Lu is a young, self-reliant Chinese immigrant fighting to make a life for herself in New York City. Her hard work seems to pay off when she is offered an internship at the architecture firm of her dreams. The only obstacle is her visa, which will soon expire. Just as she begins to agonize over her lack of options, her estranged father appears with a potential solution. He pleads for her to assume guardianship of the seven-year-old half- brother she has never met, so that the boy can receive life-saving medical care in the U.S. This begrudgingly accepted arrangement, which will allow Lu to remain in the country, in fact does so much more. As she reexamines both her priorities and her past, her outlook is forever changed, and she slowly mends her relationship with the family she left behind.
Born in Beijing, China, and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Ran is an award-winning cross-media filmmaker whose early exposure to different cultures strongly inform her directorial aesthetic and her desire to tell complex, character-driven, and inclusive stories.
A graduate of NYU Tisch’s BFA in film and television production program, Ran’s short films have been screened and won awards at multiple film festivals worldwide. Her directorial debut, Model, premiered at the 43rd Asian American International Film Festival, winning her the Emerging Director award. The film went on to showcase at various other distinguished festivals, including the 35th Edmonton International Film Festival, where the film was adjudged the Best International Dramatic Feature, the Woodstock Film Festival, and the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival, where it won the New Talent award. Model was subsequently picked up by United Entertainment Partners and theatrically distributed across China in October 2021, along with streaming releases on platforms like as well as released on streaming services, such as iQiyi and Tencent. As a writer and director, Ran is currently in the process of adapting Dung Kai-cheung’s critically acclaimed novel P.E. Period (體育時期) into a television series for a streaming service in Hong Kong.
