Siyi Chen

filmmaker

The longings, memories, and mysteries we carry across generations and oceans…

Disco ball reflecting light and small light spots on a dark background.

Queens Ballroom

feature documentary in production | writer, co-director, producer

Couple dancing at a party with colorful lights and decorations, other guests sitting and dancing in the background.

For each dancer, the ballroom is more than an escape, it’s where we keep our deepest desires alive, even when we know some dreams might never be reached.

And still we dance.

A healthcare professional in purple gloves uses a stethoscope on an Asian woman wearing a black dress with red, gold, and orange embroidery, in a clinical setting.

A woman in a red dress with matching gloves and jewelry, posing with arms outstretched under ornate ceiling decor.

Four men sitting inside a wooden sauna, some wearing swim trunks and one with a towel around his shoulders, illuminated by soft lighting.

supported by

Berlinale Talents Doc Station, Firelight Documentary Lab, ITVS, ImMaat Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts

A small person standing in snow-covered landscape facing a large dark arched doorway emitting red light or lava, with a misty, bleak atmosphere.

A Diamond In the Belly

animated documentary in development | writer, director

A painting or drawing of several large, dark hands reaching towards a small red and black rectangular object, with a light-colored winding path or river between the hands.

“Someday you’ll become a mother too, a real woman.” said Grandma.

A plain white envelope with a triangular flap on a black surface.

Dear Mother, I Meant to Write about Death (2022)

feature-length documentary | writer, director, DoP

Busan International Film Festival, Documentary Competition, Special Mention

International Documentary Film Festival, Nominated for the Best First Feature Award

“I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual.” — Virginia Woolf

black sand texture

Quarantine Poems (2020)

short documentary | writer, director, DoP, editor

“At that time, I often thought that if I had had to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but look up at the sky flowing overhead, little by little I would have gotten used to it.”

―Albert Camus,

The Long Night (凌晨奇遇 2021)

A woman with long dark hair from behind walking through an underpass tunnel with white walls and a tiled floor.

docu-series | writer, series director, editor

Commissioned by Tencent

background texture of beach

Inside a vehicle at night, showing the dashboard, rearview mirror, and illuminated decorative lights on the ceiling.

A person with a bald head, wearing a face mask and gloves, working inside a shop with various tools and old clocks displayed on walls and shelves.

A jazz singer in New York recovering from a heartbreak, a night-shift taxi drivers in Shanghai whose childhood home is forever lost in the construction of a new city, a late-night bookstore owner in Harbin who wants to offer a sense of home to travelers in the freezing snow…

We live in different parts of the globe, facing different challenges, but when the night falls and we have a little time to ourselves, we will realize that our longings are universal.