Under the Skin
Dir. Jiamin Zhao, Prod. Roku Long, USA, 2022, 5MIN
A director begins filming a documentary about the actor who once starred in his film—but as the camera keeps rolling, reality bends, and their gazes blur the line between creation and obsession.
Trailer from Under the Skin
Starring Brandy Cheyenne Miller, Genevieve Corkery
Director of Photography, Lorena De Leon
Chicago, Illinois, 2022
“Working on Under the Skin was a deeply collaborative process between Jazmin and me as producer. From the very beginning, we were both fascinated by the nature of documentary filmmaking — how the relationship between the filmmaker and the subject is never passive, but inherently interactive. The moment a camera enters someone’s life, it changes what it observes. That presence — that gentle interference — becomes part of the story itself.
Through this film, we wanted to explore the complexities of identity and perception. Under the gaze of the camera, life doesn’t unfold naturally; instead, it becomes a kind of performance. We found ourselves constantly asking — does identity exist on its own, or is it shaped entirely by the way others see us?
The process of making Under the Skin became an extension of that question. Every conversation, every frame, was a negotiation between reality and representation — between being seen and revealing oneself.”
