Deceased/Not Found IL - Yingying Zhang, 26, Urbana, 9 June 2017 #11 *GUILTY*

[SpringDonut77]

Thank you TEB for sharing this, I watched it last night. The whole film is heartbreaking, but I was very moved by you reading the letter to her family at the end. Seriously made me tear up. I can only wish that they will find peace one day thru their memories of Yingying.

Hello everyone,

Though the documentary “Finding YingYing” does not provide criminal or legal information, I stated a while back that it was a very special film that shows aspects of what happened in a way that I think people might want to see if they are able. I feel like it goes beyond ‘true crime,’ and is deeply personal. Many excerpts from YingYing’s journal are read throughout.

While I was wary of making any post that seemed like any kind of ‘promotion,’ I feel like this is important. It is a chance to see a deeper side of the impact crime has on people and, having viewed it once, it is something I feel is worth sharing with anyone who has been invested in this case and even those who have not. So I hope I’m not overstepping by sharing this here.

The film is now accessible digitally in some regions through film festivals.

There is a link through the Chicago Film Festival which will be available to stream October 14-25 from locations in the United States. There is an additional livestream with the film maker this Friday October 16th at 9pm CST.

Finding Yingying - Cinema Chicago

Additionally, the film continues to show at other online film festivals shown in this link:

See the Film — Finding Yingying

It looks like all of the film festivals will be limited to the US or regions of the US, but the film has been picked up by MTV Documentary films. There is a link to an article describing what that could mean below:

'Beautiful Something Left Behind,' 'Finding Yingying' Nabbed by MTV Documentary Films

I hope that it will be more widely accessible one day, but it is still ‘on tour’ as an art film even though film festivals have gone digital due to the pandemic.

I hope everyone is staying safe. I don’t want to inundate the thread with promotional materials, but I wanted to at least make sure to make this information available.

TEB

 

[TEB]

The Zhang family is forever changed by the loss of their daughter, and while I cannot speak for them, I can say that I believe they will feel the loss of her every day for the rest of their lives. While there can be no actual closure for them, it is important for the life of their daughter as well as their story of grieving to be shared. Many individuals and families experience grief without anyone sparing much thought for them.

My heart has broken for them for a long time. I know what it’s like to feel like an outsider, maybe not in the same ways as them, but still marginalized and misunderstood. I wanted her loved ones to know that I had been thinking of them since everything began, even if we could communicate before the trials. Thinking of them gave me the courage to do what had to be done, and I thought the best way to explain that is to tell them in a language they might understand while still acknowledging the cultural barriers that existed.

My hope is that my small role in the documentary ‘Finding YingYing’ will show that people can come together out of grief and under the worst of circumstances, and that seeing the humanity and the human experiences and emotions of others can bridge any cultural or racial differences.

If people take away anything from the case and the film, I hope people see the humanity of those they speak to or about who are part of cases covered by the true crime community. It is so easy to see people as characters in a story or to reduce someone to a label. But we are not simply stories or labels, we are people with lives and emotions. That is why I opened up to the director Jenny Shi and the YingYing’s loved ones as much as I could. When most other media divided people into tidy categories and roles, Jenny Shi risked her own emotions to see us and treat as all as people and to work towards uniting us and creating something socially relevant and meaningful, especially in times where racism and xenophobia are major current societal issues.

TEB

 

[MomminIt]

Hi everyone,

I hope you’re all staying safe and enjoying a close knit family holiday season.

I’ve been lurking. I wanted to share an article in the Champaign-Urbana News Gazette. The film “Finding Yingying” is available to stream for $12 USD from findingyingying.com .

'Finding Yingying' documentary available for streaming

 

[dm92]

Just checking in. Not much going on, as expected.


A few days ago, I drove by Yingying's memorial, and someone had put a large wreath on a stand next to her tree. I assume it was placed there for her birthday, which is December 21st. If I have time tomorrow or Saturday, I will grab a quick photo and post it

 

[Laughing]

Hi everyone,

I hope you’re all staying safe and enjoying a close knit family holiday season.

I’ve been lurking. I wanted to share an article in the Champaign-Urbana News Gazette. The film “Finding Yingying” is available to stream for $12 USD from findingyingying.com .

'Finding Yingying' documentary available for streaming

BBM

At least we know that Brendt Christenson does not have this family holiday option!

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[kittythehare]

BBM

At least we know that Brendt Christenson does not have this family holiday option!

jmho ymmv lrr

And he never will!

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Between 11:30 and 12 today on a show called The 21st, 89.1 local IL NPR station, there was an interview with the documentary makers. I had terrible reception so I missed most of it. I'm hoping it will be available online tomorrow.

 

[TEB]

There are many interviews with the director, Jenny Shi, posted on YouTube. If you search for Finding YingYing’ and order it by most recent, many discussions from film festivals have been made available.

The particular interview you heard is similar to a condensed round table discussion. The discussions posted on YouTube give a lot more information about the family and about the film and what Jenny was aiming to accomplish by covering the events that unfolded. If that is something anyone is interested in, I highly recommend them in addition to the film.

I hope that helps!

Best,

TEB

Between 11:30 and 12 today on a show called The 21st, 89.1 local IL NPR station, there was an interview with the documentary makers. I had terrible reception so I missed most of it. I'm hoping it will be available online tomorrow.

 

[Laughing]

Thanks for stopping by & contributing once again, @TEB!

Best, Laughing

 

[TEB]

I wanted to say this, and I hope it’s not overreaching or repetitive as far as what I have already posted. I am wary of saying too much, but also mindful that I could say too little.

I wanted to meet the family for a very long time. Thinking of them helped me get through a lot, during the recording and during the trial. I didn’t need translations to understand their deep grief. The best I could manage was to find strength in watching their steadfast resolve to find her and use it to have my own resolve to pretend nothing was wrong while I was recording and to remain calm and articulate while I testified despite having to re-live so much of the former during the latter.

I know people are here for true crime, and the film Finding YingYing is a bit different than true crime, but what it has taken the prevailing focus of the media away from the criminal and the forensics and given a voice to the primary and secondary victims of the crime, not as simplified characters, but as real people who’s lives have been impacted.

The film is so deeply humanizing for everyone involved. That’s an important step towards finding a life after a crime like this touches your life. I feel like the intrusive nature of media tends to strip away peoples sense of humanity and reduce them to characters. At least that’s how it has felt to me. I imagine others experience those feelings, but it’s not something that is generally spoken about openly.

Reaching out to her family was heart-wrenching and to actually embrace Lifeng after years of seeing her grief from far away made me realize just how much they lost when YingYing was murdered. There are people who say that YingYing was just another woman in a sea of women who are murdered every year... but to see her as a person and who she was instead of a number is so so very important. By nature, true crime focuses on the details of the death of a person and not on the impact of their life.

I maintain that I very much do not my regret my decision to give exclusive access of interviews and film footage to the director of Finding YingYing, declining every other media outlet’s requests at the time. I an extremely proud of the director and her team for creating something so incredibly powerful as a tribute to YingYing and as a social commentary. I hope that it can be YingYing’s legacy more than the crimes committed against her.

TEB

Thank you TEB for sharing this, I watched it last night. The whole film is heartbreaking, but I was very moved by you reading the letter to her family at the end. Seriously made me tear up. I can only wish that they will find peace one day thru their memories of Yingying.

 

[TEB]

The documentary Finding YingYing is currently available on Vimeo with a password, as it was hosted by the University of Illinois. I know this thread is not very active, but I wanted to make sure to share this for those interested in viewing it.

Online Viewing:

(Password: FYY2020)

The link is valid until Friday, April 9, 5pm Central time.

Best wishes,

TB

 

[kittythehare]

The documentary Finding YingYing is currently available on Vimeo with a password, as it was hosted by the University of Illinois. I know this thread is not very active, but I wanted to make sure to share this for those interested in viewing it.

Online Viewing:

(Password: FYY2020)

The link is valid until Friday, April 9, 5pm Central time.

Best wishes,

TB

OMG!

My fingers are finding it hard to type because I'm so emotional right now and I'm writing now, whilst still immersed because it is one of the most powerful pieces of pure art I have ever witnessed.

Zen

The two scenes that affected me, personally most deeply and made the witnessing most powerful were when the family returned for the trial and were sitting in the grass at her memorial and each locked into their individual oceans of grief while being acutely aware of where the others were at, exactly...so much so that they were almost paralysed by their symbiotic-like link...and the mother voiced her grief, her husband looked at her, but it was her young son who reached out and placed his arm around her shoulder and the father took the gesture in , in a short glance, as if he knew he should have made the gesture, but failed, because he was spent and his gesture would have been fruitless in the eye of despair..
And this family dynamic was so understandable and so familiar, I knew it, like I'd always known it, it was my despair too and I was all three of them, with YingYing being our common bond, though we had lost her.

I cried too when I learned that in the height of your own pain, you took the time to re-learn Mandarin because you loved and respected them so much.
It wasn't the first time I saluted you for your courage, Terra!
You are a shining light with a heart of goodness and shine on, girl.

Thanks also for not forgetting us and bringing it here, thanks to the University of Illinois and the producer and film crew for permitting this unveiling.
You guys shine too.

So I'm crying again and I welcome this grief because YingYing will be always in my heart.
And I'll never stop wanting to find her.

And if anybody's got a spare cadaver dog and knows how to gain permits for the old Johnson Ross building, I reckon it's worth another search cos why not?

If there is no evidence that his drove a vehicle following her murder, it is likely he walked , but not too far.

He had thought this through and purchased items in the past, pretty damn sure he had also planned a more sophisticated disposal than trash. But trash was easy for him to use as an excuse, he quite possibly watched his own being disposed of when it was.
If he'd have chosen trash, damn right all her belongings would have gone in there with her.
She's not in landfill. (IMO)
But she is somewhere.
Waiting to be found.

I'm not ready to write her Epitaph yet.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I was thinking about Yingying recently. I, too, very much hope she'll still be found.

 

[Olivia_Seafish]

I watched Finding YingYing today. It's quite similar to an earlier and much shorter film that was made for Chinese TV which followed the Zhangs after their final return home. In both cases, I'm not sure agreeing to be filmed during their darkest hours was the best decision on the part of the parents - the viewer starts to feel a bit voyeuristic.

If you've seen the Chinese TV film then Finding Yingying covers much the same ground, although there are a few interesting new bits in there. The bit where Terra recounts having to sit with Ted Bundy's #1 fan just after he'd gloated about all the girls he hadn't killed paints quite a picture. And watching Mother Zhang praise Terra's goodness - "she's just like YingYing" - ends up being the climactic scene, as it's the only time the broken woman seems able to let her negative emotions go, if only for a minute or two.

Nice effort with the Chinese too, Terra. 挺不错！

 

[Olivia_Seafish]

The Chinese short film (no English subtitles)

 

[altojack]

The Chinese short film (no English subtitles)

Thank you for posting the link. I'll try to make time tomorrow to watch this. Not sure if I'll be able to encroach during such a personal grieving though.

I still think of Yingying and haven't given up hope that she will be found.

 

[TEB]

I watched Finding YingYing today. It's quite similar to an earlier and much shorter film that was made for Chinese TV which followed the Zhangs after their final return home. In both cases, I'm not sure agreeing to be filmed during their darkest hours was the best decision on the part of the parents - the viewer starts to feel a bit voyeuristic.

If you've seen the Chinese TV film then Finding Yingying covers much the same ground, although there are a few interesting new bits in there. The bit where Terra recounts having to sit with Ted Bundy's #1 fan just after he'd gloated about all the girls he hadn't killed paints quite a picture. And watching Mother Zhang praise Terra's goodness - "she's just like YingYing" - ends up being the climactic scene, as it's the only time the broken woman seems able to let her negative emotions go, if only for a minute or two.

Nice effort with the Chinese too, Terra. 挺不错！

This reminds me why I chose to do everything I could, even after the sentencing. Though I felt like my effort with Mandarin was far too little to offer, it was symbolic for me. They had come across the world at a difficult time. I wanted to continue to show them not just tell them that I cared. I wanted to show that I was willing to be vulnerable to help them feel even just a little bit less uncomfortable.

I hope people who watch that film end up feeling more compassion for more people after seeing me let those vulnerable moments I spent with the family be captured on film.

Thank you for the link to the short Chinese film. Sometimes I learn about things like that for the first time here.

Terra

 

[Ursamajr]

This reminds me why I chose to do everything I could, even after the sentencing. Though I felt like my effort with Mandarin was far too little to offer, it was symbolic for me. They had come across the world at a difficult time. I wanted to continue to show them not just tell them that I cared. I wanted to show that I was willing to be vulnerable to help them feel even just a little bit less uncomfortable.

I hope people who watch that film end up feeling more compassion for more people after seeing me let those vulnerable moments I spent with the family be captured on film.

Thank you for the link to the short Chinese film. Sometimes I learn about things like that for the first time here.

Terra

You're a good person. I mean it.

 

[dm92]

The Chinese short film (no English subtitles)

Thank you for sharing this. Someone shared this with me a while ago but I lost the link.

 

[dm92]

Hard to believe that it was four years ago today that this happened.

I didn't see any local media reports on the anniversary today.

Everything has been removed from the tree where she was standing. Nothing was placed there today, although it did appear that someone had placed some flowers or something near the bench in her memorial garden.