YUQI KANG
Yuqi Kang is a Mongol Chinese Canadian filmmaker, mother, and freediver based in Vancouver, Canada.
Her MFA thesis film, A Little Wisdom (2017), premiered internationally at the Busan International Film Festival, SXSW, Hot Docs, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and Shanghai International Film Festival. The film received the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at Hot Docs before winning the Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC. It was subsequently acquired by Amazon Prime for international streaming. Following its international premiere, Yuqi was selected for DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40, recognizing the next generation of documentary filmmakers.
Her second feature documentary, 7 Beats Per Minute (2024), premiered at SXSW and Hot Docs before a theatrical release across North America. The film won the Audience Award, screened internationally through the Ocean Film Tour across 16 countries, and continues to stream worldwide. Most recently, she directed and produced the feature documentary Fruit Is Ripe (2025), commissioned by TELUS Originals.
Yuqi’s work has been supported by Telefilm Canada, the National Film Board of Canada, the Canada Media Fund, CBC, TELUS, Creative BC, and the Canada Council for the Arts. She is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, TIFF Talent Lab, the Canadian Film Centre Directors’ Lab, Chicken & Egg Pictures’ Eggcelerator Lab, Tribeca Film Institute, Hot Docs Accelerator Lab, the Canadian Academy for Women Directors, and FIRST Lab in China. She holds an MFA in Social Documentary Film from the School of Visual Arts in New York, where she received the Paula Rhodes Memorial Award for Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking.
In narrative cinema, Yuqi transforms outward experience into an exploration of the inward shadows of humanity and femininity through genre storytelling. She is currently developing and producing her debut narrative feature, Hatch, with Conquering Lion Pictures. The project received the 2026 TIFF–CBC Films Screenwriter Award.
GILLIAN MCKERCHER
Gillian McKercher is a biracial Chinese-Canadian filmmaker.
Born and raised in the prairie oil and gas hub of Calgary, Canada, Gillian McKercher graduated from the University of Calgary with a degree in Chemical Engineering. After a short career working at ConocoPhillips in sleek city skyscrapers, remote field offices, and mega factories, her irrepressible passion for cinema motivated her to leave oil and gas for good to produce her first feature film, Circle of Steel. Released in 2018, the film went on to play North American festivals such as Cinequest, and won an Audience Award at the Calgary International Film Festival. She further explored this previous work experience in 2021, when she starred in, directed, and produced the CBC Television special, Orphaned, about the task to clean up oil and gas wells.
Her second film as writer/director, Lucky Star (2024), received the CFC/Netflix Development Accelerator and stars Terry Chen (Almost Famous), Olivia Cheng (Warrior), and Andrew Phung (Kim’s Convenience). Winning an Audience Award at the Calgary International Film Festival, Lucky Star played numerous festivals including the Vancouver International Film Festival, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and San Diego Asian Film Festival. The film, distributed by Game Theory Films, was released theatrically in Canada in spring 2025 and is available to stream on Crave and VOD across North America.
Her producing slate includes three feature films: the supernatural first feature for director Dominique van Olm, Do You See Ghosts?; the Telefilm-funded sophomore comedy from writer/director Ted Stenson, Man Vs Truck; and Yuqi Kan’s highly anticipated narrative horror feature debut, Hatch.
Gillian is alumna of the Canadian Film Centre, and in 2024 was selected to Playback’s 10 to Watch.