Jess X. Snow is a filmmaker, multi-disciplinary artist, writer and cultural worker of the JiangXi Chinese diaspora. Through a wide range of mediums—their work re-imagines mental health, the collective unwellness of the American dream, kinships across cultures and species, abolitionist futures. They are committed to immersing audiences in queer Asian immigrant worlds rarely seen in cinema and literature.

Recently named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film, their genre-bending short films unveil how flawed Asian queers live, heal and refuse with bold visuals and poetic lyricism. A prolific writer/director who sometimes stars in their own work, Jess’s shorts have been taught widely in university classrooms and screened at dozens of film festivals worldwide including BlackStar, New Orleans, Ann Arbor, BFI London Flare, Outfest LA, Cinequest (Best Student Short) & Durban International Film Festival. As a writer/director, their films have been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Cine Qua Non Lab, BAFTA, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Tribeca Film Institute. They contributed cinematography to several narrative and documentary films shot in North America, the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, Vietnam and the Philippines supported by Sundance, ITVS, PBS and Topic. They are in development for two narrative features, WHEN THE RIVER SPLIT OPEN, and WHEN WE WERE DRAGONS. Recently they recieved their MFA in writing/directing from NYU Graduate film where they were an Ang Lee Scholar. 

A member of the Justseeds Artist Co-operative, prior to filmmaking, they spent a decade creating artwork for social movements; leading dozens of community murals on the streets of NYC, Atlanta, Bay Area, and Philadelphia that have been featured on PBS, the LA Times, the SF Chronicle, Hyperallergic and elsewhere. Their picture books include: THE OCEAN CALLS (Kokila/Penguin Kids), a Kirkus and Booklist Best Picture Book of 2020, and the forthcoming WE ALWAYS HAD WINGS (Make Me A World/Random House 2025).

Along with their artistic practice, they’ve shared their artist talks and films at hundreds of universities, high schools, conferences and organizations, and taught screenwriting and community mural making to students of all ages and backgrounds.