Meet Brielle Yuke Li | Film Producer/Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brielle Yuke Li and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brielle Yuke, what’s the end goal, career-wise?
As a film producer who has worked on short films, commercials, narrative features, and documentaries that have been selected by multiple international film festivals, including Oscar-qualifying ones, I aspire to become a filmmaker who both collaborates with top-tier directors and storytellers for high-budget studio films through which I can fully understand the ins-and-outs of filmmaking as an industry, and also joins forces with independent auteurs with whom I can push the edges of the technics and art of cinematic storytelling.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My producing journey started with merely helping friends out on set during production. Since then, I started to find a liking for producing and realizing a vision with a team of awesome people. I have produced multiple short films, features, commercials, and documentaries so far. I believe that every filmmaker and storyteller has something unique and integral to their experience, which is what sets each person apart from another. Personally, I think what is special to me is my free and rebellious spirit, curiosity in the exploration and innovation of art, care for telling stories about human conditions and dynamics with a touch of humanity, and passion for diversity, uniqueness, and the richness of culture. I refuse to put labels on one’s films or work, hence I am proud that I have produced very different stories with storytellers from very diverse backgrounds which has expanded my understanding of the world and even our being. I got to where I am today primarily by stepping out of my comfort zone, reaching out to people, persevering and being patient about the process, and maintaining my initial passion and love for filmmaking.
The process was never easy, which is why patience and believing in the beauty of one’s own unique journey are the keys. What helps me when challenges hinder my forward momentum is to re-anchor myself with a clear understanding of what is the ultimately meaningful thing in filmmaking to me. This is probably one of the most important lessons that I’ve learned along the way — listen to the actual essential core of your heart of why this is important instead of being negatively influenced by outside opinions and the desire to compare yourself to others.
I would want the world to know me as a dreamer-but-also-a-doer type of storyteller who strives for both fun entertainment as well as revolutionary art.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
As I am based in Los Angeles, I would take my friends to spots where they can experience rich nature as well as the livelihood of city life. Hiking around the Griffith Observatory and biking along the Pacific Coast Highway would be ideal for a sunny day. Bar-hopping around Hollywood and West Hollywood after watching a classic or arthouse film at Aero Theater, Brain Dead Theater, or Secret Movie Club at DTLA would also be a perfect night out.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Yes, I would like to give a shoutout to my producing partner on the short film, de closin night, Ella Rouwen Chen, who is also a good friend of mine since this film. I am grateful to have collaborated with her on this film that reflects on very resonating topics that many of us US-based international filmmakers and artists encounter on a daily basis. We share very similar challenges along our journey and we support each other – professionally and emotionally, which is what actually makes all the festival’s official selections, including the Oscar-qualifying ones that this film has received possible. I’d also like to thank Lianlian Shen and Zoey Cao, my directors for a few projects that I produced. Shen has an acute sense of observing one’s daily life under the cosmic backdrop of a huge and indifferent society and then reflects that sensation on the screen with her independent-spirited lens. Her raw, bold, and full-of-life films have reached the audience in mainland China, Italy, and Brazil at multiple film festivals and screenings, including Chongqing Youtu Film Festival, Lucca Film Festival, and have landed on the biggest streaming platforms for independent Chinese films, Cathayplay, Director Cao’s films focus on exploring the tenderness and dynamics of authentic female experiences and human relationships within the cold reality of patriarchy. Our film, Play House, is an Official Selection at the first Oscar-qualifying filim festival that’s dedicated to women of color, Reel Sisters of Diaspora Film Festival, Beijing International Film Festival, as well as Beijing Queer Film Festival.
I’d also love to give a shoutout to Joe Barbagallo and BarBHouse Productions (A Wounded Fawn, Tribeca 2022; On Our Way, Tallin Black Night 2021) who trusted me to bring me on board to co-produce their feature film, The Fetus, in which we attached talented cast, Bill Mosely, Lauren LaVera and Julian Curtis.
Last but not least, I also want to give a shoutout to Calvin Wu, one of my producing partners who has been supporting my producing career for quite a while, providing opportunities to collaborate through which I have learned and grown.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brielleloving/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuke-li-13500789/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brielleloving

Image Credits
Joe Lam, Robin Wang