My Heart – Ya Albi

My Heart – Ya Albi is a story about a Syrian refugee who adapts to life in Louisiana, USA after her husband’s immigration visa is unexpectedly rejected. Since the completion of the My Heart – Ya Albi, the film has won several awards and is now Academy Qualified. The team hopes the film will make it to the Short List (Top 10 rated Academy Qualified films) and have a chance at a 2018 Oscar Nomination.  Below is the inspiration behind My Heart – Ya Albi by Director and Writer, Christine Chen.

When I wrote “My Heart – Ya Albi,” my first goal was to honor the story of my parents. Both of my parents are immigrants from Taiwan. Though they are not refugees, I can only imagine what they still had to go through in order to adapt and succeed somewhere so far from friends, family, and what they know. Much of this short film is inspired by stories my parents told me about their early times in the U.S. From the prejudice they encountered, the families who they became life long friends with, and the strangers who helped them along the way, I wanted to capture those moments through “My Heart – Ya Albi.”

Despite the context of the story with regards to the Syrian refugee crisis, “My Heart – Ya Albi” for me was never meant to be a political statement. Rather, I wanted to share my own microcosmic look into what it is like to make a new place a home, a theme I’m sure many people will relate to. It is about the different types of people we encounter and the way we connect and affect each other both negatively and positively.

I remember a few years ago watching the Academy nominated films in the movie theater and thinking that my filmmaking was still a long way from the caliber of those films. Yet, here I am in 2017, only a few years later, trying to promote our film that could potentially be nominated for an Oscar. It is quite surreal. I really hope the audience enjoys it just as much as I have enjoyed bringing it to life with my incredible team.