Xinyan Yu

Xinyan Yu is an Emmy-winning filmmaker and journalist with 15 years of experience crafting intimate, character-driven films across continents. Xinyan has directed and produced work for PBS, BBC, CNBC and NHK. Her feature debut, Made in Ethiopia, supported by Ford Foundation, Firelight Media and the Danish Film Institute, won a Special Jury Mention at the 2024 Tribeca Festival and screened at more than 50 international festivals. She directed the PBS Frontline film Maui’s Deadly Firestorm, which won an Emmy Award and a Scripps Howard Journalism Award. Her latest PBS American Masters short Cindy Tran: From Here to Here premiered at DOCNYC in November 2025.

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ABOUT MADE IN ETHIOPIA

Three pioneering women navigate the bumpy expansion of the biggest Chinese industrial zone in Ethiopia. But as conflict threatens to tear the country apart, will their sacrifices be for nothing?

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ABOUT Cindy Tran: From Here to Here

Watch as Vietnamese-American poet Cindy Tran creates works that bridge personal memories and shared experiences, reflecting on childhood, parental expectations, and societal stigmas around Asian-American identity.

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