Filmmakers & Executive Producers
DIRECTOR, PRODUCER & WRITER
CRYSTAL KWOK
Crystal Kwok is an award winning filmmaker who established her career in Hong Kong as an actress, writer, director, and talk show host. She won the audience choice awards at the 2000 Deauville Asian Film Festival for her debut feature length film, The Mistress. She was commissioned by Canal Plus to document “A Day in the Life of Jackie Chan” as part of the centennial celebration of international directors, She created and produced a bilingual edutainment video series for young children, “The Culture Cubs” and wrote and has staged several original plays about sensitive women’s issues. As a strong women’s advocate, her talk show, “Kwoktalk” broke boundaries in Hong Kong with conversations about women and sexuality. Having moved back to American soil after being overseas for a couple of decades, Kwok now embraces issues closer to home -- that of her Asian-American heritage. Kwok received her PhD in Performance Studies from the University of Hawai’i and also received the prestigious East West Center Scholar awards. She hosts a radio talk show and podcast, “Kwoktalk” on KTUH 90.1 fm, addressing racial and gender issues with a multicultural perspective.
PRODUCER
DANIEL WU
Daniel Wu is an American actor, director and producer based in Hong Kong. He is known as a "flexible and distinctive" leading actor in the Chinese language film industry. Since his film debut in 1998, he has been featured in over 60 films. He also starred in the AMC martial arts drama series Into the Badlands. His recent activism in Anti-Asian hate crimes has made Daniel a prominent voice in the Asian American community.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
LISA LING
Lisa J. Ling is an American journalist, television personality, and author. She is currently the host of This Is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN and has a new show on HBO called Take Out with Lisa Ling. Previously, she was a reporter on Channel One News, a co-host on the ABC daytime talk show The View , the host of National Geographic Explorer , and a special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show and later hosted Our America with Lisa Ling on OWN.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
W. KAMAU BELL
W. Kamau Bell is a stand-up comedian and the host and executive producer of the Emmy Award winning CNN docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell. His latest stand-up comedy special, Private School Negro, is available on Netflix. Kamau wrote a book with the easy-to-remember title, The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6' 4", African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama's Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian. He’s the ACLU Celebrity Ambassador for Racial Justice and serves on the advisory boards of Hollaback! and Donors Choose.
PRODUCER
GUSTIN SMITH
Gustin Smith is an American entertainment executive and producer. He started his career in 2009, working on set in physical production before transitioning to the creative side of the business as a development assistant for Shiny Penny Productions. He joined WME in 2017 and rose through the ranks before moving over to Endeavor Content. With a focus of illuminating diverse voices and elevated storytelling, he founded Village Woods Productions in 2022.
CONSULTING PRODUCER
CONTESSA GAYLES
Contessa Gayles is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist, and an Emmy-nominated producer. She tells stories about identity, movement and social change, with a focus on race, ethnicity and gender. From 2014 - 2018, she was a producer at CNN, where she created, produced, directed, shot and edited award-winning original series and documentaries, including The Feminist on Cellblock Y, Women Who March, Women Who March: The Movement, This Is Birth with Lisa Ling and the 2016 News & Documentary Emmy-nominated Feeding America's Most Vulnerable Children. She has additionally contributed to PBS NewsHour, PBS Frontline, VICE, CBS, Al Jazeera, Vox, WIRED, AFROPUNK and forthcoming independent documentary features, including Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (dir. Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster), Black Mothers (dir. Débora Souza Silva) and Surge (dir. Hannah Rosenzweig, Wendy Sachs). Contessa holds a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.A. in Journalism from New York University, with a concentration in Documentary Film. She is currently creating independent film and media projects under her production company, Cocomotion Pictures, and has been awarded a 2020 SFFilm FilmHouse artist residency.
CONSULTING PRODUCER
JENNIFER LIU
Jennifer Liu is an entertainment executive and producer with expertise in strategic partnership development in the US and China. Her background is in project planning and development, production, marketing, and distribution. She produced Disney’s first US/China co-production “Trail of the Panda”. She was instrumental in bringing Bob Marley’s reggae music into China through Universal Music and Island Records. Jen’s other credits include producing an NAACP-nominated film “Walking on Sunshine” for Black Entertainment Television and co-producing “Roads and Bridges” with Robert Altman.
ANIMATION CONSULTANT
ANN MARIE FLEMING
Ann Marie Fleming is an award-winning Canadian visual artist, writer, director, animator and cross-platform media maker who focuses on themes of family, history, and memory. Ann Marie adapted her 2003 award-winning animated documentary The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam into a graphic novel, which was nominated for two Eisner Awards in 2007 at San Diego’s Comic-Con International as well as being listed on the American Library Association’s Top Ten List for Tens. Ann Marie’s 2016 animated feature Window Horses, about a young Canadian poet discovering her family history, received awards all over the world, including the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated feature, Best Animated Film at the Gijon International Film Festival in Barcelona, the Jury Prize at the Bucheon International Animation Festival in Korea, just to name a few.
EDITOR
KYUNG LEE
Kyung Lee is an Oakland-based filmmaker. She was born and raised in Japan and is of Korean descent. She made her directorial debut in 2014 with TELOS: the Fantastic World of Eugene Tssui, a portrait of a visionary Bay Area architect. The film has been screened at film festivals worldwide and is currently being broadcast nationally on PBS. She is also an experienced documentary film editor. Her editing credits include Big Joy: The Adventures Of James Broughton (2014, SXSW, Tribeca, Frameline, Mill Valley) and Ottomaticake (2017, Hawaii Intl.). Kyung is also currently editing multiple documentary films; Homecoming (2021), (dir. Gemma Cubero del Barrio), Tokyo Hula (2020)(dir. Lisette Marie Flanary), and Mr. Immortal Jellyfish Man (dir. Dicky Dahl).
ANIMATOR
SUKY ZHAO
Suky Zhao is a Chinese American, born and raised in Hawaiʻi. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Animation from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in Fall 2019. She creates dynamic stories with out-of-the box characters inspired by her home and personal experiences. Her past works include: Beauty, a short animation about a dancing rabbit, awarded Best Character Design in the 2019 ACM Awards; The Perfect Fry, a short animated film about a desperately lovestruck french fry and a disinterested burger; and her most recent film, Poked, an animated short about pokey plants in a flower shop. She is currently interning as an illustrator at the Curriculum Research & Development Group.
Watch Suky discuss her animation process for Blurring the Color Line here.
ORIGINAL TAIKO MUSIC
YEEMAN "ManMan" MUI 梅綺雯
Yeeman “ManMan” Mui (they/them) is a taiko artist and facilitator who strives to build an equitable landscape; fostering creativity through multisensory expression. ManMan’s artistic approach challenges capitalistic and elitist societal norms. Their musical space celebrates neurodivergence through different forms of play and their practice encourages mindful connection with one’s body by slowing down to build strength both physiologically and psychosomatically. ManMan found deeper roots with their identity as a HongKonger through researching about the soundscape in Hong Kong Cinema as part of their MPhil in Musicology (2009). ManMan debuted as a taiko soundscape artist for OTHELLO at Hawai’i Theater (2016). As a queer and non-binary immigrant from Hong Kong living in the United States, ManMan has lived a life in constant state of otherness. The fluidity and resonance in taiko has become the purest form of expression for their authentic voice.
Watch ManMan discuss their approach to taiko music composition in Blurring the Color Line here.