Ng Jing Ai is hopeful the win at Cannes Lions would help with her future projects. Photos courtesy of Ng Jing Ai
Ng Jing Ai’s first short film, Fleck, was shortlisted for Best Short Film at the Cannes Lions Young Director Award in 2020.
That recognition came just a year after she graduated from the American Film Institute Conservatory (AFI).
In 2019 too, Ng was named the Best Asian American Director for Fleck at the Directors Guild Of America (DGA) Student Film Award, making her the first Malaysian to win the award.
This year, the US-based Malaysian was shortlisted once again for Cannes Lions Young Director Award for her new work titled Delta.
The difference this time around: The 29-year-old was announced as the winner of the Gold Screen Award and Silver Screen Award at the event that took place in June, at Cannes, France.
In an email interview, Ng said: “It was nice to get shortlisted again, just like it was the first time. The last time I was shortlisted, it was 2020 and we were three months into the pandemic.
“I was really grateful that I got to attend the event this year, and to have won the awards is just the cherry on top.”
According to her, the event was “a great party” and it allowed her to meet other directors, especially from Europe, and form new friendships as well.
Delta centres on a Chinese-American family who has lived in the Mississippi Delta for generations and runs a grocery store.
But now, young Phoebe Lee is leaving home for college far away from home.
The short shows how she gets ready to say goodbye to her family, especially to her brother as they often relied on each other all these years.
'Delta' centres on a Chinese-American family, who has lived in the Mississippi Delta for generations and runs a grocery store.
Surprisingly, Ng said she doesn’t consider herself as a good short-film director as she struggles “with fitting everything I want to do into such a short time frame”.
“I’m always pushing for more and trying to do more than necessary, because in my mind, it’s all practice for a feature,” said Ng, adding that Delta was her last short film.
Presently, Ng – who grew up in Kuala Lumpur and Miami, and now lives in Los Angeles – is getting ready to shoot her first feature film next year.
How do you think the Cannes Lions recognition will impact your future projects and career?
Hopefully, it makes future projects easier, and I think it already has in the months since the event.
Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind Delta and what it means to you personally?
I wanted to write a story that incorporated Americana and folklore, but featured Asian American characters.
Delta is a film I meditated on for a long time, and it captures a very specific slice of life that interested me.
I have roots in the American South and am part of the Chinese diaspora, having grown up in Malaysia.
Immigration and migration are topics that fascinate me, for obvious reasons, so I wrote about a family in flux. And this family, they’ve been in flux the entire time, in motion, and what is that like?
The US is a country of immigrants, literally built upon people’s hopes and dreams. What does it mean to be American? What does it mean to hold the American dream in your heart, even if that means leaving behind all you know?
The filmmaker with her award at the Cannes Lion Award ceremony. Photos: Ng Jing Ai/InstagramFilmmaking often involves a journey of self-discovery and growth. What have been some of the most significant lessons you’ve learned since you started this journey?
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to believe in myself and my abilities as a director, which sounds like an incredibly basic thing to do, but is something I’ve struggled with always.
As a filmmaker with a multicultural background, how has your Malaysian heritage influenced your storytelling and filmmaking style?
While I work in independent film now, I didn’t grow up watching a lot of art house cinema.
I love Malaysia, and because I grew up in KL, I was exposed to these blockbusters that were my primary cinematic diet for the first half of my life, as well as Asian cinema.
And that really formed my taste in film and my love for the theatrical experience – I love movies and seeing them on the big screen. Nothing else beats it.
So whenever I set out to do something now, I’m focused on that goal, of making movies that play in the cinema. That was so important to me growing up.
Also, it’s a happy coincidence: the producer of Delta, Sandra Tan, is Malaysian, and the lead, Zoe Lam, is half-Malaysian.
How do you find a balance between maintaining your unique voice and appealing to a broader, global audience?
I think a unique voice can appeal to a broader, global audience. The Daniels, Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan are great examples of unique voices who bring in large audiences.
There’s so much room for individuality and different voices in cinema, which is partly why I love film and TV so much.
I don’t believe audiences want a standard meal at all, and I think producers should be taking more risks for the future of the film industry.
How do you see your role as a storyteller in bridging cultural gaps and promoting understanding?
A really great story touches you emotionally, which I think is the most powerful way to evoke empathy.
As Hollywood and the US are becoming more open to Asian-centric stories, what do you hope for the industry in terms of stories that are being told to a global audience?
I hope that there’s more of a blend between cultures, because the US is such a melting pot of a country; I would love to see that reflected in the American cinema of the future.
What advice would you give to those who are just starting out in the industry?
Get coffee for a lot of people and get coffee with a lot of people.
Can you share how you find the subject of a film, since you write and direct it?
I don’t really have a process for that – I’m a person with too many ideas and too many things that I want to work on at any given time.
Ideas are only the beginning of the battle for me, and at this point I worry more about execution and doing the idea justice when we actually shoot the film.
What can we expect from you in the future? What are some themes you are eager to explore through your films?
I think all my films deal with identity in some capacity, and how the self relates to the whole.
My first feature film is set to shoot in the early summer of 2024, and that’s titled Forge. It’s an art forgery film that is set in Miami.
I’ve been working on it for a few years now, and I’m really excited that we’re going to make this thing.
And hopefully we get to shoot my second feature next year too, this film called Sausage Roll, which is set mostly in a British international school in KL.
It’s a film I co-wrote with Jeanette Lim, a Singaporean screenwriter who works on the show Futurama.
I’m also directing commercials and music videos as part of a duo, Pajamas, with my classmate from the American Film Institute Conservatory, Portlynn Tagavi.
She has a background in animation and is a story artist at Netflix, so that collaboration has been super cool.
