YULIN YANG
“ON YOUR RADAR” IS A WEEKLY GRAD FILM NEWS SEGMENT THAT FEATURES A STUDENT PICKED AT RANDOM.
YULIN IS CURRENTLY A 3RD YEAR STUDENT AT GRAD FILM. WE ASKED HIM A FEW QUESTIONS, AND HERE’S WHAT HE HAD TO SAY:
1. Where do you consider home and what is it like there?
I grew up in Zhengzhou, China, which I always consider to be my hometown. And Beijing is where most of my adult life took place since college and where I’ll probably come back to live and work after graduation, so I consider it my second home.
“Home”, I think as a concept only makes sense when you are away and look back. It bears my reflection of my identity. I came to live in New York since the program started. Three years of leaving home and exposing myself to different cultures made me wonder more about who I am, about what makes me me. Living as a foreigner and a minority, I started to observe the things that I took for granted in the past. Meanwhile, I found that I’ve never actually walked away from what “home” offered me - inspirations that deeply rooted in my heart coming from my experience of growing up. And now I know I shall never walk away from them, because art is ultimately an expression of self. However, constant exposure to different cultures as I’m living here in New York gives me precious diverse perspectives. I doubt every definition.
2. What is currently inspiring you as a filmmaker?
Existence. Why do we exist? What defines our existence? What does existence mean? What is our purpose? What is it like to be a human being? Is death the opposite of life?
I often believe in and try to remember what I feel at the moment. I wish I could remember every feeling/emotion and reproduce them into an artwork. Real human conditions interest me.
3. What has been your most rewarding experience at NYU Tisch Grad Film so far?
Of course it is the beautiful souls I met here. What would I hope for other than having 36 close peers from over ten counties to work with and share? This made me believe that “personal is universal”. I also like the independent spirit of Tisch. We are often told that there is nothing as a way of making films, and we are truly encouraged and supported to express our own voice in whichever way we dare to go.