Yulin Kuang is a promising LA writer/director whose work often explores online communities and fandoms, and I'm hoping she's got a long career ahead of her.
In addition to being one of six women chosen for the Twilight new voices contest, she’s worked on a lot of cool independent projects too. They range from the utterly adorable Irene Lee, Girl Detective to the “transmedia experiment” Kissing In The Rain to a Jane Eyre musical parody to an award-winning short called The Perils of Growing Up Flat-Chested.
But my personal favorite is her short film I Ship It, which follows a young singer named Zoe Smallman (Mary Kate Wiles of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries fame) who recovers from a breakup by turning to Harry Potter-themed "Wizard Rock." It’s a charming story that shows off Kuang’s visual flare, which is clearly influenced by the likes of Wes Anderson and Edgar Wright but still feels unique. And Kuang's interest in online spaces—both as a distribution platform and as subject matter—could very well place her at the forefront of an upcoming trend in filmaking. You can watch the full 20-minute short here:
Learn more about Kuang on her website, check out more of her work on YouTube, follow her on Twitter / Tumblr, and support her on Patreon.
