Based in Chino Hills, California, the city known for its cows and a lottery winner who fell off the face of the Earth, Jeremy Hsing is a 23-year-old coordinator for Sundance Institute's episodic lab, who hopes to enter the screenwriting industry. Being the son of a traditional Taiwanese father, Hsing mentioned how watching sports brought them both together. From the passion of his love for sports and telling stories, Hsing thought sports journalism was his calling. Unfortunately by the end of his high school career, he experienced major burnout and decided that it was time for him to tell the stories he wanted to share. The natural outlet for this dream was film which was rejected by his parents but encouraged by his AP psychology teacher. Psychology was his favorite subject, and when his teacher mentioned the massive overlap between psychology and film, Hsing found his rabbit hole.
Deciding to go to UCLA as a psychology major, Hsing mentions how his education in colleges allowed him to see the world from a birds-eye view and destigmatize the mental health portrayed in film. “Movies are like moving images, like painting after painting after painting”, said Hsing as he described his view on film and how film was an amalgamation of all his interests: art, psychology, and philosophy. He credits movies with transforming him to be a better person, especially the movie Up which he watched the same year his Grandfather passed away. From a young age, he knew he wanted to tell stories that impacted people the way Up impacted him, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that he realized his intentions to dedicate his life to his true passion: writing. Hsing mentions how setting aside time to write helps him lose track of reality around him but “nothing we create is original, we’re just vessels for an idea” said Hsing to emphasize how artists move with the art but do not control the art. As an introvert, Hsing underlines the cons of this job of direction. As a director, “you never have enough time on set” quoted Hsing, as he explained how direction calls for quick and impromptu decisiveness or else you’re behind.
In terms of art’s competitiveness, Hsing mentions how “every field is going to be competitive” and in every circumstance, there will be people in different areas of their journey. He reiterates how we have one life, so we need to focus on our lives and at least try. In his experience as he was attempting to get his foot into the door, he didn’t know that this path was made for him until he got his first big-name internship at Warner Brothers (now Warner Discovery). At this moment, his parents finally understood that his dream was a reality. On an individual level, he knew that this path was for him because of the joy he got from the creative process. “It is important to not have expectations but just be grateful”, said Hsing. Additionally, he mentions the film Ladybird where they allude to the stark similarities between love and attention. In Hsing’s opinion, absolute attention is required to be heard in the filmmaking industry as he said, “The most interesting people are interested people."
