By: Izzy Grace
Los Angeles–based Chinese filmmaker Yihui Hu has been selected for the 2025 BendFilm Festival Basecamp Project with her original feature screenplay The Proof of Your Existence, a haunting exploration of immortality, faith, and human connection.
A Rising Voice in Independent Cinema
Hosted by the acclaimed BendFilm Festival in Oregon, Basecamp 2025 took place in October at the Caldera facility, a secluded creative retreat surrounded by nature. The four-day program gathered more than forty narrative and documentary filmmakers for mentorship sessions, workshops, panels, screenings, and one-on-one meetings with industry professionals.
Created as part of BendFilm’s education initiative, Basecamp supports early- to mid-career directors, writers, and producers developing feature-length projects. It also awards eight scholarships to filmmakers from underrepresented communities, a mission that deeply aligns with Hu’s commitment to diversity and cultural storytelling.
A Story of Love, Death, and Redemption
Hu’s selected project, The Proof of Your Existence, is a fantasy drama about two immortal women bound by an impossible connection.
Beyond its fantastical premise, the film weaves a broader narrative about women across history, examining identity, motherhood, memory, and what it means to be a woman in different eras. Through Athanasia and Ying’s repeated deaths and rebirths, the story spans mythic pasts and contemporary realities, revealing how women are shaped by fate, faith, and societal expectations. Hu uses the motif of immortality to explore how female agency survives suppression, how mother–daughter bonds transcend time, and how memory becomes a battleground for reclaiming one’s story.
Logline:
After a woman is murdered while protecting her daughter, she awakens each day in a new body, cursed with immortality. Losing hope with every sunrise, she finally meets another immortal woman who may hold the key to breaking her endless cycle.
Synopsis:
The film follows Athanasia, trapped in an endless loop, reborn daily into new bodies only to die before dawn. Her fate changes when she meets Ying, an immortal yearning for death. In Ying’s presence, Athanasia can survive past midnight. Their bond leads them through lifetimes of love, grief, and sacrifice, forcing both to confront the nature of faith, memory, and existence.
“The story was born from my fascination with fate, memory, and the human longing for connection,” says Hu. “I wanted to write a narrative where death is not simply an ending but a transformation, where survival is bound to intimacy, and love becomes both salvation and curse.”
Hu spent years refining the script, experimenting with non-linear storytelling and emotional dualities. “Each character represents a different truth,” she explains. “Athanasia is driven by love, Ying by hatred, Magnus by grief. Through their collisions, I wanted to show that no one is entirely right or wrong.”
A Distinct Artistic Voice
Photo Courtesy: Jarod Gatley
Yihui Hu is a narrative director based in Los Angeles. She crafts emotionally charged stories through visually poetic language, blending realism and dreamlike imagery.
Her award-winning short films, He, Secret Garden, and Beach House, have screened at numerous international film festivals, exploring themes of identity, grief, and familial conflict across cultures. Her 2024 short He, which examines Asian American identity and generational silence, was showcased at the World Culture Film Festival in Los Angeles, where Hu was recognized as one of the most promising young female directors of the Chinese diaspora.
As an immigrant and woman filmmaker, Hu centers female perspectives and underrepresented voices, creating genre-blending, emotionally layered narratives. “Cinema allows us to preserve what we fear losing—memory, identity, and connection,” she says.
The Path to Basecamp
Being chosen for BendFilm’s Basecamp Project marks a pivotal step in Hu’s career. The retreat’s mentorship-driven model provides a rare chance for emerging filmmakers to refine their scripts, develop production strategies, and connect directly with industry mentors.
“For me, Basecamp isn’t just about advancing a project,” says Hu. “It’s about rediscovering why we tell stories, to reach across distance, language, and time.”
Building Bridges Through Film
Hu’s filmmaking bridges Eastern and Western perspectives, shaped by her Chinese heritage and artistic training in the United States. Her visual style reflects her fine arts background, lyrical yet emotionally raw, inviting audiences to reflect on love, loss, and identity beyond cultural boundaries.
“I believe cinema can transcend language,” she says. “If even one image or moment lingers with a viewer, making them think about what it means to exist in someone else’s memory—then my work has fulfilled its purpose.”
Recognition and Next Steps
Photo Courtesy: Jarod Gatley
The Proof of Your Existence has also been selected by the World Culture Film Festival, earning attention for its originality and emotional depth. Recognition from BendFilm’s Basecamp Project further solidifies Hu’s position as a distinctive new voice in independent cinema, one whose stories intertwine myth and emotion with striking visual poetry.
As she continues developing the feature toward production, Hu remains guided by her belief that storytelling is both a personal and collective act of remembrance. “We make films to remind ourselves, and others, that existence itself is proof enough,” she reflects.
