Taige Shi, a third-year MFA student, received the George & Sakaye Aratani Fellowship for 2021-2022. He is expected to graduate from the UCLA School of Television Film and Theater with an MFA degree in directing. As an international student artist, Taige is interested in pursuing arts that can connect people from different cultural and sociological backgrounds. While at UCLA, Taige has directed multiple short films and has been commissioned by Human Rights Watch to social commentary works. He has also received the UCLA Mary Pickford Award recipient (2021) and UCLA John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell Fellowship for his works and contributions. In 2020, Taige started the documentary project “Gaku” to raise awareness of concurrent social issues Asian communities are facing in the United States. Taige plans to continue his journey as an independent filmmaker after getting his MFA degree at UCLA. Taige wants to create cinematic arts that properly represent Asian communities while connecting with a broad audience.