Roseanne Liang is an award-winning New Zealand-born Chinese director and screenwriter. Her autobiographical feature film “My Wedding and Other Secrets” was the top-grossing New Zealand-made film in the year of its release. Her other credits include cult-favorite web series “Friday Night Bites” and the short film “Do No Harm.” 

“Shadow in the Cloud” will screen at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, which is taking place September 10-20.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

RL: Set during World War II, “Shadow in the Cloud” sees a scrappy and resourceful female pilot going to great lengths to provide safe passage for a mysterious package she has been ordered to deliver.

It’s a fun, pulpy thrill-ride about the untapped strength inside all of us, and the triggers that can unleash our inner god/goddess.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

RL: I loved that it was a fun genre-hybrid with heart. It was delightfully unpredictable on a plot level, but I also connected with it thematically.

W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?

RL: I think different people will take different things from the film. If they leave the film feeling like they’ve been on a thrill ride, brilliant. If they leave the film wanting to know more about the history, amazing.

For me, the film makes me think about people’s capacity for strength and courage in the face of adversity — not in a cheesy way, but in an imperfect way. I think all humans — especially in these times — are dealing with varying degrees of adversity every day. Sometimes the adversity is huge, sometimes it’s a series of small stings that adds up to a systemic adversity. How we deal, adapt, survive, and maybe evolve in these circumstances is fascinating to me.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

RL: The tonal tightrope and the technical challenges on a limited budget. The latter was solved with a very passionate, detail-oriented team, and the former was a real journey in the edit, music composition, and sound design.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? 

RL: I was lucky in this case that this project first came to me through Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and we aligned on how and why I could be a great choice to direct the film.

We attached our accomplished kiwi producer Tom Hern, who was instrumental in mounting the film in New Zealand, with the support of the New Zealand Film Commission.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

RL: Like many people, I’ve been in love with good stories told on the big screen since I was a toddler.

I think when I went to university and was introduced to critical theory — and was taught to look behind the curtain and break down the tools which are used to make cinema one of the greatest empathy delivering devices known to humans — was when I started to believe that maybe I could wield these tools myself.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

RL: The best advice came from Tony Ayres, a Chinese Australian director, writer, and producer: “Never work with someone you wouldn’t want to share a meal with.”

Worst advice: “You need to have had your heart broken to be a good storyteller.”

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

RL: I remember being a new mother at the time I made my first narrative feature film, and I was wrestling with a huge weight of guilt about why I had chosen this path, why on earth I would bring a child into the world when I was going to be absent while on set.

Director Niki Caro was kind enough to meet with me and talk to me about her own experience as a new mother on set. She said, “You’re going to have mother’s guilt. You’re going to cry often and feel you have failed as a human being. That’s OK. That’s valid. Let it happen. Then you are going to go on set for a few more weeks, you’ll see your baby when you leave in the morning, at lunch, and when you come home at night for a few weeks. Then you are going to wrap and hold your baby tight again and they will never have known anything but your love.”

It was so simple, and so specific — not just to us as mothers, but as people. As women we can feel too much, overthink things, and then beat ourselves up about feeling too much and overthinking. Simply acknowledging the feelings as valid, and moving through them rather than against them is advice I so appreciate and have never forgotten.  

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

RL: My perennial favorite is Jane Campion’s “The Piano” because of its epic artistry and its haunting story, characters, aesthetic, and music.

Earlier today someone mentioned they were rewatching Mary Harron’s “American Psycho,” and that’s actually my current favorite. That film was a master class of the tonal tightrope and bravura narrative choices. It just gets under your skin, and its power hasn’t dulled one iota since it was made. 

W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how?

RL: I think we are quite lucky being in New Zealand — without bragging or being complacent, of course! I do count myself lucky that we have been able to continue production in New Zealand, and I’ve just wrapped an eight-week shoot — which became a sort of 10 week shoot due to a small outbreak — on a post-apocalyptic comedy TV show.

W&H: Recent protests in the U.S. and abroad have highlighted racism and anti-Black police brutality. The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world more inclusive?

RL: I would hope that we can agree that the status quo isn’t working. It’s not enough to keep talking about change or calling reviews and assessments of the situation when there are no actual outcomes that actually change things. We’ve been on that wheel of lipservice for decades now, and we need to get off. 

This is why I think the recent Academy diversity guidelines are such a brave and decisive move. Whether you like them or are suspicious of them, I think it’s important we take the time to discuss and think on how they can actually serve the outcomes we all want, without jumping on bandwagons.