Meet ZIJIE ZHOU | Director

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

Hi ZIJIE, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I just have a huge obsession with expressing. Because I have seen fascinating works, I have experienced the great energy of creativity and stories. So I hope to be able to and wish to put all my energy and time into expression and spread more love and warmth in such a chaotic world. I want to pass on some thoughts that may be more personal, also finding friends who are interested, and it would be best if we can participate in the project together.

At the same time, I think that in the current world and the society I live in, there are also many issues worth discussing and optimizing to create a more friendly educational and artistic environment, with the artistic tool I have.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What I am most proud of is probably documenting some important scenes of China’s Gen Z subculture, whether it’s the exploding Hip-hop culture, or what’s happening with like BMX culture, RAVE culture development in China. How do I get to the professional level I am today, I am not actually following a professional like a degree that kind of path. At first, I was only interested in video production, so I made a lot of short films in college. After I went to VICE China, I shot a lot of documentaries. In the process, I learned a lot of the precious qualities of hard work and the importance of authenticity. After the documentary, I had the opportunity to direct a MV, which became very viral. In the days that followed, I worked hard to replace learning with crazy amount of practice, and shot a lot of commercials. In the process, I improved the control and quality of images a lot. There will also be many difficulties and confusions along the way, but the desire to express has always driven me. It is this force that made me re-transfer from commercial video to personal expression, study film production, and hope to be able to tell stories better instead of selling commercial visuals. Although the short films I directed have also been shortlisted in some film festivals, I still in the process of continuing to learn and experience.

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.
I’ll take them to the newly built The Academy Museum, where I had an amazing day. I have seen a very rich film history and many rare collections. At the same time, there are also a lot of experience projects, whether it is an animation or a live-action movie, you can see the behind-the-scenes charm in it. If it’s a one-week trip, I might take them to the beach, to hiking, and to see the nature here. At the same time, I also took them to the bar here, and even some underground music scenes, to see the different angles and vitality of this city.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I thought about it, and it doesn’t seem to me like a single text as a movie or music, it was a group, a working experience. The working experience in VICE CHINA, and the experience of filming documentaries all over China with them was like my second university. I saw so many possibilities for different life states, which greatly broadened my horizons and imagination. It turns out that there are so many possibilities and vitality in addition to the education and life that follow the mainstream traditional lifestyle and goal. During that time, I met parkour runners from southern Xinjiang, artists who traveled half of China doing tattoos and paintings, and women’s rights promoters working as sex toys sales in the mainland of China. These lives gave me a great shock, during the period of internship when I was in the university.
After that I seemed to be out of control, deviating from a stable arrangement and focusing on film and personal expression. Many documentaries filmed at that time can no longer be completed today, because of censorship and the media environment nowadays. I cherish and miss that time very much.

Website: zijiezhou.com

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zijie-zhou-a644a3a7/

Other: https://vimeo.com/zijiezhou

Image Credits
-FIRST INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL TRAINING CAMP