Yung Chang

Yung Chang is the director of Up the Yangtze (2007), China Heavyweight (2012), and The Fruit Hunters (2012). He is completing a screenplay for his first dramatic feature, Eggplant, which was selected in 2015 to participate in the prestigious Sundance Labs and is in post-production for a feature documentary about the controversial journalist, Robert Fisk. His latest, Gatekeeper, won Best Short Film at the Los Angeles Film Festival and is streaming for free on Field of Vision, Laura Poitras' curated online film unit. Chang's films have screened 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, Cinema Eye Honors, among others and have been nominated at Sundance, the Independent Spirit Awards, the Emmys and the Toronto Film Critics Awards. 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 and the Writers Guild of Canada. In 2013, he was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.