Jessica Lingmin Yu (born February 14, 1966) is an
American film director, writer, producer, and editor. She has directed
documentary films
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
,
dramatic films, and television shows.
Yu won the
Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1996 for ''
Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien'' (1996).
Yu's film ''Last Call at the Oasis'' (2012) is based upon
Alex Prud'homme's ''Ripple Effect''. Her more recent films have been: ''
Misconception'' (2014), ''ForEveryone.Net'' (2016), a documentary film about the inventor of the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...
, Sir
Tim Berners-Lee, and a Netflix comedy ''Maria Bamford: Old Baby'' (2017). In 2019, Yu was nominated for an
Emmy Award for "Outstanding Direction for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special" for the ''
Fosse/Verdon
''Fosse/Verdon'' is an American biographical miniseries starring Sam Rockwell as director–choreographer Bob Fosse and Michelle Williams as actress and dancer Gwen Verdon. The series, which tells the story of the couple's troubled personal a ...
'' episode "Glory".
Early life and education
Yu grew up in
Los Altos Hills
Los Altos Hills (; ''Los Altos'', Spanish for "The Heights") is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 8,489 at the 2020 census. The town is known for its affluence and expensive residential rea ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. Her father, Dr. Kou-ping Yu, an
oncologist
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...
, was born in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
. Her mother,
Connie Young Yu
Connie Young Yu (born June 19, 1941) is a Chinese American writer, activist, historian, and lecturer.
She has written and contributed to many articles and books, notably including ''Profiles in Excellence: Peninsula Chinese Americans'', ''China ...
, writer and historian, is a third-generation
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
n.
Yu graduated from
Gunn High School
Henry M. Gunn Senior High School is one of two public high schools in Palo Alto, California, the other being Palo Alto High School.
Established in , Gunn High School was named after Henry Martin Gunn, who served as the Palo Alto superintendent fr ...
in
Palo Alto
Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
The city was es ...
. She was a reporter for the school newspaper, ''The Oracle''.
She went on to attend
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, where she was a two-time
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
All-America
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...
n and three-time
All-Ivy in
fencing
Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...
.
As a world-class
foilist
Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...
, she was a member of the Junior World Team and the United States national team at the World Championships and
World University Games. Yu graduated from Yale University in 1987
summa cum laude,
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
, with a bachelor's degree in English.
Career
After graduation, Yu thought of pursuing law school like her peers. However, her father discouraged her from doing so.
She discovered film production while searching for a job that allowed flexible hours to allow her to compete in fencing. She started as a
production assistant
A production assistant, also known as a PA, is a member of the film crew and is a job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production. The job of a PA can vary greatly depending on the budget ...
in 1989
on a few commercials, where she got to arrange frozen noodles on forks and re-park cars. When she started working in documentary, she became further intrigued by the process.
Yu refused to attend film school and gained her film education on the job. She focuses on making documentaries but says that one day she'd love to make a fully animated comedy feature.
The opportunity to make film is a random occurrence for Yu. Her documentary films present worldwide issues that people face every day and allow the subjects to speak for themselves as much as possible. She is adamant that story should come before politics.
Her films intend to inform the general public to incite people to become active in everyday issues such as
water conservation
Water conservation includes all the policies, strategies and activities to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, to protect the hydrosphere, and to meet the current and future human demand (thus avoiding water scarcity). Popula ...
and regulation. When not making documentaries and feature films, Yu spends time directing television shows.
1990s
Yu began her career in 1993 with her short ''Sour Death Balls'', a silent black-and-white montage of assorted subjects’ reactions to blindingly bitter candy, which was shot on an old school
Bell & Howell
Bell and Howell LLC is a U.S.-based services organization and former manufacturer of cameras, lenses, and motion picture machinery, founded in 1907 by two projectionists, and originally headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois. The company is now ...
wind-up camera.
She got her inspirations from daily interactions in her life, i.e. when a child offered local people sour candy. Yu sent the short film to film festivals, and it became her first feature at the
Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado during Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 49th edition took place on September 2 -6, 2022.
History
First held on 30 August 1974, t ...
in 1993. Yu made her first documentary, ''Men of Reenaction'' (1994), which explores the extremes of people searching for authenticity through Civil War reenacting.
Her most famous work was her Academy Award-winning ''Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien''. The
documentary short features Berkeley writer
Mark O'Brien, a disabled poet with an
iron lung
An iron lung is a type of negative pressure ventilator (NPV), a mechanical respirator which encloses most of a person's body, and varies the air pressure in the enclosed space, to stimulate breathing.Shneerson, Dr. John M., Newmarket Genera ...
. His editor at the ''
Pacific News Service
Pacific News Service (PNS) was an American nonprofit alternative news media organization. PNS ceased operations in 2017.
The organization was located in Berkeley, California.
History
PNS was founded in 1969 by historian and sociologist Fr ...
,''
Sandy Close
Alexandra Close is an American journalist and the founder of Ethnic Media Services. She was the executive director of Pacific News Service from 1974 to 2017 and of New America Media from 1996 to 2017.
Early life and education
Close received ...
, introduced the pair and suggested that a film be made.
It debuted at the
1996 Sundance Film Festival and won several honors, including the International Documentary Association Achievement Award for Best Documentary, before the Academy Awards.
2000s
In the 2000s, Yu's chance to work in episodic TV came when she received an invitation to apprentice at
John Wells Productions
John Marcum Wells (born May 28, 1956) is an American theater, film, and television writer, director, and producer.
He is best known for his role as showrunner and executive producer of the television series '' ER'', ''Third Watch'', ''The West W ...
as the first participant of their director diversity program. Shadowing directors, Yu sensed she was a guinea pig. “If you screw this up,” she told herself, “they’ll never let another woman of color from documentaries do this again.”
While working for Wells’ production company, she began directing in television for shows like ''
Grey's Anatomy
''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series that premiered on March 27, 2005, on ABC as a mid-season replacement. The series focuses on the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they develop into s ...
'' and ''
The West Wing
''The West Wing'' is an American serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White Hous ...
.''
On her first directorial assignment, an episode of ''The West Wing'', Yu was heartened that Wells encouraged her stylistic input. “He made a point of saying, ‘You should bring your own ideas to the table,’ rather than just follow prescribed formula.” So she decided to open with a series of mood-establishing low, wide-angle shots to signal the calm before the gathering storm.
She directed a sport comedy film, ''
Ping Pong Playa'' (2007), that explored Asian family culture through a Chinese
ping pong
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
playing son that is trying to prove himself to his family. Her producer friends Joan Huang and Jeff Guo approached her with the idea of working on a comedy together. They felt the time was right to have an obnoxious Asian American character on the screen. Yu and her comrades felt that Asian American cinema had plenty of good dramas and wanted to fill the void of superficial comedy.
She tried to bring the same loose hand and adaptability she used for documentaries to scripted material. Her approach to ''Ping Pong Playa'' was to “have a lighter touch, especially with actors” to give them a sense of freedom.
2010s
In her later documentaries such as ''Last Call at The Oasis (2011)'' and ''Misconception (2014)'' '','' Yu focused on capturing the big picture and understanding how these issues intertwined with other aspects of life such as climate, population, and the environment. ''Last Call at The Oasis'' addresses the water crisis in the United States, and working on the film made her consider the impact of the crisis on her children and their children. This project became more personal to Yu and compelled her to complete it. It took six months of research prior to filming, as Yu wanted to create the big picture of the facts and threats of the water crisis in the domestic United States.
''Last Call at the Oasis'' inspired Yu to direct her 2014 documentary ''Misconception'', which paints the population issues from a person-to-person point of view. While filming ''Last Call at the Oasis'' people questioned the purpose of acting on water conservation because they cannot control the population growth affecting it. Her main goal is to take this topic and tie with emotionally, entertaining, and interesting stories.
The majority of her work after 2015 has been focused on television production and directing. For
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
, she directed episodes of the dramas ''
13 Reasons Why
''13 Reasons Why'' is an American teen drama television series developed for Netflix by Brian Yorkey and based on the 2007 novel ''Thirteen Reasons Why'' by author Jay Asher. The series revolves around high school student Clay Jensen (Dylan M ...
'' and
''Hollywood'' and did
Maria Bamford
Maria Bamford (born September 3, 1970) is an American actress and stand-up comedian. Her work has drawn critical acclaim and controversy because her humor often uses self-deprecating and dark topics, including her dysfunctional family, depressio ...
's comedy special ''Old Baby''.
2020s
Jessica's work in the 2020s includes directing a number of television drama series. ''
This Is Us
''This Is Us'' is an American family drama television series that aired on NBC from September 20, 2016, to May 24, 2022. The series follows the lives and families of two parents, and their three children, in several different time frames. It s ...
'' (''Don't Let Me Keep You'', 2021), ''
The Morning Show'' (''Kill the Fatted Calf'', 2021), ''
In Treatment
''In Treatment'' is an American drama television series for HBO, produced and developed by Rodrigo Garcia, based on the Israeli series '' BeTipul'' ( he, בטיפול), created by Hagai Levi, Ori Sivan and Nir Bergman.
The series is about a ...
'' (''Brooke'', ''Laila'', ''Colins'', ''Eladio'', 2021).
Personal life
Yu is married to author
Mark Salzman
Mark Joseph Salzman (born December 3, 1959 in Greenwich, Connecticut) is an American writer. Salzman is best known for his 1986 memoir '' Iron & Silk'', which describes his experiences living in China as an English teacher in the early 1980s ...
. They and their daughters, Ava and Esme, live in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
.
Jessica has an older sister, Jennifer Yu, a technical publications manager, and a younger brother, Martin Yu, an actor.
Filmography
Short films
Film
TV Series
Awards and nominations
Further reading
* Fry, Nathan
"2002 Alumni Spotlight: Jessica Yu" ''Ivy League Sports'', Council of Ivy Group presidents
"Pizarro: Documentary filmmaker shows us her comedic side" ''The Mercury News''. 2008-09-02. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
*Klady, Leonard (1997-05-22)
"Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien" ''Variety''. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
''www.metroactive.com''. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
*https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0950506/
References
External links
*
*
Foreveryone.netWe the EconomySocial Action and Filmmakingwith Jessica You
Ping Pong Playa official film website Protagonist official film websiteIn The Realms Of The Unreal official film websiteby Diorama Films, LLC
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Jessica
1966 births
Living people
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century American women writers
American documentary filmmakers
American film directors of Chinese descent
American film producers
American people of Chinese descent
American television directors
American television writers
Directors of Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners
American women television directors
Writers from Palo Alto, California
American women screenwriters
Yale University alumni
Film directors from California
People from Los Altos Hills, California
Screenwriters from California
American women documentary filmmakers
American women television writers
Gunn High School alumni