dan yang
Qhia Dab Neeg Spotlight Filmmaker
Don’t be afraid to share your stories, to use your voice, because we are a people with no land, we are a people with no country, but we have our voice, and that’s one of the strongest things that we can use. … Continue to tell stories because in a hundred years from now, that’s all we’ll have—our stories and our films and our movies.
Dan Yang, also known by his artist name Dan You, is a Hmong filmmaker based in the Twin Cities. His filmmaking journey began through his involvement with the Qhia Dab Neeg Film Festival, an experience that led him to study cinema at Columbia College Chicago. Over more than a decade, Yang has worked across experimental, narrative, and documentary filmmaking. More recently, he has focused on documentary work as a way to address the limited representation of Hmong experiences within the form. His work is grounded in a commitment to authentic Hmong storytelling and to ensuring that the stories, voices, and experiences of Hmong people are documented and carried forward for future generations.
Qhia Dab Neeg: 50 Years of Hmong Film in Minnesota has been financed in part with funds provided by the State of Minnesota through the Minnesota Historical Society from the Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.