Yiru Chen (陳伊如)
she/her/她/伊
Born in Shanghai, China
Lives & works in New York, NY
I am a filmmaker, educator, and accessibility strategist who builds equitable storytelling systems at the intersection of art, technology, and social change. I craft poetic narratives and accessible frameworks that honor Deaf, disabled, queer, and diasporic communities.
My award-winning films have received international recognition across major cultural and industry platforms. Handscape, my thesis short, screened at more than 25 film festivals worldwide, including the Seattle Deaf Film Festival, and received the Grand Jury Prize at the Shanghai Queer International Film Festival. My feature-length documentary debut, No Rule Is Our Rule, co-directed and edited with legendary performance artists Eiko Otake and Wen Hui, won Best Feature Documentary at the Japan International Film Festival and premiered at Asia Society New York in 2023. In 2025, I directed the Case Study Film for DEPT® and NVIDIA’s AI platform SIGNS, exploring how emerging AI technology can expand or limit sign language access and inclusive design. I assisted the Artistic Director at HERE Arts Center and worked as a personal assistant to documentary filmmaker Stephabie Black. I frequently collaborate with New York Deaf Theater and Deaf composer Jay A Zimmerman on his accessibility initiative, translating musical structure into visual and tactile experiences for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences.
This interdisciplinary approach is rooted in my education across film, psychology, and Deaf studies. I graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts (BA major in Film & Television Production) with minors in Psychology and American Sign Language. I went on to earn my MA in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. My methodology integrates artistic research, multilingual access design, and community-responsive pedagogy to produce work that is both conceptually rigorous and meaningfully applied.
As a classroom teacher at St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf in Brooklyn, I design multimodal inclusive learning environments for BIPOC Deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Deaf-Disabled students, experiences that directly inform my filmmaking and access design work. I also serve on the Board of Deaf Spotlight, shaping access-first programming and supporting Deaf-led storytelling initiatives. I bridge education, media, and technology to dismantle structural barriers and expand what's possible when everyone has access to create, participate, and lead.
出生於中國上海，居於紐約，陳伊如是一位電影創作者、教育者與無障礙策略顧問，致力於在藝術、技術與社會變革的交匯處，構建更加公平的敘事體系。她透過詩性的影像語言與可及性框架，回應並尊重聾人、身障、酷兒及離散社群的經驗與力量。
她的多部獲獎作品在國際文化與行業平台上獲得廣泛認可。畢業作品短片《夏青》（Handscape）曾在全球 25 餘個電影節展映，包括西雅圖聾人電影節，並榮獲上海酷兒國際電影節評審團大獎。她的首部長片紀錄片《沒有規則是我們的規則》（No Rule Is Our Rule）與著名表演藝術家尾竹永子（Eiko Otake）及文慧聯合執導並剪輯，獲得日本國際電影節最佳紀錄長片獎，並於 2023 年在紐約亞洲協會（Asia Society New York）首映。2025 年，她執導了 DEPT® 與 NVIDIA 合作的 AI 平台「SIGNS」案例研究影片，探討新興人工智能技術如何擴張或限制手語可及性與包容性設計。她曾於 HERE Arts Center 擔任藝術總監助理實習生，亦曾為紀錄片導演 Stephanie Black 擔任個人助理。她也經常與紐約聾人劇場（New York Deaf Theater）及聾人作曲家 Jay A. Zimmerman 合作，在其無障礙項目中，將音樂結構轉譯為適合聾人與重聽觀眾的視覺與觸覺體驗。
這一跨學科實踐根植於她在電影、心理學與聾人研究領域的系統訓練。她畢業於紐約大學帝勢藝術學院（NYU Tisch School of the Arts），獲得電影與電視製作學士學位，並修讀心理學與美國手語的高階課程，隨後在哥倫比亞大學師範學院取得聾與重聽教育碩士學位。她的方法融合藝術研究、多語言無障礙設計與以社群為回應的教育學，使作品在理論上嚴謹、在實踐中有效。
作為布魯克林聖方濟·德·薩勒聾人學校（St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf）的一線課堂教師，伊如為 BIPOC 聾人、聾盲及聾多障學生設計包容性的學習環境，這些教學經驗也直接反哺她的影像創作與無障礙設計實踐。她同時擔任 Deaf Spotlight® 董事會成員，參與制定以無障礙為先的項目策略，支持以聾人為主導的敘事與藝術創作。她拆解結構性障礙，拓展「誰能夠創造、參與與領導」的可能性。