About this submission

My father comes from generations of wheat farmers in the Chinese countryside. When I visited in 2019, I learned that my grandfather had sold the farmland in order to keep up with changing times. While I saw this as an erasure of my family history, my grandfather pointed out a swath of plum trees outside of his house that were planted by his own grandfather. As long as the trees remained, nothing would truly ever change.

Plum Town is a love letter to family, heritage, and the people and places who have made us who we are today.

KY
Kelly Yu
Creator
Kelly Yu is a Swedish-born, New Orleans raised, Chinese-American writer and director. Her work is driven by a deep fascination with finding humanity in the absurd, as well as exploring complex familial relationships and cultural identity often through an "east-meets-west" lens. Her short films have screened at film festivals around the country, with her most recent short Plum Town winning the Grand Jury Award at Boston Independent Film Festival and awarded her the NFFTY New Talent Award for Best Director Under 25. The feature script of the same name placed as finalist for the 2021 WGA Michael Collyer Screenwriting Fellowship and the 2021 Black List Feature Lab. Kelly holds a B.F.A from the USC Cinematic Arts, and is currently in development on her debut feature film, Familyland, set in Taiwan about the Asian family rental industry.

Join the Discussion