Films
Kiki writes, produces and directs documentary films and essayistic nonfictions.
She founded Doctor Skyfish Films in London.
The Two Lives of Li Ermao (2019)
Director: Jia Yuchuan
Producer: Kiki Tianqi Yu
Filmed over fifteen years, it tells a heart wrenching story about the hardships and prejudices faced by a transgender migrant worker in Shenzhen, as they were transitioning from male to female then back to male.
Received the Audience Award at the Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival 2021 and has been screened widely.
https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/41ac75d2-051c-4781-9cb0-ff585f7b2c11/the-two-lives-of-li-ermao/
https://raifilm.org.uk/the-two-lives-of-li-ermao-2019-lucy-james/
China's van Goghs (2016)
Haibo Yu and Kiki Tianqi Yu
Now available on Prime Video and Youtube
An intimate portrait of a peasant-turned oil painter transitioning from making copies of iconic Western paintings to creating his own authentic works of art.
The film interrogates notions of authorship, and critiques cultural and economic discourses of ‘value’ in the global art trade. Premiered at IDFA, it has been shown at over 50 international festivals, won 8 awards, received cinema release in France (2021), Japan (2018) and Hong Kong (2017-2018), shown on KLM and Cathay Pacific airlines, and collected by numerous high education institutions. It received very positive reviews in the Hollywood Reporter, Artnet, de Volkstrant, VPRO, etc.
Memory of Home (2009)
Directed/filmed/edited: Kiki Tianqi Yu
Sound designed/music: Tiantian Zhu
In my seemingly peaceful daily routine in London, my unconscious mind is always daydreaming about travelling around in China, a land where I was born and grew up, but has changed so dramatically that hard to recognize anymore…
This short film is part of my autoethnographic filming project in which I explore possible ways to represent the complexity of the construction of my cultural identity in the cross-cultural understanding.
Premiered at: Candid Art Trust, London, May 2009
Collected by DSLCollection, Yale Film Center
Photographing Shenzhen (2006)
Produced and directed by Kiki Tianqi Yu
Documentary, 30 min, commissioned by Discovery
Children of Tibet (2006)
Directed by Kiki Tianqi Yu
This is my personal journey to Tibet, discovering how the lives of Tibetan children have changed in the process of modernisation, by exploring the different ways of living of the young generation in Tibet.