Cheng Zhang was born and raised in China. She graduated from Wu Yuzhang Honors College of Sichuan University with a BD in Environmental Science in 2011. While she was studying Environmental Management as a graduate student at Peking University, she came to realize that many environmental issues cannot be resolved solely by environmental professionals, that they are social issues in essence and needed wide discussion in our society. Marrying her passion in visual storytelling with the purpose of initiating social changes, she started making documentaries. Her thesis film at Stanford No Harm No Foul tries to probe into a systemic problem of lead contamination in the drinking water across time and space and uncover a story of corrosion, coverups and the corruption of science.
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In the tendency to assume that science-based conclusions are objective and reliable, public health tragedies are allowed to occur repeatedly.
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A look at the experiences of living abroad from an immobile perspective.
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Music runs in the veins of every member of the Cotton family, but it’s not only about listening to it.
Global Insights Stellar Award, Black Maria Film Festival, 2016
Reelabilities, 2016
SF Independent Film Fest, 2016
Stranger Stories: Documentaries by Stanford Students, Cantor Arts Center, 2015
16mm black and white film
A middle-aged first-generation Chinese immigrant lives independently while recovering from illness.
Stranger Stories: Documentaries by Stanford Students, Cantor Arts Center, 2015