WOMEN WARRIORS

PBS Digital Studios presents

Wooden Fish Pictures, LLC

in association with Black Robin Media

A film by Siyi Chen

WOMEN WARRIROS

Produced & Directed By

Siyi Chen

Writer

Tien Nguyen 

Director of Photography  

Jia Li

Sound Recordist

Braulio Lin

Editor

Siyi Chen 

Executive Producer

Lynne Robinson

MEDIA CONTACT

Stephanie Kennard, PBS

skkennard@pbs.org;

571-319-7478

TAGLINE: the Warrior Woman is finally real…

LOGLINE: Peking Opera, a type of Chinese Opera, one of the world’s oldest theatrical storytelling traditions, included women characters but not women performers or audience members for nearly 400 years. 

SYNOPSIS: A dazzling mix of music, acrobatics, martial arts, and poetry, centuries-old Peking Opera, a type of Chinese Opera, has two vital feminist roles, Wudan and Daomadan – but women were not allowed to portray these two characters nor even watch from the audience until the 20th century. Now, the years-long grueling physical training for women performers at last has a place on stage.

PBS: WOMEN WARRIORS is one of eight films in the PBS Creative Voices series, “The Story in Us”, a new anthology series premiering on PBS VOICES, a documentary-focused YouTube channel. Produced in collaboration with PBS Creative Voices Ignite Filmmakers Program, the eight-part series explores how culture, history, and identity are preserved through the universal art of storytelling.

Director’s Bio: Siyi Chen is a documentary director and editor based in New York City, whose work blends poetic storytelling with a global lens. She studied World History and Chinese Literature at Peking University and earned an MA in News and Documentary from New York University.

Her debut documentary feature, Dear Mother, I Meant to Write About Death (2022), premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and was nominated for the Best First Feature Award at IDFA. Her second feature, Queens Ballroom, currently in development and co-directed by Hansen Lin, is supported by ITVS, the New York State Council on the Arts, Firelight Media, and the ImMaat Foundation.

As an editor, she recently cut Made in Ethiopia (2024), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, earning a Special Jury Mention. She was also the associate editor of Maui’s Deadly Firestorm on FRONTLINE, which won a 2025 Emmy Award for Outstanding Climate, Environment and Weather Coverage.

Technical Details: WOMEN WARRIROS

Country of Origin: United States

Runtime: 12:04 minutes

Screening Formats DCP

Aspect Ratio 16:9

Sound Dolby 5.1

Spoken Language: English and Chinese

Subtitles: Yes

Closed Captions Yes

Principle Location: Filmed in New York, New York at Chinese Theatre Works

 FULL CREDITS

Produced and Directed by

Siyi Chen

Featuring

Artists from Chinese Theatre Works

Opera Performer

 Kuangyu Fong,Qi Zhang, Linghui Tu

Shadow Puppet Artists

Stephen Kaplin, Charlie Santos, Jing Shan

Makeup Artis

Guiying Yang

 Producer

Lou Wang-Holborn

Researcher and Fact Checker

Qi Zhang

Writer

Tien Nguyen

Director of Photography

Jia Li

Assistant and Additional Camera

Yiwei Chen 

Sound Recordist

Braulio Lin

Gaffer

Cedric Cheung-Lau

Editor

Siyi Chen

Assistant Editor

Jiani Wang

Sound Mixer

Haowen Deng

Colorist

Hansen Lin

Narrator

Cindy Gao

Location

Chinese Theatre Works

Archival Photos Furnished by

New York University, The Acton Photograph Archive, Villa La Pietra, Florence

The Loewentheil China Photography Collection

FOR BLACK ROBIN MEDIA

Executive Producer

Lynne Robinson

FOR PBS

Executive In Charge

Maribel Lopez

Director of Programming

Gabrielle Ewing

Fact Checker

Yvonne McGreevy

Series Branding

Leah Nichols

Project Manager for PBS Creative Voices

Nina Shelton

Sr. Director of Programming/Development for PBS Creative Voices

Wendy Llinas

Original Production Funding provided by Anne Ray Foundation.

The Story In Us is a production of Wooden Fish Pictures, LLC in association with Black Robin Media for PBS Digital Studios. 

This program is produced by Wooden Fish Pictures, LLC, which is solely responsible for its content.