Yung Chang

Yung Chang
Born	1977 Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Film director
Years active	2002–present
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	張僑勇
Simplified Chinese	张侨勇
Hanyu Pinyin	Zhāng Qiáoyǒng

Yung Chang (born 1977) is a Chinese Canadian film director and part of the collective member directors of Canadian film production firm EyeSteelFilm.

Biography

Chang, made his first feature documentary, Up the Yangtze in 2007. The film used China's highly contested Three Gorges Dam as a dramatic backdrop for a moving and richly detailed narrative of a peasant family negotiating unprecedented historic changes. Up the Yangtze played at numerous festivals, including Sundance, and was one of the top-grossing documentary box office releases in 2008. China Heavyweight, Chang's sophomore film, is about a boxing coach and his two students in rural China fighting to become amateur and professional champions. The film had its premiere at Sundance 2012 in the World Documentary competition. It is distributed by Zeitgeist Films. In the same year, Chang also completed The Fruit Hunters, a feature documentary about nature, commerce and obsession in the fruit underworld. The film is distributed by Cinedigm New Video. Chang is writing Eggplant, his first feature film, about a Chinese wedding photographer.

Awards highlights for Up the Yangtze include: 2009 Independent Spirit Awards Nominee; 2009 Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards; Best Canadian Documentary, 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival; Best Documentary Feature, 2008 San Francisco International Film Festival; 2008 Toronto International Film Festival Group Canada’s Top 10 film; finalist for the IDFA Joris Ivens Award, 2007 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam; and Grand Jury nominee for Best Documentary in the World Cinema competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Yung Chang is also the recipient of the 2008 Yolande and Pierre Perrault award for most promising filmmaker at the 2008 Rendez-vous du cinema québecois; received the 2008 Don Haig Award at Hot Docs; and the Charles Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in North Carolina.

China Heavyweight won the prestigious Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary in 2012, considered the equivalent of a Chinese Oscar. At the 2012 Milano Film Festival, it garnered the top award for Best Film.

The Fruit Hunters premiered at the International Documentary Festival (IDFA) in Amsterdam and the Berlinale Film Festival in 2013. It won the Best Film award at the 2013 Environmental Film Festival in Paris.^[1]

Chang is a graduate of Concordia University's Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal (BFA 99).^[2]

Filmography

Director

• 2002: The Fish Market (short)
• 2003: Earth to Mouth (short documentary)
• 2007: Up the Yangtze (full-length documentary)
• 2009: Ali Shan (short)
• 2012: China Heavyweight (full-length documentary)
• 2012: The Fruit Hunters (documentary)

Screenwriter

• 2002: The Fish Market (short)
• 2007: Up the Yangtze
• 2009: Ali Shan (short)
• 2012: China Heavyweight
• 2012: The Fruit Hunters

Screenings and awards

References

• Up the Yangtze!, by John Anderson.
• Director Yung Chang Interview / Q&A
• Northwest Asian Weekly commentary/Yung Chang Interview
• Indiewire interview with Yung Chang
• New Zealand Scoop Video Interview with Yung Chang
• PBS POV Interview with Yung Chang

External links

• Official Website of Yung Chang
• Yung Chang at the Internet Movie Database
• Films by Yung Chang at NFB.ca website
• Yung Chang speaks with WSWS about Up the Yangtze, interview with Richard Phillips on the World Socialist Web Site