Biography
Rain Li was born and raised in China.
She left the country the age of 15 to England, in order to learn English and presume her dream. Through only a few months of language training and part-time jobs, she had discovered her passion for lighting. Her 2 year training as an electrician on short films, commercials and features films, had led to camera assisting, and then later to cinematography at the age of 18.
By age twenty-six, she had shot 12 features, twenty-five short films, numerous popular commercials, music videos and also interesting art and fashion projects.
Since early 2005, she has been collaborating with renowned cinematographer/director Christopher Doyle (‘In the Mood for Love’, ‘Hero’, ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’, Lady in the Water etc), on twelve projects to date. She has also collaborated with many internationally renown directors, including Jim Jarmusch, Gus Van Sant and Mike Figgis. Her recent film, “Paranoid Park” by Gus Van Sant, received “Special Prize of International Cannes Film Festival 60th Anniversary” in 2007.
In fashion, she has worked with many extraordinary international designers, such as Dries Van Noten, Yohji Yamamoto, etc.
She was voted one of the ‘10 Best Cinematographers’ of The Year’ by Variety in 2007 and received the ‘Best Cinematography’ award from the Boston Film Critic in 2009. Hollywood Reporter has featured her to be one of the most talented cinematographers in the next generation.
She is a unique filmmaker, who has a creative vision, mind and life experiences in both western and eastern cultures. Her work has been described as “romanticism vs aggression” and “surrealism vs reality”.
Her current focus is to return to China to bring her unique experiences, talent, and skills to Chinese film and artistic industry, in order to taking it to an much more international level.
Paranoid Park was in the official selection in Cannes 2007 and has won The Special Prize of the 60th Anniversary at the festival