by Mia Butter // Feb. 12, 2026
Artist and filmmaker Viv Li was born and raised in Beijing, but has lived abroad for 15 years—a fact that has inspired several of her films, in which she navigates identity politics and belonging. An alumna of the Sundance Institute and Berlinale Talents, her latest film ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest’ is having its world premiere at the 2026 Berlinale, featured in the Panorama Dokumente section.
The feature-length film was directed, written and shot by the artist. She also collaborated with cinematographer Janis Mazuch to capture some of the scenes where Li herself was in front of the camera. Following her semi-autobiographical character through the cultural landscape of Berlin and Beijing, the film presents the artist as a “misfit” between two cultures. Tackling themes of migration, belonging in a globalized world and self-acceptance, ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest’ explores the local queer scene in Berlin, traditional family values in China and the state of limbo in which the protagonist finds herself. In our conversation, Li discusses beauty discovered through the lens of a camera, her happenstance “landing” in Berlin and her ongoing journey of self-discovery.
Viv Li, portrait // Photo by Beth Mickalonis
Mia Butter: You’ve lived in the UK, China, Mexico, Iceland and the Philippines, to name a few countries. What brought you to Germany? Why Berlin?
Viv Li: Actually, it’s not a very romantic answer, but I came to Berlin in 2020. I had just graduated from my master’s degree when the pandemic hit, and a ticket to go back to China was super expensive. I thought I could just stay for a while until the pandemic passed, but as a Chinese person in Europe, you need all kinds of different visas. I found out that only Berlin has this artist visa, so I applied for my master’s degree in Hungary and then I got the artist visa. To my surprise, I actually used the pandemic to focus on writing and thinking about my film career. I got funding and things started rolling, so I stayed. Unlike other people that had all these dreams about Berlin, I just landed here and discovered Berlin after I came here, actually.
Viv Li: ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest,’ 2026, film still // Copyright Viv Li, Corso Film
MB: Can you tell us about the meaning behind the title of your latest film ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest’?
VL: When I came [to Berlin], I entered the queer scene and had a lot of queer friends and I started reflecting on my own identity. I think Berlin is actually the perfect place [for that]. It’s a city of searching and you’re constantly stimulated by different questions, your environment, activities and events. Then I started thinking about my childhood and problems and the first thing that came to mind were my breasts, my chest. When I was young, I was really ashamed of them, and I thought, what an annoying thing to have in front of your chest as a woman. It was something that I thought a lot about and for a moment I was thinking that it defines my identity and my characters. I wanted to be more tomboyish and I wanted to be more non-binary. I used to hide my chest as well so I think it represents a lot of my identity confusion and searching. So, the title came from the two mountains weighing down my chest. I just really wanted to get rid of them, but of course later on the film evolved into a broader landscape. I still like the title and it also represents where I’m coming from, where I live. It’s two separate places and separate identities, and that’s why I kept the title and made it a bit more ambiguous.
Viv Li: ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest,’ 2026, film still // Copyright Viv Li, Corso Film
MB: Without going too deep into the plot of the film, your character is physically moving between continents—from New York to Berlin to Beijing—how does this cultural whiplash that your character experiences manifest in your wider practice?
VL: I grew up in China. I was born and raised here until I was almost 20 years old. When I finished university, I wanted to go see the rest of the world, that’s why I went to so many different countries. I wanted to see how other people live. I didn’t really foresee the side effects that come with it: that while you live there, you stay longer and you try to understand, and by understanding, you try to learn. It becomes part of you, and then when you move to another place, you have to do the same thing again and again. I realized that it has become a common practice for me to understand, to learn new things, and then to also go back to my old self. I realized that I don’t need to go back to the Philippines to think in a Filipino way, I don’t need to be in New York to think like New Yorkers might think. Sometimes I think differently moment by moment. Nowadays, the world is so globalized, and people live in different places and carry different identities within them. Speaking to my friends, they were like, “I shift between my thoughts constantly” and that’s what I’m trying to represent. I feel like this experience is a fundamental element in all my films and in my artistic practice, because it’s who I am and I can’t work without it anymore.
Viv Li: ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest,’ 2026, film still // Copyright Viv Li, Corso Film
MB: There were some really beautiful shots in the film, with such great texture and color grading that it felt like it was shot on film. Was it? What’s your approach to filmmaking in that sense?
VL: I shot 70% of the film by myself, given the nature of the film, and it is completely shot on a digital camera. We did have really beautiful moments, and I was looking for that as well. Especially when I’m back in China, I realize that there are a lot of things that you don’t really see when you don’t turn on a camera. You realize how beautiful something is when you try to frame it for the camera, and then you suddenly realize: “oh my god, this place is so beautiful.” There is a temple that I go to every time I come back to Beijing. I never thought it was beautiful, but then you turn the camera on… I think with the help of a camera, you can see a lot of beautiful things. And I really took my time to search for the right framing. […] I think our colorist did a really good job, as well. After he watched the film, he realized that the film is about how memory works and how there is a certain melancholy about memories and intimacy and relationships. He put some grain on it to give it more of a melancholic feeling.
Viv Li: ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest,’ 2026, film still // Copyright Viv Li, Corso Film
MB: You have previously made films tackling themes like belonging, migration and alienation, such as ‘I don’t feel at home anywhere anymore’ and ‘A Soil A Culture A River A People.’ Is there an evolution of those themes between the films? How do they tie into the sentiments shown in ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest’?
VL: For me, it’s like a bounce back. I am currently bouncing back. It’s like playing ball. When I went to the UK, it was my first time going abroad. Back then, I wanted to fit in and be a part of the community when I was studying drama there. I tried really hard to adjust myself to different situations in the UK and South America and the Philippines. In the Philippines, I was working, and spending time with a lot of musicians, so I was sleeping late and trying to be a musician. And now, as you grow up and work on different projects, you try to explore how these things affect you and how you grow from them. Now I’m going backwards, I feel like I am trying to return to my roots again. I never really understood this before but now is a moment where I want to go deeper into myself and to see the roots of who I am and where I really belong. I think my films and my work really helped me reach this point. When I moved abroad, I wanted to prove that I can live here and I can be a global citizen. From that I experienced this distancing from my own identity and trying to wear more hats. I feel more confident now, after [creating] several works and living abroad for almost 15 years, and I just want to eat Chinese food every day, be completely comfortable and stay in my childhood home.
Viv Li: ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest,’ 2026, film still // Copyright Viv Li, Corso Film
MB: There are moments in the film that hint at being filmed during the pandemic, while others feel more recent. How long did it take you to create ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest’? What was the process like, and how did you navigate that?
VL: I shot for five years, so the first footage that I used in the film was from late 2019, and the last was shot in 2025. It was really hard to shoot this for five years, and there was a moment where I got really tired. When you get really tired, you put this pressure on yourself, and from others as well, to keep doing it. Then there are times I also realized, if you feel like you don’t want to shoot at this moment, then that means you are not going to shoot. So we were not shooting continuously for five years.
In 2019, I made my documentary short film ‘I Don’t Feel At Home Anywhere Anymore’, which was a university assignment. That was the first footage I shot that I used in this film, but also that was an exploration of how I wanted to do that assignment. And then the film that I made from the assignment did really well in the festival circuit. That was also my first time realizing that I’m not trying to make a film that looks like other films, I am just doing whatever I feel like this film should be. It really inspired me because before I made maybe five or six different short films and they didn’t go anywhere, and then this short film that I made, I just put the camera there and people liked the film. I analyzed why that was, but it was probably because I was authentic to the format true to myself. I was really excited and inspired by that and I wanted to further explore how to make films in this way. That’s why I started my feature film, but I would say that for the first two years, it was exploration. Sometimes you film a lot of things and it doesn’t go into the final cut, but they’re also very important for you to find the form and wait for the right thing to click.
Screening Info
Berlinale 2026
Viv Li: ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest’
Screenings: Feb. 13-21, 2026
berlinale.de/programme/202606587
Various Cinemas
