Just months after Cathy Yan’s feature directing debut, Shanghai-set ensemble comedy “Dead Pigs,” made a big splash at Sundance in 2018, the Chinese-born filmmaker landed a gig helming a giant studio franchise movie, the DC Comics adaptation “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn),” starring Margot Robbie.Going straight from indie buzz to a blockbuster budget has become an increasingly familiar career path for a hot new director — except for women of color like Yan.
For one, despite winning a special jury prize at Sundance, “Dead Pigs,” which is largely in Mandarin (and some English), still doesn’t have U.S.
distribution.
For another, you can count the number of women who’ve directed a major comic book movie on a single hand.
A former journalist, the 33-year-old Yan grew up outside Washington, D.C., on a varied cinematic diet ranging from “The Lion King” and
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