It’s only taken two months, but I’m finally ready to celebrate Something Awesome again!
What is Something Awesome, you ask?
Well, I’m fortunate to know tons of incredibly talented people, many of whom are accomplishing amazing things, so I created this new semi-regular feature on my blog to acknowledge them, to celebrate their victories with them, and to introduce you to the fruits of their labor.
This time, I’m thrilled to share with you my interview with an incredibly talented, tenacious, and multifaceted filmmaker, performer, musician and martial artist. She was featured in Deadline in 2021 for writing, shooting, starring in, and editing a complete feature film on her iPhone 8 during lockdown, and since then her films have been tearing up the festival circuit around the world! If that’s not Something Awesome, I don’t know what is.
So today, it’s my pleasure to talk about Something Awesome with Jennifer Zhang!
As I mention in the interview above, I’d met Jennifer years ago at Ground Control Karaoke, a goth-industrial karaoke night hosted once a week at Jewel’s Catch One down on West Pico in Arlington Heights. Now, Catch One was a legendary music venue and dance club, and one of the first black-owned gay disco bars in the US. And on Monday nights, it’s where LA’s Dead came out to sing.
One of the first times I ran into Jennifer at Ground Control, the very first thing I noticed was that she was rocking an old-school Nintendo Power Glove as part of her ensemble. A quirky accessory that stood out, yet fit in perfectly with the rivitheads and the leather-and-lace crowd. Having had one myself as a kid growing up, she scored some serious geek cred in my book with her fashion statement. We connected on Facebook, and over the last few years, I got to see her filmmaking career start to flourish, first with Charon, followed quickly by the short comedy Fetish, and most recently the sci-fi thriller Autopilot. Each of them went on to score multiple award nominations and wins at film festivals around the world.
We talk about that, what drives her as a storyteller, how Fetish qualified for the Academy Awards(!), playing the long game on the red carpet, and a whole lot more!
About Jennifer Zhang
Multi-faceted filmmaker (actor, director, screenwriter, producer) Jennifer Zhang. Photo by McCall Jones
Featured in “Deadline” in 2021 for her ambitious solo-effort film, “Charon,” hitting the Cannes film market, Jennifer Zhang has emerged as an Asian American filmmaker to watch. The feature, which Dread Central proclaimed was “dominating the festival circuit” as a “brutal exploration of isolation and betrayal” was acquired shortly after by Summerhill Entertainment and will see a 2023 U.S. release.
Momentum in her career has only mounted since, with her short film “Fetish” winning the Panavision-sponsored grand prize at the prestigious Micheaux Film Festival and becoming Oscar-qualified with a theatrical run as a top 10 finalist in the Manhattan Short Film Festival. “Fetish” is the first film on the subject of race-based fetishism to enjoy this distinction.
Jennifer’s multi-faceted entertainment career spans 15 years – beginning with mass media attention over her viral parody content in the early days of YouTube, which she leveraged into the production of her debut feature film. “The Evil Inside” – written, produced, and co-starring Zhang – was an independent horror which won numerous “Best Narrative Feature” and “Best Screenplay” festival awards before ultimately being picked up for worldwide distribution on DVD, Bluray and VOD.
In the coming months, Jennifer is poised to hit the festival circuit once more with “Autopilot” – a science-fiction thriller short which she wrote and directed. Co-produced with lead actress Gina Su and shot by American Cinematographer Magazine “Rising Star” Daphne Qin Wu, the film is a conscious effort to boost Asian female representation in the science fiction genre, both in front of and behind the camera.
As a writer, Jennifer is a respected story consultant with Hollywood’s Save the Cat!, and her screenplays have been optioned by executive producers of Academy Award-nominated films. Several of her scripts are currently in active development with production companies around Los Angeles. Meanwhile over the next two months, simultaneous with the start of her Oscar run, Jennifer is slated to begin production on a new feature film entitled “Troubadour” which will be an anthology feature comprised of her recent award-winning short film work, and start pre-production on her fourth feature, “Angela.”
Jennifer Zhang makes a statement on the Red Carpet
About Charon, Jennifer Zhang’s award-winning feature-length drama
Synopsis: A notorious hacker trapped under strict house arrest has her isolated, regimented world turned upside down when her boyfriend mysteriously begins dialing in with dark and unusual requests.
Watch Charon now on Google Play!
About Fetish, a short comedy by Jennifer Zhang
An Asian woman’s one night stand takes an unsexy turn when breakfast the morning after comes with a side of fetishism.
Learn more about short comedy Fetish on IMDB Pro
About Sci-fi Thriller Autopilot, written, directed and co-produced by Jennifer Zhang
A lone pilot on a homebound space vessel finds herself trapped in a waking nightmare when her holographic “virtual companion” begins to defy his own programming.
Check out Autopilot on IMDB Pro
Connect with Jennifer Zhang
- Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheJenniferZhang/
- Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thejenniferzhang/
- YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/StreetFighterHigh/
Find her online at https://www.jenniferzhangofficial.com
Get her album Escape Emotion at https://www.jenniferzhangmusic.com
Want more of Something Awesome?
Check out my interview with author and playwright LaDarrion Williams, whose debut novel, Blood at the Root arrives May 7th!
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