WRITER-DIRECTOR


Ziyao Liu is a writer-director based on Earth.

She creates character-driven narratives of hybrid genres, often about women. Her goal is to reveal characters’ strengths and weaknesses in everyday moments and reimagine their lives that are otherwise constrained by reality. She loves to find humor in the absurdity of our existence beyond language and cultural barriers.

A member of BAFTA Connect and a fellow of Armed with a Camera, she earned her MFA in Directing from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her BA in Film from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Born in China and now a resident alien in Los Angeles, she spends her free time tending her plants and walking in her neighborhood.


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05 THE WHISTLE
2024

5 min

2024

digital, color, sound


The Whistle follows a youth reporter in BHB who decides to highlight a local churro vendor who many in the neighborhood recognize for his iconic whistle.

cast
Fabiola Aquino
Alberto Manquero
Carmelita Maldonado

crew
producer: Sabine Hrkalovich
director: Ziyao Liu 
writer: Libby Tarquinio 
cinematographer: Trevor Roach
production designer: Kim Vela 
editor: Cori Kim 
casting director: Jada Henry 
sound mixer: Derek DeRoche 
composer: Charles Spears 

A short film for CBS Leadership Pipeline, which won a $50,000 donation from CBS to the nonprofit Boyle Heights Beat.