Experiencing Interruptions?

āyí

In a crowded dormitory in Flushing, NYC, an undocumented housekeeper, āyí, endures exploitation while striving for a better life. Her only escape is Baduanjin, a meditative Tai Chi practice that offers fleeting peace. But as hardships mount, she must choose between silence and resistance.

  • Jiayi Li
    Director
    Director
  • Jiayi Li
    Writer
  • Nippich Suppasiripoka
    Producer
  • Eleven Lee
    Key Cast
    "Shuping"
  • Ru He
    Director of Photography
    Diretor of Photography
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    阿姨
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    13 minutes 8 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 7, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    China
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, Mandarin Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, Arri Mini
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Tribeca Film Festival
    New York
    United States
    June 8, 2025
    World Premiere
    Special Jury Mention in Student Visionary
  • Mar del Plata International Film Festival
    Mar del Plate
    Argentina
    November 13, 2025
    International Premeire
    Special Jury Mention in Best International Short Film
  • Hawaii International Film Festival
    Hawaii
    United States
    October 17, 2025
    Hawaii Premiere
  • Virginia Film Festival
    Virginia
    United States
    October 24, 2025
    Virginia Premiere
  • Hainan Island International Film Festival
    Sanya, Hainan Island
    China
    December 8, 2025
    Asian Premiere
    Special Jury Mention in Best Short Film
  • Asian Film Festival
    Rome
    Italy
    April 15, 2026
    European Premier
Director Biography - Jiayi Li

Jiayi Li is a filmmaker, actor, and interdisciplinary artist born in China and shaped by life across China, Australia, and the U.S. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Directing and Screenwriting at Columbia University.
Her work focuses on lives at the margins—stories rooted in overlooked bodies, silences, and everyday rhythms. With a background in architecture, she brings a restrained, visually sensitive approach to narrative.
She is developing her debut feature, Escaping, about a New York-based Asian artist whose life unexpectedly intersects with an elderly homeless woman from Central Asia—two women bound by gender, solitude, and the discovery of buried artistic brilliance.

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Director Statement

āyí tells the story of a Chinese woman in her fifties, living in New York and working as an undocumented day laborer. She is a domestic worker who maintains the order of other people’s lives, yet returns each night to a cramped shared dormitory, with no privacy and no sense of belonging.
In many Asian communities, “āyí” is a familiar and respectful term, but it also blurs identity. We rarely ask for her name or her story—we see her only as someone who is useful. This film is an attempt to truly look at her, to really see her.
Through this work, I want to ask a simple but urgent question: Can someone without legal status, support, or language rights still be seen as a whole person? Can her dignity, her exhaustion, her emotions, and her quiet longings be heard?