Yi Chen

Yi Chen is a D.C. based filmmaker with over a decade of experience creating social justice centered documentary films to advance new narratives from underrepresented perspectives. Her feature directorial debut FIRST VOTE, following four Asian American voters in North Carolina and Ohio divided by politics during the 2018 midterm elections, qualified for 2021 Oscars in the categories of Best Picture and Documentary Feature. The film won a Telly Awards and Special Jury Award at the 36th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. FIRST VOTE had a national broadcast on American Documentary’s America ReFramed Season 8 (co-produced with WORLD Channel) and was acquired by PBS Distribution. Yi’s work has been funded by Ford Foundation JustFilms, Open Society Foundations, ITVS, Center for Asian American Media, Kartemquin Films, Southern Documentary Fund, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, NY Foundation for the Arts, and DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Her work has been featured in NBC News, the Washington Post, BBC News, NPR, Salon, Indie Wire, and Documentary Magazine. Yi holds an MFA in Film and Media Arts from American University and is a 2019 Soros Equality Fellow.