Meet Louise Zhang | Writer, Director, Cinematographer

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

Hi Louise, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I believe taking risks is inevitable in the film industry, and it’s where much of the excitement comes from. As visual storytellers, we constantly make decisions on how best to convey our ideas through sight and sound. Every step, from story conception to thematic choices and the filmmaking technologies we use, involve taking risks. Do we tell a familiar story and risk it feeling cliché, or do we experiment with form and risk losing connection with a broader audience? Do we trust our gut and shoot the story on 16mm film, despite the high cost and low tolerance of error even though the visual style calls for it? Or do we stay safe and shoot on digital? Being a filmmaker equates to being a risk-taker.

There is never a guarantee that a risk will lead to a positive result, and that’s what makes filmmaking so thrilling. I love the trial and error process – it’s like dropping lime into water and watching it fizz and explode. When the risks you take yield unexpectedly great results – whether it’s a unique music choice, a “crazy” edit, or rearranging entire sequences in writing – it’s the most exhilarating feeling as a creative.

Even when things don’t work out, I learn from those experiences and gain insight into what exactly made it not work. By taking risks, I grow as a filmmaker. Therefore, the risks are always worth taking. Of course, I’m only referring to artistic choices – when it comes to safety, no risk should ever be taken.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I was born and raised in Shanghai, China, as the only child of busy working parents, who rarely had time to spend with me. This environment nurtured my early fascination with film and visual media. After school, I’d eagerly spend my allowance at DVD shops, buying movies from all over the world. I would sit in front of the TV, watching those low resolution foreign language films until my parents returned, at which point I’d switch to pretending to do homework. Movies were my window to unseen worlds, unheard languages, and unfelt emotions. They taught me many lessons: how to love, how to be brave, and how to be kind when kindness seems impossible.

When I turned 15, I was parachuted by my parents to a private boarding school in New Hampshire. I came of age in that wilderness. There, I grappled with an identity crisis, cultural shock, and loneliness. But at the same time, I developed a deep passion for literature, language, and visual storytelling. With a few friends, I started experimenting with video making, trying my hand at the medium. I knew nothing about real filmmaking, yet I found so much joy in the acts of creating and exploring. During my undergraduate years in Pittsburgh, my love for filmmaking only grew. I started taking screenwriting and film production classes, doing more advanced production, and finding my voice in many trials and errors.

Then, at NYU Tisch’s Graduate Film program, I ultimately realized my lifelong dream of becoming a professional filmmaker. Surrounded by a community of like-minded filmmakers, I was encouraged to find my own voice and practice my craft, telling stories that push the medium forward. Now, working as a freelance writer, director, and cinematographer, I continue to think about the stories I want to tell, how to improve technically and intellectually, and the next steps of my own artistic journey.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
As a cinephile, there is no better place to be than New York City. The city offers so many incredible theaters. My favorites are Angelika, Metrograph, and Film at Lincoln Center. At Angelika, you can catch new independent films and Q&A sessions with the filmmakers. Metrograph regularly presents interesting film series or retrospectives on great film auteurs. Lincoln Center also curates rare, hard-to-find films that are truly special. There’s something special about sitting in a theater and watching an old movie that still has the power to move you, even after all these years. I also enjoy walking through Central Park to take in the changing seasons, often sitting on a rock just to people-watch. Finding moments of slowness in an ever-moving city is what I love to do the most in NYC.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to a film called I Killed My Mother by Xavier Dolan. I first watched this movie when I was fifteen. Before then, the films I had seen were all big-budget, commercial productions—action films, fantasies, or historical dramas. I never realized that films could be intimate, personal, and a form of self-expression.

I don’t remember how I came across the film, but I vividly recall the emotional state I was in after finishing it. I was bawling my eyes out, overwhelmed by feelings I couldn’t put into words. At the time, I was struggling with the challenges of being a teenager and had a difficult relationship with my mother. I was dealing with all the anger and confusion that come with coming of age. I felt lonely, with no one to express my feelings to, and at the same time, I couldn’t express what I was going through.

Then, by chance, a fifteen-year-old me, living in Shanghai, China, came across this small-budget indie drama by a then-obscure director, in a language I didn’t understand. Yet, the film spoke to every emotion I had, and the relationship portrayed felt like a mirror image of the one I had with my own mother. It was poetic, genuine, and visually stunning. For the first time, I realized that films could be made like this, and I felt truly connected, seen, and understood by the filmmaker. It was a powerful moment.

This experience opened the floodgates of cinema to me, inspiring me to create films that could have a similar impact on others. For that, I will always be eternally grateful to Xavier Dolan and this film.

I also want to give a special shoutout to my parents, who have supported me throughout my filmmaking journey, as well as the mentors and peers I’ve met along the way. Thank you for being there for me, through the highs and lows.

Website: https://louisezhangfilms.com

Instagram: @louisez221