Yu is the writer/director/producer of one
feature film, over
ten short films, seven performed one-act plays/ monologues, and
three Arts and Technology performances, -- as well as of various
published
narrative essays, poems, and photographs. (Please see the The Movies , Arts
and Technology, and Awards
& Honors pages for some of the works Yu has done and awards
she has received.)
Yu has finished the filming of her very first feature film, "Aura,
IL." It is currently in post-production. The earlier draft of the
script was a semi-finalist at the Moondance International Film Festival.
Native of Kyoto, Japan, Yu came to the United State at age 18.
She has received BS from Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
M.Ed. from Harvard University (where she was the student commencement
speaker -- first Japanese student ever to speak at Harvard's
commencement), and completed M.F.A. in Film Production from
University of
Southern California.
Crystal's Sigh, which
she produced/wrote/directed/edited/composed the songs for, won CINE
Golden Eagle Award (2006). Mil k and H oney
,
which she produced with Sherr y Be ckman, won Pixie Awards and CINE
Eagle Awards. It also went to various festivals. PuRoMiSu , which Yu wrote and directed won Best Picture at the Illini Film and
Video festival and went to festivals such as John's Hopkins Film
Festival, Texas Film Festival, and Big Muddy Film Festival; TIME , a collection of essays,
won Robert Boit Manuscript Prize (1st place);
When Yoshimi Gets Married , a one-act play she wrote,
won Richard Rudy Memorial Grant and has
been produced in Boston and Los Angeles. Her feature script, Ai Yamahiro , won Moondance
Gaia Award. (An early draft
of "Ai Yamahiro" won Honorable Mention at the 71st Writer's Digest
Writing
Competition.)
Yu's additional interests include projects that tie arts and technology
together. For example, the narrative use of three-dimensional audio and
visual imaging and display technology; The combined use of Motion
Capture Technology, internet, and dance; Etc. Her
Hummingbird , an art-tech performance which was
performed
in Illinois and Los Angeles, was an official selection of SIGGRAPH2003.
<http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/gallery/S03/video/0459.html> To watch the video, go to: <http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/gallery/S03/video/0459a.html>
Yu is also interested in spreading computer education world-wide.
While at MIT, she co-founded a charitable program called
International
Development of Computer Education ( IDCE) which has donated a total
of more than 3000 computers and 26 weeks of computer instruction to
rural
schools in over ten countries around the world. She and the program
have
been awarded by various organizations/people, including Ministry of
Education
in Thailand, Ministry of Education in Ghana, and princess of
Thailand. On October 6, 2006, the IDCE program will receive an award
from United Nations.
(Please see:
http://www.IDCE-world.org)
After "Aura, IL," Yu hopes to produce another feature film in the
cornfields before producting Ai Yamahiro , which has been supported a great deal by her mentor, Roger
Christiansen, who is a TV director for programs such as "Suddenly
Susan", "For Your Love", "Friends, " and " Hannah Montana."
After making these three films, Yu plans to focus on children's videos
and books.
Here are some of the news-paper and magazine articles about her
and her projects:
N-G1 ; N-G2 ;
N-G3; N-G4; LATimes1 ; USCNews1; Yomiuri1; Yomiuri2; Yomiuri3; Asahi1; Asahi2; Kyoto1;
Kyoto2, Kyoto3; Weekly Josei Jishin1; Weekly Focus1; Nikkei1; Ghana
Today1; China
Mars1 ; (more to be up-dated)
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