I make stories, images, and things that bring people together.

I’m Roselyle Zhao (赵北一), also known as Abei or “活人阿北”, a filmmaker and multidisciplinary creator based in New York.

I work across documentary, photography, original series and interactive projects. Relationships, queer experience, cultural displacement and the search for belonging run through much of what I make.

My practice moves between observing real life and imagining other ways to live it. A Wayfarer is a personal film about identity and displacement; The Margins follows questions of migration, family and belonging. Better Match uses a fictional queer dating show to explore how people negotiate their needs and connections.

Photography offers another kind of conversation. In Creative Portrait, I develop each concept around the person in front of the camera, making room for their inner world as well as their appearance.

Abei Lab extends that curiosity into games, travel tools and small interactive experiments. Sapphic Sins, co-created with my friend and business partner Daisy Jiang, brings women’s experiences and sapphic humor to the party-game table.

I work from concept through production and editing, bringing a filmmaker’s attention to people, rhythm and detail into each medium. Sometimes that means a documentary; sometimes a portrait or a game. The form changes with the story.