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Finding Yingying

After a young Chinese student goes missing on a university campus, her family travels to the US for the first time. While unraveling the mystery of her disappearance, they discover how much her life touched others.

Finding Yingying is a feature-length vérité documentary that tells the story of the Zhang family, who arrive in the United States from China in search of their missing 26-year-old daughter, Yingying. An international student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Yingying was only in the U.S. for six weeks before disappearing in the summer of 2017.

Hampered by limited resources and inadequate support from the university, the heartbroken Zhang family – with the help of Yingying’s boyfriend – stay in the U.S. as long as possible to find their daughter on their own by all means. A tragic murder mystery is revealed and despite the arrest of a suspect, Yingying is still missing and is presumed dead. Frustrated by the painstakingly slow investigation and negotiating a complicated U.S. criminal justice system, the family also faces online skepticism, culture shock and language barriers. When their money runs out, the family must return to China. Doing all they can from afar, the family’s fervent hope is to seek justice and await the court case which has been postponed from 2018 to summer of 2019.

Unlike typical crime stories, Finding Yingying is a personal, intimate story about a family dealing with grief and finding resolution, and who Yingying was – why she came to the U.S. to study, and the challenges of finding justice as foreigners in the U.S.

A former international student herself, the director Jiayan “Jenny” Shi presents a revealing examination of the experience of Chinese students in America – the largest population of international students in the U.S.

Filmmakers

Cinematography

Jiayan "Jenny" Shi

Co-producer / Cinematography

Shilin Sun

Editor

John Farbrother

Motion Graphics

423 Motion
Jesse Kerman
Leah Uberseder

Post Production Supervisor

Matt Taylor
Manuela Hung

Post Production Associate (Kartemquin)

Ingrid Roettgen

Post Production Services

Periscope Post & Audio

Post Production Coordinator

Manuela Hung

Digital Intermediate Colorist

Samantha Wong

Re-Recording Mixer/Supervising Sound Editor

C. Ryan Stemple CSI

Sound Editor

John Wong

Dialogue Editor

Kendall Barron

Foley Artist/Editor

Jason Neumann

Additional Camera

Jeremy Zussman

Additional Production Support

Junlin Chen
Shuang Chen
Tiffany Chen
Zeling Chen
Viola Du
Ivy Fung
Gabriella Garcia-Pardo
Siyan Huang
Brian James
Pat Nabong
Allison Walsh
Yanyi Xie

Drone Operators

Anthony P. Diflorio
Lan Li
Zihan Wang

Translation

Rang Li
Shilin Sun
Teddy Wachholz

Courtroom Artist

Tiffany Chen
Valerie Chen
Zeling Chen
Holly Jianing He
Lily Qi
Jiayan "Jenny" Shi
Shillin Sun
Yanyie Xie
Lu Zhao
Zola Zhou

Graphics

Christine Cornell

Archival Materials Courtesy of

Nicole Vettriano

Additional Archival Materials Courtesy of

The Zhang Family

Legal Council

Guofang Miao
Kaiyun Zhao

Sales and Distribution

Holland & Knight
Peter Jaszi

Director of Film Strategy

CAA and Submarine

Director of Development

Tim Horsburgh

Director of Editorial

Joanna Lakatos

Director of Programs and Engagement

Leslie Simmer

Finance Manager

Laura Gomez-Mesquita

Additional Kartemquin Staff

Jamie Bourne

Project Advisors

Max Asaf
Abbie Brewer
Carlos Cova
Andrea de Fraga
Tina Figueroa
Ryan Gleeson
Keira Kennedy
Tikahya Lampley
Julia Martin
Nancy McDonald
Viorica Mereuta
Jim Morrissette
Anuradha Rana
Leah Sacks
Rise Sanders-Weir
Elise Schierbeek
Whitney A. Spencer
Betsy Steinberg
Anthony Stoll
Emily Strong
Pedro Urgiles

Kartemquin Interns

Brad Jenkins
Andy Kang
Juliet Sorenson
Janet Yang
Xiaoli Zhou

Very Special Thanks

Anna Lee Ackermann
Paige Benner
Gabriel Broderick
Ulysses Bufano
Rita Carmona
Resita Cox
Julia Davis
Mitch Deitz
Alexandra Epstein
Hannah Faris
Ashina Hamilton
Lilly Hanson
Adia Ivey
Jung-Ah Kim
Nathan Kim
Sara Kragness
Teresa Krone
Anna Luy Tan
Elisa Maravilla
Jess Martinaitis
Edwin Perez
Lily Qi
Haye Sahelijo
Jordan Sauthoff
Yooyeon Shim
Ankur Singh
Woojae "Julia" Song
Evan Staley
Scott Taylor
Ashish Valentine
Jessica Vitkin
Allison Walsh
Stan Wright

Xiaolin Hou
Lifting Ye
Liqin Ye
Ronggao Zhang
Xinyang Zhang

Media

Awards and Distinctions

Asian American International Film Festival

Official Selection

2020

BendFilm Festival

Winner

Special Jury Award for Documentary Debut

2020

Centre Film Festival

Winner

Best Documentary Feature

2020

Chagrin Film Festival

Official Selection

2020

Chicago International Film Festival

Official Selection

2020

Dallas VideoFest's Docufest

Official Selection

2020

Denver Film Society Women + Film

Official Selection

2020

Double Exposure Film Festival

Official Selection

2020

Heartland International Film Festival

Official Selection

2020

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

Winner

Emerging Filmmaker Award - Documentary Feature

2020

Loudoun Arts Film Festival

Winner

Best Documentary Feature

2020

Miami Film Festival GEMS

Official Selection

2020

Middlebury New Filmmakers Film Festival

Winner

Best Documentary Feature

2020

Milwaukee Film Festival

Official Selection

2020

Nashville Film Festival

Official Selection

2020

Santa Fe International FIlm Festival

Official Selection

2020

SXSW

Official Selection

World Premiere

2020

American Documentary Film Fund Pitch

Winner

2019

Sundance Summit

Official Selection

2019

TFI Network

Official Selection

2019

Kartemquin Diverse Voices Accelerator Fund

Awardee

2018

Paley Center for Media DocPitch

Winner

2018