Photo by Richmond Lam
Downloadable headshots here.
Yung Chang is the director of Up the Yangtze 《沿江而上》(2007), China Heavyweight 《千錘百鍊》(2012), and The Fruit Hunters (2012). He is currently completing a screenplay for his first dramatic feature, Eggplant, 《茄子》. In 2015, Chang was selected to participate in the prestigious Sundance Labs for Eggplant, 《茄子》. Award-winning short documentary, Pandemic19, co-directed by Annie Katsura Rollins, qualified for the 2021 Academy Awards and will premiere on World Channel on February 1, 2021 and Al Jazeera World on January 17, 2021.
Wuhan Wuhan (2021), a feature observational documentary, had its World Premiere at Hot Docs Festival 2021 in the Special Presentations program. The film is a testament to the universality of our collective pandemic experience, that no matter what country, no one is immune to disease and that we, as a human species, share the same humanity in our struggle to survive.
A graduate of the Meisner acting technique from the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in NYC and Concordia University's Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, Chang's films are recognized for being humanistic stories exploring emotionally complex characters through a cinematic lens.
Chang's award-winning short, Gatekeeper, qualified for the 2016 Oscars® and is a Vimeo Staff Pick, distributed by Field of Vision, Laura Poitras' curated online film unit. His latest feature documentary, This is Not a Movie is about Robert Fisk, the iconoclastic Middle East correspondent. The film is co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada, currently on the festival circuit, World Premiered at TIFF 2019.
Chang’s films have premiered at international film festivals
including Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, and IDFA and have played theatrically in cinemas around the world. Up the Yangtze was one of the top-grossing documentary releases in 2008. In 2013, China Heavyweight became the most widely screened social-issue documentary in Chinese history with an official release in 200 Mainland Chinese cinemas.
His films have been critically-acclaimed, receiving awards in
Paris, Milan, Vancouver, San Francisco, the Canadian Screen Award, Taiwan Golden Horse (twice), Cinema Eye Honors, among others and have been nominated at Sundance, the Independent Spirit Awards and the Emmys.
Chang's films have broadcast on international networks and streamers including Netflix, Amazon Prime, PBS, National Geographic, ARTE, ZDF, Channel 4, HBO, TMN, NHK, CBC, Bell Media, Tencent, iQiyi, Mubi, Kanopy, World Channel, VPRO Netherlands, TV2 Denmark, SBS Australia, RTS Switzerland and EBS Korea. He's received funding from major organizations like Sundance Institute, Doc Society, Telefilm, Ontario Creates, SODEC, Hot Docs, National Film Board and Canada Council for the Arts.
Chang is the recipient of the Don Haig Award, the Yolande and Pierre Perrault Award, and the Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award. He is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada. In 2013, he was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Academy Awards / Oscars®.
Up the Yangtze and The Fruit Hunters were co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada and Eyesteelfilm.
For his full filmography, see IMDB.
To purchase Yung Chang’s films, click here in Canada and
here in the USA for Up the Yangtze 《沿江而上》 and China Heavyweight 《千錘百鍊》. Click here for The Fruit Hunters in the USA. For screening info on This is Not a Movie see here.
To contact Yung Chang, please click here.