Roots That Reach Toward The Sky

Directed by Jess X. Snow

Length: 16:53
Producers: Frisly Soberanis, Akemi Look, Eris Qian, Yumeng Han
Editor: April Du
Cinematographer: Sheldon Chau
Sound Mixer: Yuming Zhang

When her mother’s Chinese Traditional Medicine shop gets vandalized, Kai, a young botanist and heir of her mothers ancestral practice is pushed to the edge of what her mental health can handle. Thrust in the middle of her immigrant mother’s grief and her partner’s quest for collective catharsis, Kai must confront the healing she most resists and choose what is most important to her.

Graduate Film

jsm708@nyu.edu

Jess X. Snow is a non-binary filmmaker, multi-disciplinary artist, poet of the JiangXi Chinese diaspora whose work explores queer Asian migrant experiences, mental health, kinships across cultures and species, and abolitionist futures. Recently named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film, their short films have screened at 50+ film festivals world wide including Blackstar, Outfest, Ann Arbor, BFI London Flare, New Orleans, Durban Film Festival (Special Mention), Cinequest (Best Student Short), and the Reel Asian Film Festival (National Film Board of Canada Best Short Award). They have served as a cinematographer on several award-winning narrative shorts and documentary features about marginalized communities speaking truth to power. In 2023, they received their MFA in writing/directing from NYU’s graduate film program as an Ang Lee and BAFTA BBC Diversity Scholar, and winner of the Sloan Science In Film Production Award. Their debut feature film is currently in development and is supported by the Cine Qua Non Lab and the Canada Council for the Arts. Prior to filmmaking, they lead dozens of community murals for migrant, racial and climate justice which have been featured on PBS Newshour, Hyperallergic, the SF Chronicle, the LA Times and elsewhere. Along with their artistic practice, they teach screenwriting and community mural making to students of all backgrounds.