Natalie Chao

(she/her)

Freelance Director / Cinematographer / Editor

Hong Kong HK

Available for Freelance

Open To Virtual Coffee

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Filmmaker/Cinematographer born and raised in Hong Kong, previously based in Los Angeles.

About

She questions whether a collective gaze is possible, and is engaging with what it means to create a living documentary: why do we want to remember? Who is the archive for? These are the questions that shape the experience of filming her first feature-length documentary. Natalie's documentary short, To Know Her, premiered as an Official Selection at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and has been screening worldwide in theatres as part of the 2021 Sundance Shorts Tour. She is a Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellow, a Rooftop Filmmakers Fund grantee, and recipient of the 2021-22 Doc NYC x VC Storytelling Incubator Mentorship. Her work-in-progress has been selected to pitch at the Sheffield Doc/Fest Meetmarket, Sundance Producers Summit and IDFA Forum. She was also a featured speaker at the 2021 Adobe MAX Creativity Conference.

Featured Work

TO KNOW HER (2021)

Filmed decades apart on the same miniDV camcorder, TO KNOW HER 母 • 緣 is a poetic exploration of my family’s relationship with my mother. The short documentary screened as an Official Selection at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, and was selected to be screen internationally as part of the Sundance Short Film Tour. Other awards include Best Editing at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

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CINEMATOGRAPHY REEL

Mix of narrative, experimental and documentary work as cinematographer.

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