3.75-Filmmaker Interviews with Tatiana McCabe and Xindi Zhang (Student Academy Awards 2025)

Today's episode is part of my series of double episodes featuring conversations with 2025 Student Academy Award nominees.

My first interview today is with 2025 Student Academy Award winner Tatiana McCabe, director of the documentary short film "Tides of Life." We discuss how she came to wildlife filmmaking to help realize a lifelong dream and the challenges that come with being a one woman show filming a documentary.

Following that I chat with 2025 Student Academy Award Winner Xindi Zhang, director of the film "The Song of Drifters." We talk about the inspiration for the film in her own experience and the viability of AI as a tool to use in filmmaking.

Films and TV shows mentioned in this episode include:

• "Tides of Life " directed by Tatiana McCabe
• "The Song of Drifters" directed by Xindi Zhang
• The Rescue directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
• Fire of Love directed by Sara Dosa
• All That Breathes directed by Shaunak Sen
• News From Home directed by Chantal Akerman
• Perfect Blue directed by Satoshi Kon
• Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky
• Yi Yi directed by Edward Yang
• The Addams Family directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
• A Clockwork Orange directed by Stanley Kubrick
• Alice in Wonderland directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske

Follow Tatiana on Instagram @tatianamccabe and Xindi at @xindizhangfilm. You can also check out the website for Tatiana's film studio SecondHeart at secondheart.tv and Xindi's website at www.xindizhangart.com.