Diana “D” Yip: Assistant Editor

What is your name?
Diana “D” Yip

What is your classification or job?
Film & TV Assistant Editor

What was your first union job?
Disney+ Launchpad: Growing Fangs, written and directed by the amazing Ann Marie Pace. I loved being a part of a story that uplifts queer, BIPOC characters.

Who are your influences or mentors?
Shout out to my WOC mentors who offer me guidance through this challenging industry!

What is your guilty pleasure — TV shows or movies?
I’ll watch any women-empowering show or movie from the early 2000s: Buffy, Charlie’s Angels, Legally Blonde, Miss Congeniality, etc., and watch them kick ass on repeat!

What would be your dream project to work on?
I appreciate working on projects that center marginalized communities, so others can see themselves represented on screen — not as stereotypes, not as side characters, but as whole human beings.

What’s a meaningful film to you as an Asian American that you would recommend?
I’m grateful to be in a time where there is more than one Asian American film that I can point to:

• The Joy Luck Club (1993) focuses on mother-daughter relationships and Asian American diasporic storytelling that made me feel seen on screen for the first time ever. Twenty years after my first watch, I met the editor, Maysie Hoy, who graciously shared her filmmaking journey with me. It gave me hope that I could be a storyteller in this whitewashed industry.
• Saving Face (2004) is a pivotal queer Asian American movie where I started to feel less alone in my journey. This on-screen representation showed acceptance of all kinds of love and encouraged me to hold space for myself.
• Crazy Rich Asians (2018) takes a classic American genre and puts Asian Americans at the center. The story focuses solely on love, and the characters just happen to be Asian.
• Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) is the story of my life: a queer Asian American daughter growing up in a laundromat, enduring a tumultuous relationship with immigrant parents. This film healed parts of me, and it also helped that Daniel Kwan and Michelle Yeoh told me face-to-face that everything will be okay.
• Joy Ride (2023), edited by the brilliant Nena Erb, brought me a euphoric feeling that I didn’t know I was missing. It’s the first film I’ve seen where my family’s village dialect was represented on the big screen. It’s not Mandarin or Cantonese — it’s Toisan!