Ten years, one global family

At just 18 years old and still a high school student, Chen Yinuo has made history by becoming the youngest winner of the Best Web Documentary Award at the 21st Chinese-American Film and TV Festival, held in Los Angeles on Nov 6.

Her award-winning project, Ten Years Between Us, is a deeply personal six-episode documentary series that explores her journey of reconnecting with over 20 "au pair sisters" from around the world.

When Chen was 5, her parents joined a volunteer program, welcoming young women from across the globe into their home. These "au pairs" became a unique part of Chen's childhood. Now, 13 years later, she has returned to those memories in her documentary, which streams on iQiYi and Tencent from Nov 20 to Jan 1,2026.

Chen credits much of her personal growth and the creative drive behind her work to one special person — Lisa, an au pair from the United States who stayed with the family when Chen was in third grade. Lisa, a former University of Washington student, was passionate about short filmmaking. During her seven months with the family, she documented nearly every new skill Chen acquired.

"Lisa taught me to ride a bike and fixed a tiny camera to the wheel. The footage amazed me," Chen recalled."When she taught me to swim, she introduced me to underwater filming. That was when I realized how magical images could be."

Through these everyday moments, Lisa helped Chen discover the extraordinary hidden in ordinary life. Before long, Chen became fluent with digital tools at an early age. While still in primary school, she led her classmates in producing a Teachers' Day short film, which later won the Best Short Film Award at the 2017 China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival.

"Once expressing myself through a camera became second nature, I wanted to record even more of the beauty around me," Chen said.

Growing up closely with more than 20 young women from diverse cultural backgrounds, Chen felt their shared humanity far more strongly than their differences. Her Canadian sister, Brooke, once brought her father's ashes to China. That same week, Chen's grandfather also passed away. "As we sat squeezed together in the living room, two very different kinds of grief somehow resonated," Chen recalled.

These intimate exchange experiences not only left a lasting multicultural imprint on Chen but also profoundly shaped her sisters in return. Her US sister, Lauren, had just turned 18 when she began her seven-month stay with Chen. Having no younger siblings, she had never lived with a child for such a long time.

"I realized that every word I said, every gesture I made, was influencing Chen," Lauren recalled. She said the experience taught her the true meaning of responsibility and made her more mindful, patient, and aware of how her actions affected those around her.

Today, Chen's Swedish and British sisters have chosen to remain in China as teachers. Little seems to have changed between them: when Chen waits outside their schools after work, she is reminded of the days when they waited to pick her up after class.

"They've moved from city to city across China since leaving my home, and that alone speaks to this country's pull," Chen said. "In their memories, China has long been a permanent part of their lives."

Collective creation

Behind Ten Years Between Us is a youthful team of global talent. With no start-up funding, Chen built the crew through her school networks.

Her first collaborator was Zou Rongrong, a student preparing to study film production at Emerson College in Boston. "The idea struck her, and she joined right away," Chen said. "That's how the team recruited its first member."

As the project grew, so did the team, eventually including Zhang Jiaming, a music graduate from Germany, to compose the bilingual score, a doctoral team from the Communication University of China for cinematography, and alumni from the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy for editing.

As the project's lead producer, Chen had to master the art of coordination across multiple creative disciplines. She spent nearly a month in detailed discussions with Zhang, shaping the documentary's emotional arcs, visual atmospheres, and musical language, often providing highly specific advice — such as "a music box gentleness here" or "a playful tone there".

At the same time, Chen worked closely with the cinematographers, exploring how natural light could be used to capture the sisters' interactions with subtle authenticity — from fleeting glances in silence to tears at the moment of reunion — all presented in their raw, unfiltered form.

The creative process was far from smooth. Early footage suffered from unstable shots and inconsistent audio, presenting significant challenges for the editing team. Undeterred, they meticulously combed through 286 hours of raw material, refining every frame to preserve both detail and emotional resonance.

The journey also became a period of growth for the young team. Zhang ultimately produced a score he found deeply satisfying, while a novice filmmaker gained invaluable hands-on experience."We didn't just complete a documentary,"Chen reflected. "We became better versions of ourselves by supporting one another."

As a high school student, Chen often felt overwhelmed by the workload."I barely had time to eat or sleep, my eyes always looked puffy on camera, and I came close to breaking down," she recalled. "I thought about quitting countless times." It was the support of her parents and teammates that kept her going.

The story of Ten Years Between Us is still unfolding. Chen has already reconnected with sisters from Finland, Australia, and South Africa, and plans to begin filming season two next year. Together, her young team hopes to build a long-running global storytelling project.

"We want this to become a living, growing international IP — one that tells the simplest human truths through a youthful voice and a global lens," Chen said. "If we can keep filming, decade after decade, maybe one day we'll walk into the Oscars with this work in hand."

duaoran@i21st.cn