ABOUT

I’m Shiyun Zheng, a filmmaker from Hangzhou, China, currently based in New York and studying Film & Television at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Moving between different cities, languages, and cultures has made me especially curious about the ways people construct a sense of self — what we carry with us, what we leave behind, and how the people we love quietly become part of who we are.

My work often begins with something intimate: a memory, a relationship, a moment of loneliness, or a feeling that is difficult to name. From there, I’m drawn to larger questions about identity, connection, and the inner lives we rarely show to others. For me, making films begins with showing vulnerability, or finding the “inner cry”. What moves me most is when something personal in my work resonates differently with each viewer. Their interpretations often become as meaningful to me as my own, and I like to think that, in recognizing vulnerability on screen, we become a little more willing to acknowledge our own.

Outside of filmmaking, I’m constantly collecting things that change the way I see the world — art, photography, music, unfamiliar cities, conversations, and the strange but beautiful little things of everyday life. I think of it less as a way of giving answers than as a way of staying curious: about other people, about the world, and about the versions of ourselves we are still becoming.