"Actual People": Film Screening + Conversation with Kit Zauhar
May 13, 2023 at the Hawthorne Barn, Provincetown, MA
Kit Zauhar is a Chinese-American writer, director, and actress originally from Philadelphia. She attended NYU Tisch School of the Arts where she majored in Film & Television Production and minored in creative writing and philosophy. Her work explores intimacy, sex, belonging, and the everyday victories and humiliations we all experience.
Kit’s first feature, Actual People, was a microbudget indie that she wrote, directed, produced, and starred in. Made for only ten thousand dollars, the film has had a remarkable festival run. After premiering in competition at Locarno’s cineasti del presente, it went on to win the Aprile Award at Milano Film Festival, Best Screenplay at Indie Memphis, and also screened at Jeonju Film Festival, Slamdance, New Hampshire Film Festival, and BAMcinemaFest, to name a few.
It was lauded as:
“[capturing] actual truths about the ways that young people behave.”
“an auspicious start to a very promising career for someone who is likely to become an essential voice in contemporary cinema.”
“...an ironic and illuminating film, which captures the anxieties and enthusiasm, intimate desires, and loneliness of contemporary youth with incredible authenticity and involvement.”
It is being distributed by Factory25 (North America/Europe), Parallax Films (Asia), and will stream worldwide through MUBI in January 2023. She is also in development for a television show of the same name. Both works follow a bi-racial young woman coming of age between New York and her hometown of Philadelphia, as she navigates her early-twenties with messy sincerity, dark humor, and moments of quiet grace and humanity.
Her second feature, This Closeness, is currently in post-production. The film was made in collaboration with Neon Heart Productions (Shiva Baby, Palm Trees and Power Lines), and Discordia Cine.