Documentary Filmmaker | Journalist


about
Xinyan is an Emmy-nominated journalist and documentary filmmaker with nearly 15 years of experience crafting powerful stories across Asia and North America. She began her career in 2012 as a producer for BBC News in Beijing, covering major breaking news events in Asia. In 2018, she moved to New York to launch the North America video team for South China Morning Post, and later returned to the BBC in 2020 as a Senior Video Journalist in Washington DC.
Now working as an independent filmmaker, Xinyan has directed and produced for international broadcasters and programs including BBC News, NHK, PBS NOVA and PBS Frontline. She is a New America National Fellow, a Firelight Media Doc Lab fellow, a Brown Girls Doc Mafia Sustainable Artist fellow and an alumnus of the Yaddo Residency.
Made in Ethiopia, Xinyan's feature documentary debut supported by IDA, Ford Foundation, Firelight Media and the Danish Film Institute, premiered at Tribeca Festival and Sheffield DocFest in June 2024. Her latest PBS Frontline film investigates the causes and far-reaching aftermath of the 2023 Lahaina wildfire.
Xinyan's storytelling is deeply rooted in her upbringing within a community of steel factory workers, where she witnessed firsthand the sweeping socioeconomic changes in China. Her work bridges two distinct worlds: documenting the evolving geopolitical landscapes of the Global South, her place of origin, while elevating the voices of marginalized communities in the developed world, where she now lives and works.
SAMPLE REEL

FILMS
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(91 minutes, 2024)
Co-director / Co-producer
Supported by Ford Foundation, Firelight Media, the Danish Film Institute, IDA, InMaat Foundation and SFFLIM.

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PBS FRONTLINE
(53 minutes, 2024)
Director / Producer / Writer
NOMINATIONS
Emmy Award, Outstanding Climate, Environment and Weather Coverage
Scripps Howard Journalism Awards, Excellence in Local Video Storytelling




NHK
(49 minutes, 2023)
DoP, United States
2024 New York Festivals TV & Film Awards — Human Concerns Category SILVER




RECOGNITION
Xinyan's PBS Frontline film Maui's Deadly Firestorm won an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Climate, Environment and Weather Coverage and a Scripps Howard Journalism Awards nomination for Excellence in Local Video Storytelling.
Xinyan won a Washington DC Arts and Humanities Fellowship (AHFP) grant for "significantly contributing to the District of Columbia as a world-class cultural capital".
Made in Ethiopia, Xinyan's feature documentary debut, won a Special Jury Mention for A Documentary Feature at Tribeca Festival, a Special Mention for Documentary Competition at Warsaw Film Festival, and Best International Feature at the Planet In Focus Environmental Festival in 2024.
China's Science Revolution, a 23-min documentary Xinyan produced, won the 2015 BBC Storytelling Fund and the "Highly Commended" entry for excellent online production at the 2016 AIB Awards.
Xinyan's short film Fighting fentanyl won the Gold Prize for Best Use of Online Video at the 2019 WAN-IFRA Asian Digital Media Awards.
A short news feature Xinyan produced, shot and edited for BBC News, Are America's unvaccinated changing their minds?, won one of the White House News Photographers Association's Eyes of History Digital Storytelling awards in 2022.
The Young People Who “Ran” out of China, a feature Xinyan shot won the ONA 2023 Digital Video Storytelling, Short Form, Small/Medium Newsroom.


INTERVIEWS

Film Director
GEAR
Creative Visionary
A CAM:
Sony FX6
B CAM:
Sony A7iii
Lenses:
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8
Sony 70-200mm F2.8
Tamron 17-28mm F2.8
Rokinon Cine Lens 20mm T1.9
Rokinon Cine Lens 35mm T1.5
Rokinon Cine Lens 50mm T1.5
Rokinon Cine Lens 85 mm T1.5
State-of-the-Art
Lighting:
Parabolic softbox 35inches
Lantern softbox
GVM G-100W spotlightGVM panel lights
Zhiyun Fireray stick light
Stellar Pro 10,000
Sound:
Sennheiser MKE600Sony
ECM-77B Lavalier Mic
Sennheiser G4 radio mics
Zoom H6 recorder
Aurey boom pole
Small rig stand with boom arm
Extra: GoPro 11
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