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

Jiayan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I finished what may be the most meaningful project of my career just last month: a feature-length documentary about autistic families.

The documentary is about my cousin, who is 26 years old and has severe autism. My cousin and I used to play together when we were young, but as we got older, our life trajectories inevitably diverged. In 2022, I was relatively free, and my aunt asked me if I was interested in the autism institution she opened, so I went to her institution and shot a documentary for two weeks. On the one hand, I didn’t have anything to do at the time, and on the other hand, I was curious about the autism community.

As I got older, I still got chances to see my cousin every Spring Festival, but after so many years, I still didn’t understand what autism meant. Even though I shot there for two weeks in 2022, I don’t think I fully understood it, except that I saw them smiling all the time.

The time came to 2024, and because of some changes, I decided to take an 8-month vacation in China. During this long time, I suddenly thought of the autistic children in the institution. My girlfriend Zikun also supported me in doing this, and finally, I formed a team. I was the director, Zikun was the producer, and my other good friend Joseph Chi was the director of photography. The three of us shot in Chongqing for one and a half months and completed the shooting part of this documentary. Next, I will take the materials to Los Angeles to complete its post-production.

Talking about why this project is the most meaningful, I think there are many reasons. This is my first time directing a feature-length project. I have learned a lot about the autism community, my aunt’s family, and my cousin. This documentary does not advocate what we should do to help the autism community but only records the daily life of a family with a severely autistic member, but my aunt and uncle think it is very meaningful. When I was doing online research before filming, there may indeed be quite a lot of people who do not understand autism.

But I never want to force my audience. I don’t think anyone must have the duty to learn more about autism. Just like myself, I am sure that there are many strange disabilities in the world that I don’t understand, such as ALS. But what I want to say is that autism is indeed special. Filming the autistic group may be a process of understanding what it means to be human, what life is, and what “meaning” is.

Jiayan, 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?

My name is Jiayan He. I am a filmmaker, mainly directing and writing. As a director, I have directed many short dramas, some experimental shorts, two commercials, and a feature documentary. I have always wanted to direct a music video, and it would be even better if it was a hip-hop-related one. In addition to writing my scripts, I am currently mainly writing scripts for vertical short series, which is also my source of income. If you need any scripts, please contact me, but I am not good at werewolves and vampires. Generally speaking, I am a person who is full of ideas and likes to improvise, which makes my creative process faster and makes the work more organic.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Non-stop-fucking-troubles.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Story by Robert McKee. To be honest, I am not a person who has read a lot of books, and there are almost no books that have influenced my life. But this book did teach me a lot about screenwriting. I think if you are a person with a poor foundation, or you know nothing about screenwriting at all but want to learn screenwriting, you should read this book. Or if a screenwriter can only read one book about screenwriting, this is it. This book may be a little long, but I promise that you can basically write after reading this book.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jhe103/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@commanderfoolish4727
• Other: https://vimeo.com/user186264718

Image Credits

Zikun Wu