Ivy Lin is a storyteller with in-depth observation and genuine curiosity to engage with people and places she encounters.
Ivy was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan.
As a first-generation Taiwanese-American immigrant in her family, she currently lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Ivy learned how to tell stories through playing piano and cello in her youth and now she tells stories through her camera lens.
In addition to storytelling, traveling and learning languages are Ivy’s other two life-long passions. She has traveled to 23 countries and attempted learning Italian, French, German, Czech, Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese and Korean along the way.
Ivy is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese and English.
She speaks early-advanced level Korean and intermediate level Norwegian.
With unique life and travel experiences, Ivy has a keen eye and a good nose for discovering compelling but overlooked stories. Her style of storytelling and cinematography brings her audiences into her world of time travel with ease and grace.
Ivy has produced/directed 5 feature films and 50+ short films since year 2000. Her work has been screened at 15 film festivals in Asia, Europe and U.S. Her work has also been featured at Asian American museums in New York and Seattle. Oregon Humanities and City of Portland have commissioned Ivy to produce short films featuring overlooked history in Oregon.
"Portland documentarian Ivy Lin has a patient, naturalistic eye for the boarded-over and fenced-off bits of the city's history.
Her camera is an unflashy reservoir of lost places." (film review by Aaron Mesh of Willamette Week, July 21, 2010)