m F il Hollywood Weekly Feature Story:
PRODUCER/WRITER/DIRECTOR
Ruijia Wang "A Truthful Filmmaker Committed To Showing Us Our Lives On Film"
BY ANTHONY EWART
Founder and Publisher of Hollywood Weekly Magazine, Prather Jackson, has brought 15-year-old singer/songwriter extraordinaire HITHA to the attention of our nation and the world. Hollywood Weekly Magazine is now formally introducing you to the next great filmmaker Ruijia Wang. A Producer/Writer/Director in her early twenties from China who has a firm grasp on the film images in her mind she wants the world to see. In fact, these are subjects she feels the world should see. Ruijia, or RJ, as she is known to her friends, is truly what the filmmaking world needs. And that is Honesty. As a child Ruijia grew up on a filmset. Not as in "The Truman Show" (1998), bur parents worked in the industry. So many children growing in an environment Ruijia wanted to make it her profession as an adult. Except, unlike most children, Ruijia was more concerned in being behind the scenes. She began to view a filmset as a family. A second family. More importantly, a filmset became a safe place for her to be creative. Ruijia graduated from New York Film Academy with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Filmmaking. For the last six years Ruijia has produced, written and directed scores of short 12 • HOLLYWOOD WEEKLY
films in both China and America. When I say scores of short films I mean close to twenty, and that's not counting the music videos Ruijia produced or the commercials she worked on as line producer. Which brings me to another point: Ruijia is exceptional in every aspect of getting a film made. People in the industry describe Ruijia as a person "who can bring projects to reality." Bilingual in Mandarin and English, Ruijia personally handles casting, location scouting and acts as location manager. She's skilled at all manner of software needed in the completion of film editing. Many of Ruijia's films have been finalists in film festivals, such as "Teddy Bear," which was a finalist at the New York International Film Awards, along with her other short film "Piece of Cake." Ruijia won the Hollywood Gold Award" while still a student for the same film. But what makes Ruijia Wang so important is that she cares about young people are feeling. She has sympathy for all and is able to empathize with some because of her own experiences. Ruijia draws on subjects like bullying, isolation, the inability to communicate with your parents. Ruijia had friends whose friends had divorced and the modus operandi
