We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Astrid Dong. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Astrid below.

Hi Astrid, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I completed my short film, Joyrider, in the fall of 2022 and it was the most meaningful project I have taken on so far in my filmmaking career. I wrote the script for the film the year previously while in school, and it was completed as part of my thesis project to graduate. Joyrider is a film about a young chinese-american girl whose relationship with her mother shifts after the two of them lose their apartment and must move into their family restaurant. The story was inspired by my childhood growing up in my own family’s restaurant and doing my homework after school in the booths and running around on the streets outside. It was a such a special experience to bring the story to life with trusted collaborators old and new, and I learned a lot about what it takes to tell such a sensitive story and to hold space for everyone to create such emotionally demanding work.

Astrid, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

While I have been writing and directing films for almost 8 years now, I have only recently started to work professionally in the film and digital media industry. In high school, I worked as a teaching assistant in an afterschool program teaching k-12 students to draw cartoons and animate in adobe aftereffects. In college, I worked without pay on video shoots as a production assistant, and crewed on my friends’ short films as they would crew on mine. I took multiple internships at production companies where I read feature film scripts and YA novels and wrote feedback and coverage, helped with research, and assisted with scheduling and shoot planning tasks.

I got my first paid production assistant job right before I graduated college on an advertising shoot, which was my first real experience on a big set. After that, I worked a few days here and there on big TV shows with huge crews where my responsibility was to give crew members and background actors covid tests. I continue to PA on any and every kind of shoot I can. It feels directionless sometimes but it only takes meeting a friendly face to set my mind at ease. It feels reassuring to work with kind people and ask for advice and make meaningful conversation.

Now, ten months out of college, I’m still at the beginning of my freelance film career. I work a day job part-time, pick up gigs as they come, write my next film at night, and direct music videos on the weekend.

My work is whimsical and intimate and I’m drawn to different ways that cinema and image can portray the internal life. Across my narrative film work, music videos, and little food tiktoks I make for fun- I always focus on theme and how I can cut deeper to the emotional core of a moment while also offering something imaginative.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn quickly after graduation that age is not just a number and that having patience with yourself is absolutely mandatory for a sustained creative career. Because of social media, I often compared what my life looked like with the optics of filmmakers my age on social media. It became a form of self punishment and I no longer felt inspired to see strangers achieving what I want to achieve. While comparison is healthy and can be motivating, I know now that it can only be helpful when you have the right perspective. I don’t know about what their life looks like when they’re not posting. Or the number of rejections someone might have gotten before they posted about their win. I try to remind myself of that constantly as a way to invalidate the obsession our society has with young creatives who go viral. My mantra is: I will sustain my creative fire for my entire life.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The last short film I wrote, I wrote almost entirely at my day job as a cashier at a trendy fun grocery store in NYC. Inbetween customers, I wrote on receipt paper- something I saw some of my coworkers doing as well. It was the only way to keep me from running out of the store everyday and never looking back. So I wrote entire scenes and character sheets on receipt paper and stuffed them in my pocket to decipher later. After I got home from my shift, I would sit in front of my computer and type them out. It’s such a funny way to write. If you’re not a creative you’re not allowed to romanticize this. I dream of a world where creative work is valued enough for my friends and I to sustain our lives and our projects.

Contact Info:

• Website: astriddong.com
• Instagram:astri.d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/astrid-dong/

Image Credits
Finley King