Emory Chao Johnson is a filmmaker based on unceded Tongva land (Alhambra, CA) primarily working in hybrid cinema. His films focus on looking deeply beyond expectations with a trans point of view. Their previous directorial effort, To Write From Memory (2023), premiered at Berlinale and was nominated for a TEDDY, the queer film award at Berlinale. It won Best International Short Film at Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival. In 2026, the film returned to Berlinale in a retrospective shorts program celebrating 40 years of TEDDY.

F1-100 (2021), their previous short, screened at Hawai‘i International Film Festival, Filmfest Dresden, and won jury awards at Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and CAAMFest.

Emory was a fellow on Sam Feder’s Disclosure and part of OutFest OutSet filmmakers program. Currently, Emory is directing a documentary short with Tadashi Nakamura (Third Act) producing. Emory holds an MFA in Film from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television.

In addition to his creative practice, Emory has worked in support of diverse voices in front of and behind the camera as an oral history videographer, and as former staff at the Asian American Documentary Network and Visual Communications.