![]() Like Webb and Fukunaga before her, she enrolled in New York University’s graduate film and business program. “It was the first time I felt, Oh, these guys aren’t that different from me,” she said. While working on a 2011 story about rising rookie filmmakers, like Cary Fukunaga and Marc Webb, Yan realized that film could be an avenue for her storytelling as well. When asked what it’s been like to sit on the other side of the interview process, she burst into laughter. “I still see myself as a journalist in many ways,” Yan said. So she pivoted to journalism, landing a job at the Wall Street Journal and penning stories while stationed in Hong Kong-where she was partially raised-Beijing, and New York. I had to give up on my dreams of being a ballet dancer because my feet are too flat.” ![]() “I danced almost every day in college and most of my childhood,” she said, though her careerist hopes were dashed early on. Yan took a circuitous path to filmmaking: she did ballet growing up and worked with a dance company during her undergraduate years at Princeton. ![]() Now, Yan is the first Asian-American woman and second woman overall to helm a D.C. “It felt right immediately,” she said of hiring the young filmmaker. After the sizzle reel finished, Yan said the room went quiet: “I just remember there was silence and I was like, Oh, dear God, what have I done?” By that point, the studio had met with several other directors already. “It started with very interesting images of women in our pop culture, like the Kardashians, and it very quickly it got weird and dark,” Kroll said in a separate interview, noting that Yan also included clips of Marilyn Monroe and fight scenes from films like The Raid. ( Dead Pigs squeezes in a perfect Millionaire Matchmaker quip.) But Yan had to convince that room of execs to see this for themselves-so she put together a pitch deck and an admittedly unusual sizzle reel codifying her eccentric vision for Birds. Both are ensemble films doused in neon lighting and peppered with dark and contemporary humor. In retrospect, there are creative parallels between Dead Pigs and Birds of Prey that explain why Yan was an obvious choice. Quinn’s also up against local villain Roman Sionis ( Ewan McGregor, in deliciously campy form), a man aching to be the new Joker in town, aided by his lurching crony, Victor (Messina). Along the way, her antics draw the attention of other Gotham City ne’er-do-wells, including Huntress ( Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a crossbow-wielding revenge-seeker Black Canary ( Jurnee Smollett-Bell), a scowling lounge singer Cassandra Cain ( Ella Jay Basco), a teen pickpocket and Renee Montoya ( Rosie Perez), a furious local detective who plays the Wile E. But there Yan was, making it happen.īirds of Prey, a spin-off of 2016’s Suicide Squad, picks up with Harley Quinn shortly after she gets dumped by the Joker, lovelorn and seeking attention to distract from her heartbreak. While plenty of white, male directors have managed to snag blockbuster gigs after releasing little-seen-but-well-regarded indie movies-like Colin Trevorrow, who was handed Jurassic World after and Jon Watts-it’s still rare for female directors, especially directors of color, to navigate the same path. executives, including longtime studio fixture Sue Kroll, as well as star and producer Margot Robbie, where she managed to convince them to hand her the reins to Birds of Prey, one of 2020’s biggest comic-book movies. Not long after that, Yan got a meeting with Warner Bros. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting. The festival took to her work, handing Dead Pigs the U.S. Using that as a backdrop, Dead Pigs weaves together the lives of vastly different people, from a stubborn woman who owns a beauty salon to her brother, a pig farmer who’s now desperate for cash. ![]() Shot in Shanghai, the drama is a fascinatingly constructed narrative inspired by a real 2013 incident in which 16,000 dead pigs, stricken by a virus, were found in the Huangpu River. Just two years ago, Yan was an industry newcomer debuting her poppy first feature, Dead Pigs, at the Sundance Film Festival. If you’re in the business of penning thank-you letters, please address yours to director Cathy Yan, whose journey to D.C. A new song from Normani and Megan Thee Stallion. A more sartorially experimental, sensibly dressed Harley Quinn. ![]() Even days before its release, Birds of Prey has given us so much. ![]()
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