Indonesian film director Livi Zheng has been living the dream of working in the US film industry for the past couple of years.

After successfully producing and directing her debut feature film, Brush with Danger (2014), and distributing it in cinemas in the US, she is returning with Insight.

“The new film is still in the action thriller genre,” she said in a recent interview.

Livi said Insight told the story of two brothers who were both fighters and had the gift of being able to see into the future. They take different paths in life, and several years later one of them is found dead in Los Angeles.

Unlike Brush with Danger, Livi does not play a role in the film, currently in post-production with a planned release in the US before the end of the year. However, her younger brother, Ken Zheng, is one of the main characters and maintains his role as scriptwriter from their first movie. Other members of the cast include Hollywood actress Madeline Zima (The Nanny, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle) and actor Tony Todd (Candyman).

“I wanted to create an action film with a unique twist. I then came up with the sixth sense concept,” Livi said.

She continues to use the traditional Chinese martial art of kung fu in the action sequences and fight choreography. Kung fu has always been a major part of Livi’s life.

Born in Blitar, East Java, on April 3, 1989, she spent most of her early childhood and teenage years learning kung fu and wushu. Her martial arts skills led to her becoming a stuntwoman for several Indonesian movies and television series when she was 15.

At age 16, she went to China and attended the martial arts academy at the Shichahai Sports School in Beijing. During Livi’s martial arts career, she won at least 26 trophies and medals in various competitions in the US, where she moved to study in university.

Livi said the discipline she learned during her competitive martial arts days has helped her in her career as a director.

“In martial arts, you have to practice a move thousands of times to reach perfection. That is also what I am doing in my filmmaking career now as I often have to write scripts over and over again before any producer is willing to accept them,” she said.

“My martial arts background also allows me to create or improve action choreography in my movies [...] At first, I did not realize that martial arts could help me a lot as a director but now after I think of it, it helps me a lot more than I ever thought.”

After finishing senior high school and her competitive martial arts days, Livi took economics at the University of Washington-Seattle and graduated in only three years. It led to her being invited to become a member of the International Honors Society in Economics.

With a passion for filmmaking since her childhood, she decided not to pursue a career as an economist and instead took a post-graduate degree in film production at the University of Southern California.

“When I was a kid, my family collected a lot of movies and we loved to watch them,” she said.

“I was inspired by Luc Besson [...] The way he structures the action sequences in his films is just amazing and, of course, my main idol is Bruce Lee. I love all of his movies.”

SET FOR SUCCESS: Livi Zheng on location in the US for the filming of Insight, her new action thriller that is set for release by the end of 2016. (Photo courtesy of Livi Zheng)

LEARNING THE ROPES

Livi said being a director in the US film industry took more than just a passion for film. For example, she said she need to be aware of differing regulations in each state before she started filming.

“Each town, city or state has different regulations on how we can use drones for filming, for example. Getting authorization for filming outdoors is also one of the most difficult procedures that we need to handle. The local authorities also obligate us to bring our own safety instruments, such as water trucks, if we want to do filming in the desert,” she said.

“The bureaucracy is not complicated, actually, but it takes a lot of time to get all the authorizations before we can start filming.”

The pre-production process, according to Livi, is the most stressful part of her career.

“Filming, which often lasts for 16 hours straight, drains you physically. But the pre-production hassles can really stress you out because we need to make sure that everything is straightened up before we can start filming.”

To ease their stress, Livi and her crew enjoy Indonesian comfort foods.

“There are a lot of Indonesian restaurants in Los Angeles. My crew, who are mostly Americans, also love Indonesian traditional snacks and jamu [Indonesian traditional herbal drinks] that I often bring to the United States whenever I have the chance to return to my hometown for a while,” she said.

“I always bring Indonesian snacks and jamu in several suitcases for the crew. They also love our coffees. I don’t drink coffee but the crew need it on the set.”

Livi said that one of the best aspects of working in the US film industry was the professionalism of all the workers involved. Despite being relatively new in the industry, she said more experienced actors and producers still showed her the same amount of respect that they would to senior directors.

The actors, for example, do not have any difficult demands on set and the producers treated her as an equal partner to discuss the artistic approach to her film.

“The producers have their own preference but they always ask for my opinion and input. They never force what they want on me and we can always have discussions on how we want the film to become,” she said.

In the near future, Livi said that she would release her third film in the US and then she had a plan to produce her first Indonesian-based film.

“The third film will be still in the action genre and it will be shot in the United States and Indonesia. The fourth one, I think it will be very interesting because it will be my first film to be produced completely in Indonesia,” she said.

Livi said it would involve returning to her roots in the East Java region, particularly the island of Madura.

“I want to make a film revolving around the karapan sapi [bull race] culture in Madura. I always find the culture to be very interesting. I love to see how the people put accessories on the cows before the race. I am currently writing the script for this film. I have completed several hundred pages and I have also done a lot of research on karapan sapi,” she said.

Livi said that she hoped she could complete the script as soon as possible and start filming in Indonesia. Despite her experience in the US film industry, she believes it will not mean she will find it easier to access the Indonesian film industry and market.

“When I finally enter the Indonesian film industry, I believe I need to start from scratch again because I don’t understand how the system works here,” she said.