→ About
→ Films
→ Stills
→ Reel
→ CV
→ Contact
Yumeng (Shirley) He
Education
2025 - 2026 Meisterschüler in Art and Media, Experiemantal Film (with Prof. Nina Fischer), UdK, Berlin, Germany
2022 - 2024 M.F.A. in Documentary Film and Video, Stanford University, USA
2019 - 2021 M.A. in Visual Anthropology, University of Southern California, USA
2016 - 2020 B.A. in Cultural & Visual Anthropology, University of Southern California, USA
Selected Screenings, Festivals, Exhibitions
Otherwise World(s) (2026, three-channel video installation, 15 minutes, digital, color)
2026 Endzeit x San Francisco Art Week, San Francisco, USA
The Other Side of the Mountain (2024, 20 minutes, digital, color)
2024 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, IDFA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2025 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Montana, USA
2025 Zagrebdox, Special Mention for Best Short Documentary, Zagreb, Croatia
2025 Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany
2025 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Honorary Mention for Best short Documentary, Durham, USA
2025 Vienna Shorts, Vienna, Austria
2025 Rotterdam Architecture Film Festival, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2025 FIRST 青年影展, Xining, China
2025 EthnoKino, Berlin, Germany
2025 Kassel Dokfest, Kassel, Germany
2026 Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market Pick, France
Lacuna (2024, 12 minutes, digital, color; co-directed with Carlo Nasisse)
2024 Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany
2024 Message to Man International Film Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia
2025 Slamdance Film Festival, Utah, USA
2025 Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market Pick
2025 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Montana, USA
2025 Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athen, Ohio, USA
2025 Onion City Experimental Film Festival, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Fortune (2023, 5 minutes, 16mm, black and white)
2023 NOWNESS Short Film Awards, Shanghai, China
2024 San Francisco International Airport Video Museum, San Francisco, USA
2024 Slamdance Film Festival, Utah, USA
2024 Chinese Film Festival Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
2024 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Durham, USA
2024 Rooftop Film Festival, New York, USA
Echale Ganas: The Villa’s Tacos Story (2022, 30 minutes, digital, color)
2022 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Montana, USA
2022 San Diego Latino Film Festival, San Diego, USA
2022 Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, Sebastopol, USA
2022 Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, Los Angeles, USA
2023 Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival, Utah, USA
Selected Published Writings
2021 “Filming Against Culture: The Phenomenology of Becoming in Visual Ethnography”,
International Journal of Social Sciences in Universities
Teaching Experience
2024 “Image and Sound”, Stanford University, Instructor/Lecturer, USA
2023 “AR/VR Documentaries”, Stanford University, Course Assistant, USA
2023 “Ethno-Fiction and Shared Anthropology”, Stanford University, Assistant, USA
Work History
2024 - present Sundance Institute, Grant Reviewer for Documentary Fund USA
2024 International Documentary Association (IDA), Award Screener USA
2024 Slamdance Film Festival, Programmer for Documentary Shorts USA
2021 - 2022 Documentary Educational Resources, Marketing & Outreach Manager USA
Prizes, Scholarships, Selected Grants
2024 The Maiken Baird and Timothy Luke Fund, Working Grant
2022 National Endowment for the Humanities, Production Grant
2020 University of Southern California, summa cum laude, Diploma Distinction
Talks and Presentations
2025 Panelist, “Re-Defining the Documentary Form” , Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Selected Reviews and Interviews
2025 “The filmmaker and the flâneur—In conversation with Yumeng He”, Interview
2024 Asian Movie Pulse, “The 20 Best Asian Short Films of 2024”, Review
2024 Film Fugitives, “The Other Side of the Mountain”, Interview
2024 SF Urban Film Festival Medium, “Chinatown Rebels: Legacy Flows into the Future”
2023 The Geek Show, “Fortune”, Slamdance Documentary Shorts Review
2022 The Utah Review, “Echale Ganas: The Villa’s Tacos Story”, Review