Emily Chao

History

Emily Chao is a filmmaker based in the SF Bay Area. She is a co-programmer of Light Field, an international exhibition of moving image art on celluloid and a member of Black Hole Collective Film Lab in Oakland, CA. She is from San Jose, California and earned her MFA in Film/Video at the California Institute of the Arts.

Movies

Light Signal

Director

A keeper’s log, a score for light, a script for sound. A reconstruction, a slow reclamation. To begin where there is light.

As Long as There Is Breath

Director

An assembly of collected memories shatter the interior and open portals to the outside. Completed during shelter-in-place in Northern California. Commissioned by Small Press Traffic.

No Land

Director

A darkly mysterious landscape study. The infiltration of natural space.

chive pockets

Director

A short 16mm film by Emily Chao documenting her grandmother making Chinese chive pockets for the last time.

Bruce Takes Dragon Town

Writer

Upon discovering her uncle's lost kung fu film, the filmmaker travels to Taiwan during Ghost Month to uncover his past.

Bruce Takes Dragon Town

Director

Upon discovering her uncle's lost kung fu film, the filmmaker travels to Taiwan during Ghost Month to uncover his past.

The Motherhood Archives

Boom Operator

Archival montage, science fiction, and an homage to '70s feminist filmmaking are woven together to form The Motherhood Archives, a lyrical essay film excavating hidden histories of childbirth in the twentieth century.