Meet Jack Li | Director & Animator

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

Hi Jack, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
It’s important to have feelings. As a storyteller, I want to help people with that.

Since the invention of the internet, society has accelerated at an exponential rate. Yet we as humans strive to keep up. We look for the trends; we consult authorities; we study information; we put in all that effort just to understand what is going on. But now AI appears. Boom, everything starts to reconstruct, in a way and speed that we have never seen before. So…what do we do now?

When the way forward is unclear, taking the next step is the most and the best you can do. You’d think that people need respectable goals and reasons to act, to push themselves forward, or to make a risky decision.

But honestly, sometimes a little push from emotions is more than enough; a delightful trip to a fantasy realm; an intense murder mystery; or a sweet simple love story. That is all we need to get off our bed and move forward. Numbness is the silent killer, I want to give those emotions to people, to motivate them to challenge this uncertain future.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
During the time when I was growing up, China is all about fundamental skills. You got to be good in drawings cubes, jars and portraits; you got to know shading tones, color theory and anatomy. Pursuing a career in art means you have to draw hundreds and hundreds of repetitive practices week over week.

While I do still and strongly agree that such fundamental skills are important during the creative process, the young Jack gradually became enamored by something other than a stunning illustration or intense fight sequence: stories. Little Jack starts to read fictions under a street lamp afterschool just to enjoy the fantasy world a bit more before having to go back to the repetitive practices. It may be the flashy trailers that bring audiences to the cinema, but it is always the stories that make them leave with tears.

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?
Being one of the known cultural centers of the world for centuries, New York is a gold mine for arts. You will be able to see shows and movies that nowhere else screens. Other than the famous Broadway musicals, watching the old classical movies on a big screen is some New York unique experiences that you won’t find anywhere else.

Other than those high and mighty art stuff, the food here is also such a pile of treasure, that literately lies in plain sight! You won’t even need to find the famous places or big restaurants. Walk on the streets, see a pizza place around the corner, walk in and you will find the best food you’ve ever had for a long period of time.

New York is a place of excitement and experiences. Comic conventions, game festivals, or simply the local markets, every event you will be able to see the height of cultural mixture and enthusiasm.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Raised in the suburbs of Shanghai and grown up in a rural island of Canada, I understood the differences between cultures and the importance of connections and resonations at an early stage of my life. My family’s effort in supporting me through such great transitions must be mentioned. Without them, I would not be here in New York making films.

Adding onto that, the NYU animation department is much more than a training camp for producing cogs in the industry. Over here, I gain insights to trends and structures that can nowhere else be found. I get to understand the importance and value of a powerful story. Thanks to this community’s love and support, I am able to develop my own voice knowing where I am heading towards.

Instagram: @jack_shuzhongzhehua

Image Credits
All image credits to Jack Li