Meet Xin Li | Independent film producer and director

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

Hi Xin, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
I like a affirmation is that “don’t trust any negative suggestions from your friends or your family even though they are the most important people in your life.”

When you want to do a thing, The best way is asking the people who did this before and the best is who successfully made it happened. This is like that a person only has a bicycle to ride but you ask him do you think if it was a good thing to have a BMW. There is thing that we often be stuck in our current cognitive lever.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am an awarded winner of indie film producer and director. I have been working in film for four years. I have made several short films and the genres are such as comedy, short documentaries, and commercial video advertisements. My short documentary PARADISE: NATURE HASN’T MERCY BUT PEOPLE HAVE and short comedy The Translation each of them got 4 awards and official selections on international indie film festivals. The most proud of moment for me was once I got these two short films’ official selections in one international indie film festival. That was unbelievable for me. I’m not only producing alive films but also producing animations.

I grew up in North of China in Hohhot city, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In my hometown, Inner Mongolia, people often dance and sing songs while having a meal so art is an important element in my lifestyle. And I was a big fan of Korean TV series when I was in middle school time. One day I felt if I could produce the TV series and films, I could do even better! As I know, the United States is the best place in the world with Hollywood, Oscar, which is a fabulous environment for learning film making. And Los Angeles is the center of the world’s entertainment. So I must come to LA. However it’s not an easy career. Before I went to film school, I thought being a film producer, I would be like WALL St’s people wearing suits with luxury briefcases. However, I had to understand English scripts very well, to start my producing work from boiling coffee for weeks on the film set, to learn every film department work. Being a veteran producer needs many years’ working experiences on solving many realistic problems including scheduling, budgeting, location, cast, negotiation, organizational skills… We could see young actors, young directors in big movies, however young but famous producers are not many unless you develop your own script IP and invest your own money. It’s hard to get a fabulous credit title “producer” on films. Most time, you are doing basic logistics work so it’s easy to make you feel wasting time and gasoline. But I’m lucky because I have found my way to create. I know what I should do now. I feel peaceful.

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.
Since I’m located in LA county. So I’m introduce you some great stores and places to visit.

First is Match Village [Address: 2202 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064, United States]. This is an beverage store and I’m guarantee that all the beverages all amazing to try. My favorite one is Matcha Mega Tornada. It has match flavor and a thick mild layer on the top. If you like match, you must try this store.

Second is The J. Paul Getty Museum [Address :1200 Getty Center Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90049, United States]. It costs $20 for the parking but no tickets to go inside. There are so many fabulous paintings and sculptors. Some of them I just saw in books before. Whatever you like art or not, when you stand in front of the huge wall painting, you will be naturally staring the paintings and silent. You will feel the beauty of art！Besides, there is a Egypt mummy lying in the glass. It is just such a close distance that you make friends with him, haha.

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?
There are many people have helped me since my film school time till now, for instance, my teacher Jana Sue Memel, who is an American Academy Award-winning film producer, film director and writer who taught me basic rules of film making, teacher Jonathan Crosby who had enlightened me to make documentary, teacher Janice Engel, whose documentary got Sundance Official Selection 2019, gave me very vital advice for editing; My mentor Andrzej Bartkowiak, who directed film: Romeo Must Die. I met him on a film festival. He encourages me to have bigger ambitions, and my parents who are always supporting me. Yeah so many people, my friends, my hometown’s friends… from China to the United States on financial support to lend me money for my studying abroad, and on mental support…

Website: https://www.xin-li.info/

Instagram: lixin2017aau

Facebook: Xin LI

Youtube: Shin Li @shinli5368