This feature-length documentary film, Extraordinary Aliens, started from a personal attempt to document a specific context—people who have migrated from China to the U.S. for higher education in arts and lingered in NYC as art makers and workers. It followed the lives of four artist friends: Lu Zhang, Xingze Li, Yulin Gu, Yushu Wang—how they make work, how they make money, what they eat, where they find home. And then it grew into broader stories about why and how we stay, or not stay; why and how we make art, or are not able to; about transformation from privileged students to constrained laborers; about being queer, about what kinship means to us when being away from home and the way money and care weaves through; about memory and emotions, vulnerability and interdependence; and last but not least, about making home meals together and sharing recipes.
