The Family Williams
Every family has its own story.
ABOUT
The Family Williams starts with a family portrait day-Three of them look happy but here’s more emotions hiding behind. The mother who always tries to win her husband back. In the meantime, she always forgets her son’s feelings. After a huge fight with her son, she realizes how hurtful it was to him and tries to work on the relationship between them.
YEAR 2023
RUN TIME 17:45 Min
EMAIL stevenyuchenzhu@gmail.com Website: Vimeo
CAST & CREW CREDITS
DIRECTOR Steven Zhu
PRODUCER Hao Sun
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Jiangshan Li
ASSISTANT CAMERA Jiapeng Xiang
SOUND MIXER Hao Sun
EDITOR Steven Zhu
COMPOSER Mulang Zhu
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS Pooja Venkatachalam Kumar
PRINCIPAL CAST
Ben Nadler | Margaret McCabe Janicki | Jeff Lukeski | Steven Zhu
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“Each family has their own story.” That’s basically the starting point of this film. Most of my work focuses on family. Having produced a documentary, MY HOME, about different people’s definitions of home.
Why home? The first thing that comes to my mind is people: without people, there are no stories. When I first wrote the script, I decided to cast two Asian characters as the mom and the son, because that’s where I come from, that’s what I am most familiar with. After talking with a few artists from different cultural backgrounds and attending a few film conferences, I realized this family dynamic is such a universal thing, no matter what race you are or what country you are in.
Some people are invisible in their lives–they exist physically, but no one listens to them or cares about their feelings. But everyone matters, and their stories should be told.
DIRECTOR BIO
Steven Zhu (he/him) is a director, writer, editor, sound mixer, performer, graphic designer, father to two cats, and a big coffee drinker (with oat milk and creamer, paired with a blueberry cream cheese bagel). His work focuses on bridging the gap between screen and audience in order to provide an immersive experience. In college he worked as a stage manager and supervisor, where he fell in love with theater and storytelling. One of his works, Theatre, was inspired by the famous immersive show Sleep No More.
INTERVIEWS
FILM AND PRODUCTION STILLS
AWARDS
NOMINEE – 2023 New York Independent Cinema Awards
FULL FILM
Currently under 2-year embargo (2025)
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Steven Zhu (he/him) is a director, writer, editor, sound mixer, performer, graphic designer, father to two cats, and a big coffee drinker (with oat milk and creamer, paired with a blueberry cream cheese bagel). His work focuses on bridging the gap between screen and audience in order to provide an immersive experience. In college he worked as a stage manager and supervisor, where he fell in love with theater and storytelling. One of his works, Theatre, was inspired by the famous immersive show Sleep No More.
(Update provided in May 2023)