Programmer and Community Liaison | Angelina is a visual storyteller with almost 20 years experience in the art of image-making. She uses photography and filmmaking to tell stories that are thoughtful, inspiring, and always, personal. Her Vancouver-based company, Curly Tail Pictures, produces promotion, educational/training and event videos for non-profit organizations and small businesses.

Assistant Festival Director | Arthur Louie doesn’t have many ties to the film community outside of VAFF, but for some reason he keeps helping out with the festival every year. As Assistant Festival Director, he works behind the scenes and tries to make things run as smoothly as possible.

President | 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.

Director of Social Media/Editor | Passionate about all things media and technology-related, Clement’s interests include film, music, graphic design and photography, especially exploring the relationships between these different mediums. Through his work and studies, he is experienced in writing, editing and design. Clement is looking forward to connecting with you all online through Facebook, Twitter, the VAFF newsletter and of course, in person!

Social Media Writer | Felix Cheng Hong Kong baby turned Vancouverite. Learned English in front of TV. Now works in TV. Tiptoed into Emily Carr’s Film/Video program. Graduated with Bachelor of Media Arts. Grad film premiered at VAFF ‘06. Dabbles in writing, photo, design. Digs movies. Former VAFF programmer. Nice to see you all again.

MAMM Producer & Festival Director | 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.

Senior Programmer/Curator | As a writer, sometimes ‘slash’ director, Kathy’s films have screened at numerous festivals, receiving two Golden Sheaf nominations and a Leo award nomination. Her scripts were selected for Whistler International Film Festival’s Short Scripts Competition and twice for CityTV’s Cinecity Initiatives as well as produced for broadcast on CityTV. Last winter, “Red Letters”, an original musical she co-wrote was produced by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre and toured three cities in BC.

Programmer | Jennifer is a Programmer with VAFF and has a background in independent production and lifestyle television. Her passion is with community productions promoting cultural diversity and alternative living. She is currently a promo editor for the Knowledge Network / BBC Kids and has worked as an editor for CBC’s Living Vancouver, Anna & Kristina’s Grocery Bags and GetConnected.

Media Coordinator & Graphic Designer | Experienced PR professional with extensive background in entertainment and media industries, Lei has proven records on developing diverse projects about design branding and event production in the fields of marketing and communications. Lei is also a qualified designer, her creative skills include graphic and web design, motion design and video editing. Through a quality work for VAFF about design and marketing, she enjoys social networking inside and outside of film industry. Fully trilingual in English, French and Chinese, Lei is pursuing a professional development in event management and helping organizations in global market.

Volunteer Coordinator | Mark is an independent film enthusiast. Born in Seoul, Mark moved to Vancouver with his family when he was fifteen. His passion for cinema is perhaps influenced by an artistic family (his older brother is an artist and his younger brother is a guitarist). Though he went on to pursue his field in accounting, his infatuation towards the art of filmmaking grows stronger. Mark would like to thank all the filmmakers for fostering cultural diversity in North America, and also VAFF for providing such a wonderful scene.

Web Content Administrator | Mona Mok is a director with a background in sound design as a graduate from Vancouver Film School’s Sound Design program. Mona’s most recent project is a feature length comedy entitled Everything Louder Than Everything Else which premiered at the Whistler Film Festival in 2010. She was also co-director/editor/producer for a feature length documentary about Vancouver indie rock band Ladyhawk’s recording session in an abandoned farmhouse in Kelowna entitled, Let Me Be Fictional.

YouTube Channel Manager | Paul Antony Carr is a visual artist interested in relationships between image and text – the types of relationships that just so happen to pop up both in film and on the internet fairly frequently.

Director of Community Development | Pennylane Shen is the co-founder and Art Director of Dazed and Confucius. A business dedicated to the development and consulting of non-profits and emerging artists. She holds a Master’s Degree in Visual Culture Theory from NYU. In the field of Cultural and Social Criticism, she has lectured at various forums in New York; London; Toronto; Chicago and Seoul. In Vancouver, Pennylane manages the figurative artists’ collective Phantoms in the Front Yard, teaches at Langara College and is an associate of the Elliott Louis Gallery.

Honourary Executive | 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.

Programmer & Community Outreach | Raahul has been acting in film, TV and on stage across North America since graduating from theatre school at the Gastown Actors Studio. Being a film buff, he is delighted to be part of the Programming team for the Vancouver Asian Film Festival this year. Raahul has teamed up with festival director, Grace Chin as an actor and co-producer on two of her independent stage productions, “The Quicky” and “The C-Word” which she wrote and produced and also on his film, “Commitment” Which he wrote and directed. “Commitment” screened at VAFF in 2011 and a host of festivals in North America and the UK, and after attending many festivals, Raahul chose VAFF as his favourite because of the super team and great food at their parties! This year he has been able to juggle film and TV roles in Vancouver as well as Programming for VAFF and writing his next film.

Graphic Designer | Silky is a recent graduate of Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Graphic Design for Marketing. She is currently free-lancing in Vancouver while working on several volunteering projects doing branding, website designs, and template layouts. Although she works mainly as a graphic designer, she is also an illustrator, night owl and a food inhaling machine. This is her first year as a VAFF volunteer!

Volunteer Coordinator | Hailing from Germany, Thomas has lived in Canada for more than 13 years. He loves new and ancient cultures. Educated as an Egyptologist at Liverpool in the UK, he also spent a year in Korea teaching ESL. Now he’s back in Vancouver and he’s brought ancient Egypt with. Currently as Volunteer Coordinator with VAFF, he’s excited in working with the many volunteers in making this year’s festival a sweet 16 to remember.

Director of Marketing & Programmer | French fries, shiitake mushrooms, black-ink pens, the colour pink, and films – these are a few of Winnie’s favourite things. Winnie feels blessed to live in Vancouver – a city that, like the festival, celebrates diversity and allows both sides of her identities to grow and thrive. She appreciates good translations in subtitles and loves all Johnny Depp movies. (Well, maybe not The Tourist.) Winnie has years of experience in marketing and event planning, and is happy to be a part of the VAFF team.