Explode for Me

More than two decades ago, Ci Zhang immigrated to America from China in hopes of pursuing a better life with greater personal freedom. Originally, she wanted to explore writing as her creative medium in her new setting, but once ensconced in the vibrant culture of San Francisco, she began consuming films with an intense voracity. When family tragedy struck, she turned to documentary filmmaking as her outlet for mourning, and captured her mother's health struggles on a small, hand-held camera in their home province of Yunnan. Zhang's debut film The Faith of Ailao Mountain is an emotionally intense documentary that examines her relationship with her mother and birthplace while also indirectly critiquing China's one-child policy and other social issues. She recently shared with US-China Today her path to creating her first documentary, her thoughts on the Chinese film market and her role as an advocate for under-covered social issues. —May Ci Zhang