Days Flow By
Ziyi Yuan 袁子艺
Cinema and Television Directing MFA, ‘25
Artist Statement
Amidst urbanization in Sichuan Province, the last resident of a fading village, an old man, fights to preserve his old house and its heritage. Diagnosed with cancer, as his family returns to the village it reveals that his life is fading along with the old village in their memory. 留守老人 is a term used to describe the rural left-behind elderly population that is ignored and forgotten by society. Their lives, homes, and villages slowly fade away as days pass, like a river quietly flowing by, leading to the creation of this film that captures these fleeting individuals' stories. The greatest loss is not the old villages or the left-behind elderly, but the fading of people's empathy and sentiments toward them.
在四川省的城市化进程中，一个村庄逐渐消逝。村里最后的常住居民——一位老人——努力守护着他的老宅和那段属于过去的传承。然而在被诊断出癌症后，随着家人回到村里，他的生命也仿佛正与他们记忆中的老村一起慢慢消逝。“留守老人”这一词，指的是被社会忽视与遗忘的农村留守老年群体。他们的生活、房屋与村庄，随着日子一点点流逝，悄无声息地淡去，如同一条静静流淌的河。这些转瞬即逝的人与事，也促成了这部电影的诞生，试图记录他们的故事。最令人痛心的消失并不是老村的废弃，也不是老人们的老去，而是人们对他们的共情与情感的流失。
About Artist
Ziyi Yuan 袁子艺
Cinema and Television Directing MFA, ‘25
Ziyi Yuan(she/her) is a master’s student at Columbia University and holds an MFA in Cinema and Television Directing from Columbia College Chicago. Over the past two years, she has directed diverse projects, including short dramas, comedies, experimental films, documentaries, TV series, and media installations. Her work has been screened at film festivals and was a Semi-Finalist at Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival. Beyond filmmaking, she has served as a business strategist at iQIYI, a programmer at CineYouth, and worked with the Chicago International Film Festival. Known on set as “Atomic Bomb,” she’s recognized for her relentless passion and energy for film.
袁子艺是哥伦比亚大学的硕士生，并拥有芝加哥哥伦比亚学院电影与电视导演 MFA 学位。在过去两年里，她导演了多种类型的项目，包括剧情短片、喜剧片、实验影片、纪录片、电视剧以及媒体装置作品。她的作品曾入围多个电影节，并成为 Flickers’ 罗德岛国际电影节的半决赛入围作品。在电影创作之外，她曾担任爱奇艺商业策略师、CineYouth 的节目策划，也与芝加哥国际电影节合作过。由于在片场精力充沛、爆发力十足，她被大家称为“炸弹”，以对电影的热情与投入闻名。