Zero Chou

Zero Chou
Zero Chou
Born	24 July 1969 (age 55); Keelung, Taiwan
Awards	Teddy Award for Best Feature Film; 2007 Spider Lilies
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	周美玲
Transcriptions
Transcriptions

Zero Chou (Chinese: 周美玲; pinyin: Zhōu Měilíng; born 24 July 1969) is a Taiwanese director and screenwriter.

Life and career

Chou was born in Keelung, Taiwan in 1969. She earned a B.A. in Philosophy from National Chengchi University in 1992. She worked as a journalist before becoming an indie film director.

She entered into film making because of her attraction to the combination of content and form. She has been heralded as the most talented documentary director in the recent years of Taiwan.^[1] She has also received various festival awards around the world for films.

Chou and Hoho Liu (Chinese: 劉芸后) are an openly lesbian couple.^[2] Chou "is one of the few openly lesbian filmmakers in the world, and the only one in Taiwan," according to AfterEllen.^[3] She is currently filming a six-film series called the Six Asian Cities Rainbow Project (亞洲六城彩虹計劃). She is trying to finish as quickly as possible and worries she will go missing while filming, since many of the locations have rules against films presenting LGBT content.^[4]

Works

Documentary

Looking For The Forgotten Artists (Chinese: 走找布袋戲的老藝師) 1997, 45 mins
Artist And His Daughter (Chinese: 藝術家和他的女兒) 1997, 23 mins
Memories Of The Taiwanese Master (Chinese: 師影) 1997, 47 mins
Yi Shi Zai Hai Xia Zhong ("Lost in the Strait") (Chinese: 遺失在海峽中：烏坵) 1998, 48 mins
Being Ceased (Chinese: 斷曲：走尋布袋戲後場的老樂師) 1998, 60 mins
Mother And Son (Chinese: 媽媽遺失與撿到的孩子) 1998, 65 mins
Democracy Show (Chinese: 民主的頭人：政治秀) 1998, 53 mins
Wanderers' Bay (Chinese: 飄泊的港灣：百年基隆港)) 1998, 60 mins
Floating Islands (Chinese: 流離島影) 2000, 288 mins
Before The Radiation (Chinese: 輻射將至) 2000, 22 mins
Headhunting Festival (Chinese: 人頭祭的故事) 2000, 54 mins
Zou Zu Zhan Ji (Chinese: 鄒族戰祭) 2000, 56 mins
Corners (Chinese: 私角落) 2001, 66 mins
Poles Extremity (Chinese: 極端寶島) 2002, 56 mins
The Kinmenese Tracks (Chinese: 火車在海邊游) 2003, 64 mins
Father In The Blacklist (Chinese: 黑名單爸爸) 2004, 56 mins

Film

A Film About The Body (Chinese: 身體影片) 1996, 62 mins
Splendid Float (Chinese: 艷光四射歌舞團) 2004, 71 mins
The Road On The Air (Chinese: 單車上路) 2006, 82 mins
Spider Lilies (Chinese: 刺青) 2007, 97 mins (Teddy Award, 2007)
Drifting Flowers (Chinese: 漂浪青春) 2008, 97 mins
Wave Breaker 2009, 86 mins
Ripples of Desire (Chinese: 花漾) 2012, 110 mins
The Substitute (Chinese: 替身) 2017
We are Gamily (Chinese: 偽婚男女) 2017
Wrath of Desire (Chinese: 愛・殺) 2020
Untold Herstory (Chinese: 流麻溝十五號) 2022

Television

The Rise and Fall of Qing Dynasty (滿清十三皇朝) 1987
Gloomy Salad Days (死神少女) 2010
Because of You (因為愛你) 2020^[5]

Awards

Corners

Winner of the 2002 Taipei Film Festival for Best Documentary

Poles Extremity

Winner of the 2003 Marseille Festival of Documentary Film for Best Documentary

Splendid Float

Winner of the 2004 Golden Horse Award for Best Make Up and Costume Design
Winner of the 2004 Golden Horse Award for Best Original Film Song
Winner of the 2004 Golden Horse Award for Best Taiwanese Film Of The Year
Winner of the 1st CJ Asia Independent Film Festival for Audience Award

Spider Lilies

Winner of the 2007 Teddy Award for Best Gay/Lesbian Feature Film at the Berlin Film Festival

References

^ Chiu, Kuei-fen; Zhang, Yingjin (2014-11-21). New Chinese-Language Documentaries: Ethics, Subject and Place. Routledge. ISBN 9781317936947.
^ Eisner, Ken (18 November 2003), "Si Jiaoluo (Docu -- Taiwan)", Variety, retrieved 9 October 2007
^ "Interview With Zero Chou - AfterEllen". AfterEllen. 2008-05-04. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
^ Lens, The News (2017-08-06). "Interview: Director Zero Chou on making LGBT films in the Greater China region". Cinema Escapist. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
^ "2020 因為愛你 on Instagram". Retrieved 2020-06-12.