About the Director
Chen Yucong: From Qingdao, Shandong; young director and screenwriter. Holds an MFA from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and a bachelor's degree from the Communication University of China. Gold Medal winner at the Student Academy Awards, and winner of the BAFTA Student Award for Best Documentary and a jury award. Work has been selected for dozens of Oscar-qualifying international festivals, including St. Louis, Rhode Island and AmDocs. Zhao Xuecong, also known as Zhao Maomao: Graduated from the Central Academy of Drama and the Maryland Institute College of Art in the United States. Her work explores personal stories and relationships between people by facing and showing real life. The short documentary Blank Canvas follows her father, a painter, as he picks up the brush again for his daughter ten years after a cerebral hemorrhage left him hemiplegic. The film won Best Documentary Short at the 5th NEW ERA Youth Film Season and Best Director at the 2020 International Youth Film Week, and was selected for the Hong Kong International Documentary Festival, the Cross-Strait Short Film Season of the Golden Rooster Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Film Exhibition, the documentary category of the Student Academy Awards and other festivals in China and abroad.