People
Staff, Instructors, & Volunteers Board of Directors Advisory Committee Collaborative Fellows
Liyan Zhao

Liyan Zhao

Liyan is a visual storyteller working primarily in video. She is especially invested in telling stories of border spaces. Moving from China to the US as a child and growing up near the US-Mexican border, she has experienced firsthand the importance of imagination and mythology as tools of survival in these kinds of liminal spaces. Her most recent short documentary, A House of One’s Own, tells the story of immigrant dreams and aspirations channeled through the space of a suburban garage, and has been shown at New Haven International Film Festival and New Haven Documentary Film Festival. Liyan holds a BA in Architecture from Princeton and an MFA from Yale School of Art.