It's one thing to say you're going to create the "Chinese lesbian version of BEFORE SUNRISE (1995)"; it's another thing to actually pull it off.

In EPHEMERA (2026), the debut feature for filmmaker Shan Jiang which premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival, it appears she has done just that. It took global producers, a fantastic team, and a truly extraordinary story in how she found the actors, but the film will stand as wide shoulders for so many people and so many future projects.

In this episode, we talk about:

how she describes EPHEMERA and whether "unhurried" is an adjective she likes to describe the film;
the incredible story of how she got involved in filmmaking;
her storytelling philosophy, which has been described as " inhabit[ing] familiar narrative tropes and bends them from within to allow new perspectives to emerge" (an amazing quote);
the global producers that made EPHEMERA and the concept of China as an entity reacting to a lesbian-focused film;
what she took away from this experience for her next feature;
finding the incredible actors in this film;
what she learned from rehearsals with the actors in a film that is very dependent on them;
her direction philosophy in this film and what she views as her job in regarding to structure;
why Tribeca ("it's coming home for this film") and the Chinese film festival market;
what's next for her.

Shan Jiang's Indie Filmmaker Highlight: Celine Sciamma; Peter Greenway

Links:

Follow Shan Jiang

Follow EPHEMERA On Instagram