Yankee Zhou
Tell us about your background and when did you decide to become a filmmaker/actor/screenwriter?
I was born and raised in Taiwan by a pair of immigrant parents from China after the Chinese Civil War. I am the second child and the only son for them. I had inclinations towards language, literature from very early on, and a bad brain for mathematics, chemistry, etc. To aim to enter myself in college as an English major, I filled out my application for the entrance examination with all the good and fair universities that had an English Department. I got into a good one with contentment, and I enjoyed almost all courses my department had to offer, and my academic performance was always at the top of the class (except for gymnastics scores, because I was not athletic). Then in my third year, I had a chance, thanks to a classmate and close pal who knew a screening room that could be rented by students for special screenings) to watch some European, American and Asian classic films. Those films opened my eyes stunningly. That was the initiation of my career role as a filmmaker in writing and directing capacities. I have edited my work since a few years ago, but I am still learning about the ever-evolving film editing.
Films that inspired you to become a filmmaker/actor/screenwriter?
Lots of them so I can hardly point at anyone. But they were mostly from Europe when I was fascinated by the idea of becoming someone in this profession.
Who is your biggest influence?
I must honor my late father for this. He took us (me and my two sisters, including my late mother sometimes) to movies quite frequently, and he had a couple of regular movie magazines which I flipped their pages with much curiosity. After I had become a filmmaker, I began to realize the influence my father had left on me when I was a youngster. I must add that my mother played a significant role as well. Because she sacrificed her movie-going chances a lot to save money for the family, I got more exposure to movies, and those watching experiences took roots in my future film enlightenment.
What were some of the challenges you had to face in making your films?
It’s no cliché, for me, to say that one of the primary challenges is the budget. It constrains or allows everything that will appear in the work. The ideal budget is never there in reality and in a director’s mind, so how to make good use of a budget is challenging too.
The other challenge was the filming schedule, which had to do with the budget. So, in the end, the budget matters the most. Yet, no budget, or low budget, to face it and not run away from it, could drive an original, creative filmmaker to get the most creative, to elevate beyond their usual self.
Do you have a favorite genre to work in? Why is it your favorite?
I do, in my peculiar way. I am more interested in and capable of human drama (it is not what a genre traditionally means), so what I mean is that I am not interested in general animation movies, strict genre movies with set or rigid formulae, naked zombie movies and the alike.
I like to meditate on human tragedy and human fallacy. So, my essential work is collectively not so much defined by whatever genre there is today. I hope people aside from myself recognize that too.
What’s your all-time favorite movie and why?
I would say that it has not been seen by me, because I take “all-time” highly seriously and I find the word indicatively difficult. What I can share is that I love and respect most of Andrei Tarkovsky’s work more than others’ (his near predecessors, contemporaries, and filmmakers behind him to this day) work combined. It may just be his poeticism which I profoundly and movingly relate to (which is also why I love most of Theodoros Angelopoulos’ work). The two filmmakers are more favored by me as we speak can be also because of them overcoming massive technical challenges for aesthetics' sake.
If you could work with anyone in the world, who would that person be?
Could it be the higher other me, who is wiser than I have been? It sounds like euphemism, but I indeed do not know for sure. I assume the question hints another filmmaker who is more widely celebrated for an answer. Nevertheless, I am open, naturally, to working with someone who is a distinguished poet/director, widely known or not.
Tell us something most people don't know about you:
I have a couple of other identities and different names. In my film profession, I have been going alternatively by Yankee Zhou, Yankee Zhou Yanz, and Zhou Yanz.
Besides being a cinemartist (an original term I call myself with), I am a bilingual poet, writing poetry in either Chinese or English. My poetry books are “Dying”, and “Poems & Ballads from the House of Drifting Clouds” (in order of publishing date), and I am working on publishing a third one, “More Poems & Ballads from the House of Drifting Clouds”.
In poetry writing, my name in English is Zhou Doubt, which is the closest pronunciation translated from my name in Chinese as a poet.
Also, I am a non-profit organization founder and director. The organization’s name is Memory Community, a.k.a. Yankee Zhou’s Memory Community, and my mission and vision is to make “Movie Memoir” (my original term invented by me to differ from commonly understood video memorial in terms of content) for older people. Why is this age group? This is a universal social dilemma where seniors are stuck in dark places or nowhere amid their alive and kicking society, and therefore they are vulnerable at being disregarded and left alone. A Movie Memoir, by filming seniors telling their most memorable life stories on camera and sharing their Movie Memoir on streaming platforms, opens a space for them to share their memories with their family, friends, or whomever (the community they live in, and the audience all over the Internet world.)
The one person who has truly believed in you throughout your career.
Truthfully, there has been no such person. Some heavy weights throughout my career have put some faith in me, but it was just too much for anyone, in my pondering, to insist on supporting anyone alone and all the time. In Taiwan, we didn’t have the literary agenting system specifically in the film industry, so literarily speaking, there was rarely anyone who worked as one filmmaker’s committed agent by contract to always stand by their clients. In the United States, which I adopted sixteen years ago and now live in, I have yet to come across that person you described. Aside from agents, I hope to truly believe in and rely on myself rather than other people who may or may never come into your creative life.
What was the most important lesson you had to learn as filmmaker/actor/screenwriter?
There were a lot of important lessons, and there still are. The most important one is always the hardest, the most hurtful one. We as filmmakers can all relate to the old saying that motion pictures are an art of regret. So, the real enlightenment is after factual. You only learn your important lessons after you have finished what you have done. Rarely in this profession, we are given a second chance to fix the errors as we wish in dead-finished work.
Is it harder to get started or to keep going? What was the particular thing that you had to conquer to
do either?
In my case, it’s both. I started off in my cusp of twenties as a film reviewer, or like some said, film critic for an evening newspaper, then extending my writings to one of the few film periodicals. With that background, which went strong and gained me some reputation with time, when I aimed to change my track to directing, a lot of obstacles presented in my way. People in the industry had pinned me down as a cinema criticizing personality, so naturally, I was not fit in the roles of screen writing and directing. This stuck prejudice made me suffer from my own achievement for a decade until my perseverance for re-inventing myself paid off.
The other thing is how to keep going in a profession where money-making (paired with having a big name) always is the first key to survival, from what I have observed and experienced. This thing is not only particularly me who ought to conquer or waver. I am now going more independently than before.
What keeps you motivated?
Once I dig into something, I always keep at it. That’s my temper and character. Cinema is such a profound art and so is poetry. I admire profoundness. I was born or raised up to be a quiet energy, a calming persona, an introvert, and even a little bit of an autistic. I lack social skills because I detest some of them. I persevere in things I choose to take on. I have failed in endeavors enough, but at this point in my dusk time, I am not risking myself at forsaking my two passions: cinema and poetry, or I must become hollow and die soon. With multiple chronic illnesses, I can’t help but motivate myself to climb up to the summits where my cinema and poetry works are moving toward.
How has your style evolved?
I have evolved my style in recent years. I have re-positioned myself as an art cinema writer/director. I do not intend to repeat even the arthouse film style I had before. Starting with a feature screenplay titled “Signed, Baba”, I experimented with a new film language (probably not perceived only by myself, according to the overwhelming responses from lots of film festivals) in storytelling, which will be transpired in image after the film has been made. Then with the successor screenplay titled “Garden Court Guardians”, it will be another art-cinematic landscape mixed in natural realism and poeticism in the actual film after it’s been made.
On set, the most important thing is:
Now I recognize that people who you work with on set and off site (cast, crew) are most important, literally each one among them. Being a socially awkward person, I have not been keen on this. I have been okay, but now I want myself to go beyond my old performance without spoiling the set.
The project(s) you’re most proud of:
It is never easy for me to talk about the “most” of something about me. Not because I am arrogant, shy, or overly modest. For work or projects that I have done with my full commitment, I take every one of them unlighted. I appreciate them as my equals as they have their own life. I am the one that I shouldn’t be proud of.
The most challenging project you worked on. And why?
Every piece of work for me was a challenge that was the most challenging one at the time it was going to be made. When I directed for the first time, I was headless until the cameraman cooled me down by harsh comments. That was a shame if not a scar for me, so that was very challenging when you were lost on set. I am highly thin-skinned so when something like that falls upon me, I have a hard time to shrug it off my shoulders.
What are your short term and long-term career goals?
Now in my last chapter of living and working as an artist due to the life limit, I want to make two or three more films. These are more of a long-term goal. My short-term goal is to keep Yankee Zhou’s Memory Community going, growing until I must leave it or have someone to take it over.
Your next projects?
“Garden Court Guardians”, a narrative feature film which is a consequence of my ongoing project, “Movie Memoir”, a series made by my non-profit.
The other one is an assembly of forty and counting (their durations vary) movie memoirs I have made for different seniors. I want to re-edit those movie memoirs to be one feature-length film to invoke deep and vast awareness of the older age group in the audience.
Please share with us where people can find you on social media, so our readers could keep track of your career:
http://www.youtube.com/@memorycommunity
http://www.youtube.com/@memorycommunity3167
https://www.facebook.com/zhouyanz
https://www.facebook.com/memorycommunity
https://www.linkedin.com/in/deyoung-zhou-9463452b/
https://signedbaba.wixsite.com/signed--baba
https://www.yelp.com/biz/memory-community-steilacoom