Barbara is a writer and independent filmmaker in Vancouver and has worked as a broadcast journalist and reporter. In 1998, she received the regional and national Radio and Television News Directors’ Association (RTNDA) Award for Best Editorial and is the National Film Board Pacific Region’s REEL DIVERSITY 2004 winner and has recently completed and aired her documentary IN BETWEEN THE LAUGHTER. Barbara founded the Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF) to promote realistic portrayals of Asians in film and television and to provide a venue for struggling Asian filmmakers to showcase their work.

As past festival director and executive director and handling programming and advisory duties this year, Peter continues to channel his inner-Asian. Conceived in Kowloon and raised on Fantasy Island and Captain Crunch, Peter is fortunate to be allergic to math and chicken’s feet and aspires to doctor… his transcripts. He continues to channel his inner-filmmaker every summer as co-founder of the Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon (MAMM) along with Barbara Lee.

This is Arthur’s fifth year with VAFF, and his second as the assistant festival director. He’s a mild-mannered software developer who enjoys supporting the local arts scene. While he doesn’t have much film production experience, he occasionally feels the burden of celebrity when he’s mistaken for “Henry” from TV’s UGLY BETTY.

Kathy has been involved in film production as a writer and director after writing her first screenplay, LILY’S CRICKETS. Her scripts were selected for the Whistler International Film Festival’s Short Scripts Competition and Citytv’s Cinecity program. She also co-founded Scripting Aloud, a monthly script-reading series featuring pan-Asian writers and their content: www.scriptingaloud.ca

Yoosik is a Vancouver Film School graduate and an executive member of VAFF since 2005. He works as a freelance animator and storyboard artist for various clients, and has worked at local studios on TV animation projects. He has represented VAFF at the San Francisco Asian Film Festival, and attended the San Diego Comic-Con as a learning experience (and, yes, to stalk a few celebrities). He is mostly well known, by his Facebook friends, as that guy who keeps saying he’s preparing for glory!

Mona Mok is Festival Programmer and MAMM Technical Coordinator for the Vancouver Asian Film Festival. After graduating in 2004 from the Sound Design for Visual Media Program at Vancouver Film School, Mona worked on several short films as the sound editor and realized that she was more interested in being a director. She has directed several short films as well as a feature length music documentary about B.C. indie rock band, Ladyhawk, where she travelled to Kelowna to film the band record their album in an old farmhouse.

Mangla Bansal is a young Indo-Canadian filmmaker born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is a graduate from Capilano College. She shot her first two documentaries in India dealing with international issues, as well as, personal stories. Mangla’s passion in filmmaking revolves around meaningful stories, but, a sense of humour is just as important to her. She has worked in the film and television industry in various roles. Mangla just completed production of her latest film, ‘Sindoor’. This is Mangla Bansal’s first year as a programmer for The Vancouver Asian Film Festival.

The love of travel, images and creativity inevitability drew Imelda to film. She has been involved in film festivals for nearly 10 years in Toronto, Vancouver, and Beijing. This is her second year with the VAFF committee and she looks forward to seeing an amazing variety of films, meeting other cinephiles, and working with dedicated volunteers.

This is Janette Lau’s third year as a VAFF executive. In past years, she had such a fantastic time as an event volunteer that she decided to recruit and organize all the VAFF volunteers. This year she is honoured to be back for more high-flying, wok-cooking, kung-fu chopping good times!

Grace Chin is a Vancouver, British Columbia-based writer, editor and consultant. She is also a member of the Playwrights Theatre Centre (PTC) and the Editors’ Association of Canada. Produced works include Twisting Fortunes, The Quickie, and most recently, The C-Word, all at the PTC. Grace has worked as a writer, performer and producer with Theatre in the Raw, Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, CBC Radio British Columbia, Channel M (now Omni), Shaw Multicultural Channel, the Cineworks Independent Filmmakers’ Society, and the Vancouver Asian Film Festival. Her short fiction appears in Strike the Wok: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Canadian Fiction, and online in the CBC Radio Three British Columbia archives, Volume 1, Issue 25, Item 23—Playing With New Words: Discovering Asian Literature. She has also authored book reviews for Ricepaper magazine, and co-produces a pan-Asian script reading series, Scripting Aloud.

Alfred Gordon Liu is a veteran Might Asian Movie Making Marathon filmmaker, actor, director, writer, producer and team leader. Competing and placing in the top 3 every year he has participated in 2005, 2006, 2007, a filmmakers hat trick.
In 2008, he personally took step back, supported a few friends and teams thru out their MAMM experience. And now in 2009, it is official, Alfred Gordon Liu will be our MAMM Mentor helping filmmakers produce the high quality films as the bar is constantly being raised year to year.
His entries have always pushed the edge of film making, working with kids, musicals, green screen, animals, special effects within the time crunch of MAMM. Alfred understand the pressure, the time constraint, the challenges, the tricks, and more importantly how to do guerilla film making without being fined by the cops. Draw upon his experiences from the start to the finish line.

Tammy aims to work much like her business – integrity, generosity and fun. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, she was often exposed to traditional Chinese work ethics and values that were passed down from generations and generations of nagging. Tammy has volunteered at several organizations from as long as she can remember. Over her work career, she has developed and originated new programs, including mentorship and employee assessment programs. This all foreshadowed her founding My Loud Speaker a marketing and recruiting organization dedicated to bringing businesses and NewGens together.

After graduating from the Animation program at Emily Carr, Mark has been working as an Animator, Painter, Web Designer, and Sales clerk at SFU’s very own computer store! Come by and check out our wide computer selection!

His first experience with VAFF was when his graduating film was screened at the festival. He knew then that he wanted to support VAFF for their diverse array of film selections and upcoming filmmakers. As a graduate of Emily Carr University, Hao works in various types of mediums. He is a graphic designer for VAFF 09, and is looking forward to make eye popping artwork everywhere!

Lydia works and experiments with a diverse range of media (past projects involve photography, illustration, animation, comics, zines, and design). Her ECU grad film “Permute” screened last year at VAFF 2008 and has also been exhibited at film festivals internationally. She likes drinking tea and coffee, watching film noirs, reading science fiction and is also a classically trained pianist.

Although technically trained to be a science-geek-wannabe, Ann is really a film/theatre/production-geek-wannabe at heart. She wishes to see more realistic Asian-North American representations in mainstream cinema, and so, encourages all types of art that features Asian gangs filled with martial artists, geishas, and rooftop-flying folks. “They exist, y’know.”