"The Rider", a Western movie that has won the Art Cinema Award of the Director's Fortnight unit in Cannes this May, opened the Crouching Tiger segment in Pingyao International Film festival. Couching Tiger segment is to promote young talents. 

Chloe Zhao, director of "The Rider" walked the red carpet accompanied by her brother and stepmother Song Dandan, a much well-known actress in China.  

 Chloe Zhao (photo/by Ding Zhouyang)

A girl who once dreamed to work for the UN became a director

In late 1990s, Zhao was studying at a school which was situated at a chaotic Log Angles community, where security guards were armed with guns. It was her preliminary understanding of the complexity of the U.S. society, which could be a contributor for her choice of international politics in university. After graduation, she worked as a real estate broker, a clothes seller, a dish washer, etc. None of them has anything to do with international politics.

When asked about the reason, Zhao teased herself, saying that it was hard for a Chinese girl studying the U.S. politics to find a job in line with her major.

Zhao said that she gradually lost her interest in politics after graduation. She wanted to become a story-teller, expressing herself, even her story could just impress one person. Then she applied for NYU Tisch School of the Arts. 

West America inspires her

After graduating from NYU Tisch, the girl became confused about what she could film. She was afraid that the result didn't turn out be what she wanted. Then she decided to pay a visit to West America, an Indian reservation in South Carolina. The place was untouched by the industrialization of and everything stayed the way it was. 

Chloe's first movie: Songs My Brothers Taught Me (photo/video capture)

Chloe filmed her first movie, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, at a ranch in South Dakota on the Pine Ridge reservation, where he met Brady Jandreau. She was researching cowboy lifestyle there because she wanted to make a movie about the heartland of America, about the cowboy life. She decided to put Jandreau in her next movie—but they just didn’t really have a story until his head injury.

Cowboys there had never been to big cities, and were little educated, but being rodeos were their lifelong pursuits. 50 percent of the settings were real stories of cowboys.

The movie depicts that a young cowboy undertakes a search for new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of America after suffering a near fatal head injury. Unlike Brady who almost loses his faith to live on, Ryan, another heavy wounded rider, is optimistic. And his optimism comes from his love for life and the expectations for every sunrise.  

Zhao went through extreme difficulties to make independent films

The Rider is a low cost independent film despite the big logo of Sony Pictures.

Zhao said to NBD that it's had to get investment. Her first movie was suspended for several times due to lack of money. But she managed to finish it with 100,000 U.S. dollars of film funds. She had come across the same problem when shooting The Rider. 

Luckily, she found eventually a large advertising firm who was willing to invest. With 8,000 U.S. dollars, The Rider was finished at last. And its distribution right was sold to Sony Pictures. She told NBD that she wanted to ensure profits for investors so that she could find investors for her next movies.

The distribution right of The Rider in China is now under discussion.  

She revealed that she didn't intend to work for others in Hollywood but she was interested in filming movies there. She had to prove herself with awesome works before she could work with Hollywood companies, she added.

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn