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ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Hsuan Yu Pan is a New York–based Taiwanese American documentary director and editor whose work explores diaspora stories, historical memory, and transnational identity. Trained in editing at The Edit Center and shaped by years as a segment producer at BRIC TV, she works fluidly between directing and editing—approaching narrative structure as an act of listening. Whether crafting her feature-in-progress HEAR, EAT, HOME, directing ALONE/TOGETHER, or editing features like Rocky Flats and Netizens, she builds cinematic spaces that honor lived immigrant experiences and resonate across borders and generations.

FILMMAKER STATEMENT

I began Hear, Eat, Home in 2016 while documenting diaspora artists in Brooklyn whose lives were shaped by migration, political upheaval, and displacement. Over time, the project became both an observation of diaspora communities and a reflection on my own Taiwanese background and inherited histories.

 

Through long-term relationships built in rehearsal rooms, kitchens, performances, and everyday gatherings, the film explores how belonging is sustained through creative practice and human connection. My approach is rooted in presence and observation—allowing meaning to emerge through lived experience rather than explanation. For me, documentary cinema is not about conclusions, but about holding space for complexity, silence, and contradiction.

 

After capturing these interconnected lives for a decade, completing this film has become my social responsibility as a filmmaker. I no longer view this as a solo artistic project, but as a shared journey to give our community's resilience a collective voice.

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— Hsuan Yu Pan

Selected Filmography

HEAR, EAT, HOME (Feature Documentary • Post-production)

Spring Breeze, Taiwan (Documentary Short • Post-production)

Weaving (Documentary Short • 2025)

  • Woodstock Museum Film Festival

  • Healing Arts Week NYC, UNGA

The Other Side of the Sea (Documentary Short • 2023)

  • Izmir International Refugee Film Festival

  • Stockholm Design Week

I, Puppet (Experimental Short • 2022)

  • The Valley Film Festival (Audience Award)

  • The Reel Puppetry Film Festival

  • Taiwanese American Arts Council: FROM ISLAND TO ISLAND

Alone/Together (Documentary • 2022)

  • Healing Arts Week NYC, UNGA

  • Portobello Film Festival

  • Workers Unite! Film Festival

Kinan's Vision (from HEAR, EAT, HOME*)* (Documentary Short • 2020)

  • Filmfest Bremen

  • Independent Days International Film Festival

  • LES Festival of the Arts

My Mother's Table (Documentary Short • 2019)

  • American Documentary Film Festival

  • Seoul International Food Film Festival

  • Izmir International Refugee Film Festival

Shinobu (Documentary Short • 2018)

  • Barcelona Planet Film Festival

  • Portobello Film Festival

  • Ocean City Film Festival

Smile High (Documentary Short • 2013)

  • Coney Island Film Festival

Awards, Grants & Residencies

  • Filmshop Residency, Governors Island (2024, 2025)

  • Queens Arts Fund (2024)

  • NYSCA Artist Support (2023)

  • Taiwanese American Arts Council Residency: FROM ISLAND TO ISLAND (2023)

  • LMCC Governors Island Residency Initiative (2021)

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