Stephane Gauger

Born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Orange County, California, Mr. Gauger received a BA degree in Theatre and French literature at Cal State Fullerton. Mr. Gauger subsequently worked in the camera and lighting departments on independent films in the U.S. and Southeast Asia, including Three Seasons, Green Dragon, and Journey from the Fall, all the while honing his writing and directing craft on short films. His feature directing debut, Owl and the Sparrow, shot on location in Saigon, premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2007 and was winner of more than ten awards at international festivals, including the audience award at the Los Angeles Film Festival, the emerging filmmaker award at the Denver Film Festival, and the best narrative feature at the San Francisco International Asian American Festival. Mr. Gauger was featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of 2007. He was also nominated for breakthrough director at the Gotham Awards and the John Cassavetes award at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Shalom Almond

Shalom is a South Australian documentary filmmaker who has firmly established herself in making character-driven social justice films in Australia and overseas. Over the past few years Shalom has won several awards for her work, including winning the 2001 South Australian Film Corporation’s Film Maker of the Future $50,000 Award for the short drama 1 day 2 tracks. Shalom’s recent directing highlights for clients include The Love Market (2008), a documentary which follows the lives of four hill tribe girls in the north of Vietnam struggling to come of age in the face of tourism, and Sisters in the Sector (2006), a documentary exploring the role of key Aboriginal women in government. Currently, Shalom is also working on several projects, including Chasing Shadows about the journey of three young Aboriginal men trying to carve out a career in the Hip Hop music industry and My Long Neck about the story of a young Long Neck Karen refugee woman stuck in a fake Thai run tourist village.

S. Leo Chiang

Filmmaker S. Leo Chiang was born in Taiwan and lives in San Francisco. Leo’s previous films include To You Sweetheart, Aloha (co-directed with Mercedes Coats; Audience Award, LA Asian Pacific Film Festival ’05; PBS broadcast ’06), One + One (CINE Golden Eagle Award, ’02), and Safe Journey (Audience Award –Drama, PlanetOut.com Short Movie Award ’02). For his projects, Leo received funding support from Corporation for Public Broadcasting through Independent Television Services (ITVS), Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), and the Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC), as well as the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Yale School of Art Shenkin Fellowship, and other foundations. In addition, his work as an editor and/or cinematographer can be seen on PBS, HBO, Showtime, and the Discovery Channels. Leo is also a member of New Day Films, the famed social-issue documentary distribution co-op.

Ryan Kim

Ryan Kim was born in a manger twenty-five years ago today, not to save earth’s people, but to continually disappoint his parents. He spends the bulk of his day thinking up entirely unrealistic film ideas and ways to avoid real work. When he is not wasting everyone’s time, he enjoys consuming an unfair allotment of the world’s oxygen supply. Otherwise, he never refuses a tall glass of non-domestic lager and the occasional backrub. Please give him money.

Regina Park

Regina Park is a second-generation Korean-American and graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English and Film Studies. Her feature narrative script, Morning Calm, was funded by the Center for Asian American Mediaand was an official selection of the 2000 International Film Financing Conference in San Francisco. In May 2007 Regina won a Silver Remi Award for her first documentary feature film, Never Perfect, at the 40th Houston WorldFest Film Festival. The film had its world premiere and national broadcast at the EBS International Documentary Festival in Seoul, Korea. It had its US television broadcast in May 2008 on MHz Worldview to launch its Asian Pacific American Awareness Month. It is an official selection of several international festivals, sold its distribution rights to Cinema Guild, and is represented by Smiley Film Distribution & World Sales. Regina is currently fundraising for her second documentary, Freed (working title), exploring human trafficking and the sexual servitude of Asian women in the US. Freed is the recipient of the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media.

Phan Y Ly

Phan Y Ly was a development worker for UNDP and INGO’S in Vietnam for three years before pursing and MA in Theater and Media for Development at the University of Winchester in Winchester, England. She facilitates groups of children, young people, and adults. Using a wide range of creative processes and techniques, including art and media, she tries to create dialogue within and between individuals in order to enable new types of awareness and action.

In addition to her community work, Ly is also the founder and artistic director of SameStuff Theatre - the first independent experimental theatre group in Vietnam. Phan Y Ly’s professional experience, creative collaborations, consultancies and independent projects cover Vietnam, the UK, Kenya, Thailand and the Philippines.

Nguyen Vinh Son

Born in 1953, Nguyen Vinh Son grew up during the war between North and South Vietnam. He began his career as a photographer, then moved into filmmaking, inspired to tell the stories of those lives who have been devastated by war and poverty. In addition to the numerous films he has directed for Vietnamese TV, Nguyen Vinh Son’s feature films include Fierce Childhood, The Last Knight, and The Sweet Motherland, which won the Silver Lotus Prize, the Jury’s Excellent Prize, and the Excellent Director Award at the 9th Vietnam National Film Festival. As well as directing films, Nguyen Vinh Son teaches filmmaking at San Khau Dien Anh University in Ho Chi Minh City.

Nguyen Trinh Thi

Nguyen Trinh Thi is a Hanoi-based independent documentary filmmaker, who has made documentaries including A Chung King Road Opening (2005), which explores the impacts of gentrification on immigrant communities in Chinatown, Los Angeles, and Love Man Love Woman (2007), which looks at the Mother Goddess religion and homosexuality in Vietnam. It won the Best Documentary Film Award at the Cambodian International Film Festival in 2007. She also founded Hanoi Independent Documentary and Experimental Filmmakers Forum (HI-DeFF) that hosts biweekly meetings and screenings in Hanoi. Nguyen Trinh Thi’s previous professional experiences include working as a journalist for major news organizations including Reuters, the BBC, the Vietnam Investment Review and the Vietnam Economic Times. She holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Iowa, and a Master’s in Pacific International Affairs from the University of California, San Diego. She has also received training in Photography, Ethnographic Film, and Film Editing.

Ngoc Ho

During the last ViFF, Ngoc was merely a volunteer who was blown away at the level of commitment and creativity in the Vietnamese filmmaking community. She finally took things in her own hands and picked up the camera. ?Aldow! is the first short created by Ngoc that was done in collaboration with three other fellow Orange Coast Community students.

Mirabelle Ang

Mirabelle Ang is a filmmaker whose interest in social, cultural and political affairs in her millieu has led her to work in documentaries. Born and raised in Singapore, her documentary, Match Made, has screened at festivals and museums such as the Viennale, Cinéma du Réel, Mar del Plata, Full Frame and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She received her MFA in Film and Video at California Institute of the Arts in 2006 and is currently based in Los Angeles.

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