Lynne Lee
Festival Director
Lynne Lee is a marcom-turned-film executive working on film development and marketing at Massey Productions Ltd. in Vancouver, Canada. After spending over 15 years in HK and China creating successful award-winning marketing campaigns for fortune 500 conglomerates such as Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and L’Oreal, she moved back to work in film production, specializing in Chinese co-productions, Chinese dialect coaching, and cross-cultural liaison for feature films such as “Birth of the Dragon”, “Meditation Park”, “Skyscraper” amongst others.
Susan Hanson
Festival Director Elect
As a former Business Ed teacher Susan became a Freelance Korean/English Interpreter in 2004. In 2005, Susan pursued her passion for acting which included Stage, Commercial, TV & Film. Susan’s stage debut was in 2018 as “Umma” in the award winning stage performance of “Kim’s Convenience” at Chemainus Theater. As an active member of the entertainment industry, Susan has appeared on TV shows such as, “The Man in The High Castles” and “Woke”.
Regina Leung
PR Director & Sponsorship Relations
With over 18 years of experience in the software industry, she is an operating partner of HyBird Media Group, and responsible for corporate development, investment strategies for start-up and enterprise technology companies, the implementation of digital branding strategies targeting North America and Asia and has been producing multicultural digital content for various media platforms. she is thrilled to be part of the VAFF family.
Loucia Ho
Marketing & Creative Director
Holding a degree in digital media and an MBA, Loucia is excited to bring her combined passion for the arts and business to VAFF. Having a background in marketing, international business development and project management, Loucia has produced award-winning appeals for UBC. She has been training in Muay Thai and Boxing for over 7 years, and an avid coffee drinker for over 10 years.
Rakesh George
Sponsorship Director
An MBA professional who is lived in India, UAE, and Canada, and a business development professional with over 15 years of experience working for brands like Hilton, Starwood, Ferrari World, and Warner Bros World. A collaborative market developer and inclusive leader who has successfully developed business development teams in the U.K, Germany, Russia, and UAE. Enjoy building networks, learning new cultures, and an avid foodie.
PROGRAMMING TEAM
Al Yoshizawa
Programmer
Alejandro Yoshizawa is a filmmaker from Vancouver, Canada, specializing in documentaries and community stories. He worked on the Chinese Canadian Stories project, the UBC Japanese Canadian student tribute project, and the Power of a Name series, among others. His last feature film, the award-winning documentary All Our Father’s Relations premiered in 2016 and was broadcast on CBC and Knowledge Network. Alejandro is an Adjunct Professor at UBC and teaches courses in Film Production and Asian Canadian and Asian Migration studies.
Alina Wong
Programming Assistant & Programmer
Alina holds a B.A. in Psychology from UBC and brings with her a breadth of experience in arts administration. She is incredibly passionate about increasing cultural diversity on the screen and stage. She loves to perform, edit videos, and play ultimate frisbee; perhaps one day she will be able to do all three at once. She is excited to bring her skills and creativity to the VAFF team!
Bon Dos Remedios
Programmer
Bon loves connecting culturally with others by being a perpetual foodie. He also loves celebrating with experimentation as a conceptual artist and indie storyteller. He has been invited to construct Performance Art works in Vietnam, Malaysia and Japan and he has created award winning Theatre locally in Vancouver. Bon is currently collaborating on Short Film projects filmed in Tokyo and Rome. Occasionally, he will also take time out to question,”why do we submit our own bios in third person form?”
Colin Hong
Print Traffic Manager
Colin comes from a very artistic family with his mother being an actress in films, TV, and theatre worldwide. His sister acts in theatre, and Colin acted in TV in the past. Colin”s dream job was to be an Air Traffic Controller but after failing, he never quit until finally he became VAFF’s Print Traffic Controller.
Colin’s real profession is an International Businessman specializing in the world of finance. Colin’s dreams of one day RVing in his future Camper van all over the world…and telling stories and adventures he’s experienced with VAFF.
Colin’s real profession is an International Businessman specializing in the world of finance. Colin’s dreams of one day RVing in his future Camper van all over the world…and telling stories and adventures he’s experienced with VAFF.
Helen Liu
Programmer
Helen is a writer/director born and raised in China, she came to Vancouver for Film study. Her stories are inspired by everyday life, celebrating the ordinary. She values intimate human interactions between people, observing the different dynamic in social groups, relating it back to life around us. In her stories she tries to bring every Character to life, giving them a sense of reality in a dramatic piece.
Sidartha Murjani
Programmer
Storytelling is one of human beings most unsung addictions, we are always telling stories regardless of whether we are conscious of it or not. Starting out in acting, Sidartha eventually begin writing, directing and producing his own films because of the power of films to shape our emotions, consciousness and way of thinking. I am excited to be part of the VAFF community because i get to contribute and learn from the vibrant film community thriving here in Vancouver.
John Thimothy
Programmer
John Thimothy is an Indo – Canadian filmmaker that has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Regina International Film Festival and Awards Foundation (RIFFA) since its inception. John’s tenure at RIFFA has provided him with the opportunity to work very closely with numerous Oscar, Emmy, BAFTA, Indian National Film Awards and Canadian Academy/Screen Award winners. His directorial work has received international recognition with official selections at more than 30 film and media festivals around the world; recently nominated for the Golden Sheaf Award at the 72nd Yorkton Film Festival, was a semi-finalist at the 67th Columbus International Film Festival and was an Official Selection at the 41st Big Muddy Film Festival. John is also a member of the San-Diego International Film Festival programming panel. In 2016 John was a recipient of the Future 40 -People’s Choice Award by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
Yukari Komatsu
Programmer
Yukari (Yuri) is very excited to join the VAFF team. She started taking acting classes at community theatres in 2003 after she moved from Japan to Canada. Since then, she has continued her training in acting, singing, and voiceover. She started auditioning for film & TV in 2012 and has appeared in multiple commercials. Notable film credits include “Godzilla (2014)”, “The Man in the High Castle”, and “Lost in Space”. She is looking forward to continually exploring roles in the arts.
Rosie Hsueh
Programmer
Maggie Lee
Consulting Curator
Maggie is from Vancouver, Canada, and has a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature & Drama from Oxford. She is Chief Asia Film Critic since 2012, after serving as Asia Chief Critic for The Hollywood Reporter since 2007. Since 2002, she has been living and working in Japan, first as project manager and programmer for Short Shorts Film Festival Asia, then as programming consultants for Tokyo Film Festival and Vancouver Film Festival. She was also Artistic Director of CinemAsia in Amsterdam, a film festival and talent incubation lab. As curator and editor, she has worked with the Hong Kong Film Festival, Hong Kong Film Archive, Hong Kong Arts Centre and Singapore National Museum Cinematheque.
FESTIVAL ADMIN TEAM
Karen Leung
Web Admin
She is a freelance creative designer and brand strategist with over 15 years of experience working as a marketing executive for brands like Gateway Theatre, UBC Botanical Garden, Beaty Biodiversity Museum, and Canadian Red Cross. She has crafted successful multi-faceted campaigns for organizations in tourism, arts and culture, education, and more. Karen loves helping businesses grow through visual communication with a strategic marketing eye. Karen is always up for a good design challenge.
Prabhnoor Kaur
Festival Assistant
Born and bred in India, Prabhnoor is a post-graduate marketing student, who has a tremendous interest in the film industry and a strong sense of passion to see and experience diverse cultures. Apart from being a student, she is an avid explorer, a photographer, and an art enthusiast. She is exhilarated to bring her diverse skill set to the thriving VAFF community here in Vancouver.
William Hu
Web Admin
Will is a budding IT professional residing in Vancouver. Will’s work includes maintenance of healthcare applications, website building, and process automation through scripting languages. When he isn’t glued to a computer screen, Will spends time hiking, learning photography and finding the next hip coffee spot to loiter.
Matthew Wu
Bookkeeper
OPERATIONS TEAM
Daniel Pearson
Volunteer Manager
Dan is a business-minded insurance professional originally from Saskatoon with a long history of farming in his blood. He uprooted and moved to Vancouver in 2017 in search of fertile breeding ground for his passion in music to grow. Besides planting seeds and crunching numbers, Dan is interested in self-improvement, cooking, hiking, biking, music and film. Dan hopes to retire young and explore the world, experiencing unique scenery and cultural diversity.
Hannah Lee
Volunteer Manager (interim)
Born in Seoul, stopped by at Singapore, grew up in Vancouver, Coal Harbor. Loving the last 5 years with the VAFF Execs and the close-knit Vancouver film community. Hannah’s two hands are usually busy holding her senior dog @beastpom and a bottomless iced espresso.
Emma Coffin
Operations Coordinator
Emma is half-Chinese and developed her love of Asian cinema at an early age while watching Cantonese kung fu movies with her cousins. She holds both a Law degree and an English Honours degree in Literature with a History minor from UBC. She has been an enthusiastic volunteer for pro bono legal clinics. Born and raised in North Vancouver, Emma enjoys all the classic Vancouverite hobbies – hiking, rock climbing, running, and tasting craft beer.
Jonathan Lee
Operations Manager
Born and raised in Burnaby. Interests include robotic combat, pranking coworkers, being a suffering Canucks fan, and listening to girly Korean music. Project manager by day and writer by night, his secret ambition is to write the greatest television series of all time. But it’s a secret, so… don’t tell anybody.
Vincent Gan
Box Office Manager
Vincent Gan has many life passions and the film industry is one of the biggest draws for him. He also has a strong passion to see cultural and various other events happen in the City of Vancouver. Working in the fields of design engineering and education, Vincent seeks to balance an often hectic life by immersing himself in the arts scene. Get to meet him during film screening events, for he would be as enthusiastic about the films as the movie-goers.
MARKETING / COMMUNICATIONS TEAM
Bronwyn Austin
Graphic Designer (Festival Team)
A recent Masters in Landscape Architecture graduate from the University of Toronto, Bronwyn is excited about being back in Vancouver. Before her Masters degree, she completed her undergrad at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and was a 2019 SSNAP finalist. In her free time she enjoys walking around the city, drawing, horseback riding and is an avid fan of the craft beer made on the West coast.
Queenie
Graphic Designer (Festival team)
As an engineering student who spends more time getting creative with the report than solving the equations, Queenie is thrilled to join the VAFF team as a designer to help elevate and amplify the narratives of the Asian community. After living between five different cities across North America in the last three years for school and a handful of internships, she cannot wait to immerse herself in Vancouver’s creative buzz once again.
Cristina Normandia
Marketing Manager (Festival team)
Cristina has worked in the film industry for over 4 years, starting her journey in Paramount Pictures where rapidly fell in love with the cinema industry, right after, she started working in the marketing department of Cinemex, one of the world’s largest movie theatre chains. When she heard about VAFF she knew right away that she had to be part of the team. Leaving her career apart, she is a total popcorn lover and a professional movie marathoner, wait a sec, that’s part of the job!
Roisin Abbott
Social Media Editor (Festival team)
Roisín is a Content Editor and Freelance Translator from Derry, Ireland. After graduating with a degree in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of Manchester, she spent time living and teaching in the UK, Spain and Brazil. She has now settled in Vancouver, BC. She is an avid traveller and loves to cook (especially the eating part!). She is excited to be a part of VAFF and help tell the stories of creative and talented filmmakers.
Lilly Lin
Content Editor & Copywriter
Lilly is a graduate of UBC with a degree in English Literature. Although her degree has been collecting dust at the bottom of a suitcase for the past few years, she’s glad it’s seeing some use at VAFF. She looks forward to learning and growing with the team.
Sara Cortes
Content Editor & Copywriter
Sara Cortes is a recent UBC graduate where she studied Economics with a minor in International Relations. Her passion for Asian representation in the arts led her to join the VAFF team. Having worked in communication, journalism, events, IT, and design, Sara loves to dabble and learn a bit of everything! Anything she doesn’t know, she will watch a YouTube video about it.
Jocelyn Wong
Social Media Editor (Festival Team)
Jocelyn is a 3rd year SFU student studying English. In recent years, she has become intensely passionate about voicing the experiences of marginalized and minority groups. As a future journalist, her work focuses on the eclectic people and cultures that shape her surroundings. Though she’s mostly a Jane of all Trades and a Master of None, Jocelyn ultimately hopes to hone in on her content creation skills during this time. Diversity in media is paramount and she hopes to be a part of the shift.
Prateek Sikka
Social Media Manager
Prateek is a business development and Marketing specialist, who has had a diverse career across different domains such as engineering , digital and software solutions. In these roles, he has created business proposals, utilized different channels for generating leads and developed digital transformation strategies to help an organization increase its visibility and build strategic partnerships with other organizations. When not developing strategies or marketing,he can be found playing squash, writing stories and doing yoga.
Yuri Koch
Social Media Editor (Festival team)
Yuri’s love for performing and story telling started at a young age. As a graduate of Capilano University’s Acting for Stage and Screen program, she has been eager to pursue her dreams of becoming a filmmaker and writer. Within the next year, she hopes to self publish a book celebrating the fascinating stories of the Japanese women who have influenced her life. On her days off you can find her binge-watching Ghibli films
MEDIA TEAM
Aarav Kataria
Video editor
Ever since he saw Spielberg’s Jurassic Park almost 20 years ago, Aarav has been incredibly passionate about cinema and everything that it stands for. As an adult, Aarav moved to Vancouver from his childhood home in India to pursue a career in filmmaking. He graduated from the TV & Video Production program at BCIT and aims to work as a Finishing Colorist in future. In addition to consuming and creating films, Aarav enjoys aquascaping and photography. He is extremely excited to join VAFF and looks forward to building new relationships.
Chen Sing Yap
Video editor
Chen Sing grew up in Singapore, where he worked as a picture editor for 4 years. While working long hours in the cutting room, he gained a crippling addiction to hugging stuffed turtles. He has since moved to Oakville where he is studying for a film degree at Sheridan College.
Erika Lorbes
Media Relations Manager
Erika is a communications major born and bred in the Philippines. She specializes in Public Relations and Advertising — having done projects for accounts such as MTV, Instagram, and TAITRA to name a few.
By day she is a media junkie who loves being where the action is; and by night a self-proclaimed playlist expert — ready to take on the BC mountains with her dog by her side.”
VAFF Digital Media Committee
Alisha Weng – Photographer
Gerry Chow – Videographer
Gerry Gaviola- Videographer
Maria Ebbott – Photographer
Gerry Chow – Videographer
Gerry Gaviola- Videographer
Maria Ebbott – Photographer
SPONSORSHIP TEAM
Ken Lone
Community Outreach Manager
Ken has a keen interest in movies and all things artistic. Movies can make us laugh, move us to tears, and empower us to change the world!
As a kid, Ken would often pretend to be one of the characters in the movie he was watching. Whether on a spaceship flying through the galaxy, finding treasures in a mysterious city or fighting off gangsters, Ken would connect himself to the movie character and escape from real life for a few hours. Ken is thrilled to join the VAFF family. With A background in business development, marketing and graphic design, Ken will utilize his experience and skills to contribute to the growth and success of VAFF.
As a kid, Ken would often pretend to be one of the characters in the movie he was watching. Whether on a spaceship flying through the galaxy, finding treasures in a mysterious city or fighting off gangsters, Ken would connect himself to the movie character and escape from real life for a few hours. Ken is thrilled to join the VAFF family. With A background in business development, marketing and graphic design, Ken will utilize his experience and skills to contribute to the growth and success of VAFF.
Veronica Huang
Sponsorship Manager
Veronica volunteered as Sponsorship Manager for VAFF. Veronica graduated from Sauder School of Business at UBC in 2018 with a major in Finance and a minor in Law and Society. With great interest in the media and entertainment industry, she has worked with organizations including VIFF and Vancouver Fashion Week. Apart from her job as a banker, she is also a photographer, a blogger, and a keen language learner.
ELIMIN8HATE PROJECT TEAM
Carmel Tanaka
Community Engagement Director (ELIMIN8HATE team)
Carmel is a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors on my mother’s side and interned Japanese Canadians on my father’s side. Guided by the Jewish philosophical teaching of Tikkun Olam (the repairing of the world), a passion for social justice and the belief in inclusive, collaborative, consensus-based processes, I am motivated to ensure that this world is a better place when I leave it. Some examples of my work are: Cross Cultural Walking Tours (@crossculturaltours); Genocide Prevention BC; and JQT Vancouver (@jqtvan), Canada’s first Jewish queer and trans non-profit organization. Celebrating all of my identities (also navigating their intersectionality) and creating safe spaces that I want to be a part of has been at the core of my community engagement work.
Tessa Danelesko
Director of Media and Strategy (ELIMIN8HATE team)
Tessa is a PR professional with a background in program management gained from a 10-year career in the environmental non-profit sector. Her work in marine conservation has taken her around the globe. She is proud of her mixed heritage – ancestry on her mother’s side is Irish / German, and Ukrainian / Cree Métis on her father’s side. Tessa lives on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples with her partner and very cute rescue dog, Burger.
Angela Leung
Marketing Manager (ELIMIN8HATE team) / Content & Copywriter
Angela is an avid consumer of media and an occasional creator of media. She is a graduate of UBC’s Media Studies program, and unnecessarily flaunts her pride of being part of the first graduating year. Her love for digital media is most prevalent in film. She loves going to the movies and sitting in the theatre with everyone in anticipation for a collective movie experience! Find her sitting at a movie near you!
Joyce Yue Zhu
Social Media Editor (ELIMIN8HATEl team)
Joyce Yue Zhu studies pathobiology and philosophy at the University of Toronto, but [too] much of her free time is spent watching movies, poring over literature, and abusing her eardrums with loud music. She prefers movies released before she was born, and her watching hours are between 12AM and 4AM.
Maggie Chuang
Content Editor & Copywriter
Maggie was born in Taiwan, and raised in Vancouver where she relied on Asian movies, dramas, and music to seek her Taiwanese heritage. She studied English Literature at SFU, where she nurtured her love of creative writing and storytelling. From there, she worked (and ate) her way around Japan for a couple of years before returning to Vancouver to build her career in marketing. You’ll often find Maggie making her fifth coffee of the day, or sprinting across the street to pet someone’s dog.
MAMM PROJECT TEAM
Arnold Lim
Diversity In Filmmaking Series Co-Producer
Award-winning Korean-Canadian filmmaker Arnold Lim has won Telefilm’s Talent to Watch twice, to direct his first feature All-in Madonna (2020) and to produce web series Best Friend Me (2021). In addition to being a juror or programmer for the Victoria and Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Lim was also awarded a BravoFACT grant, a BC Arts Council grant, selected to the National Screen Institute’s Features First program and the Harold Greenberg Fund’s Shorts-to-Features grant.
Arnold produced and directed narrative, commercial and documentary films, screened at film festivals around the world including the Cannes Film Festival through Telefilm’s Not Short on Talent, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and many more. He has juried for numerous competitions and am currently a jury member for the Victoria Film Festival.
Arnold produced and directed narrative, commercial and documentary films, screened at film festivals around the world including the Cannes Film Festival through Telefilm’s Not Short on Talent, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and many more. He has juried for numerous competitions and am currently a jury member for the Victoria Film Festival.
Mayumi Yoshida
MAMM Creative Co-Producer
From Tokyo, Japan. Mayumi Yoshida is known for her role as Crown Princess (The Man in The High Castle) which got her a nomination for Best Emerging Actor at UBCP Awards. She is also a filmmaker. Her latest film TOKYO LOVERS has won Best Performance Award at Vancouver Asian Film Festival, and her directorial debut film AKASHI has won Outstanding Writer at NBCUniversal Short Film Festival, Best Female Director at Vancouver Short Film Festival, Matrix Award at the Vancouver Women in Film Festival and many more.
Nach Dudsdeemaytha
MAMM Creative Co-Producer
Nach Dudsdeemaytha is a Vancouver-based producer & director. He is the co-founder of This is a Spoon Studios, and a co-creative producer for Vancouver Asian Film Festival’s MAMM Competition. Some of his award-winning projects include Inconceivable (2017), Cypher (2018), and Tokyo Lovers (2018).
Joshua Lam
MAMM Creative Co-Producers
Joshua Lam is a graduate from the UBC Film Production Program and Runner Up – Alumni of the MAMM 2019 Competition. Joshua loves high concepts, deeper meaning, and slapstick humour with hopes to find his own flair in engaging audiences in alternate ways of storytelling.
Madision Wong
Marketing Manager (MAMM team)
Madison moved from Toronto to Vancouver two years ago to study at UBC as a BCom marketing and film studies student. She is passionate about the art of storytelling and believes that discovering different viewpoints to learn, grow, and champion others can connect us in a global community. Madison believes in accurate and diverse representation and hopes, in her own small way, to contribute towards the fight for diversity on screen.
Nicole Feng
Graphic Designer (MAMM team)
Born and raised in Burnaby, Nicole is currently a student at Simon Fraser University working towards a B.A. in Criminology. She holds a passion for graphic design and is excited to gain new experiences working with the VAFF team. In her free time, you can find her watching movies with her close friends, binge watching Chinese and Korean dramas, and getting crafty with paint.
Sarah Zhou
Social Media Editor (MAMM team)
Van Mai
Graphic Designer (MAMM team)
Van is studying at Simon Fraser University in their Interactive Arts and Technology program where she is working towards a B.A. Through volunteering with VAFF, she is looking forward to developing her skills and gaining new experiences. Van enjoys the outdoors on her bike but will also agree to watching movies and playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Shastina Kumar
Social Media Editor (MAMM team)
Lemon Jiang
Marketing Assistant (MAMM team)
Born and raised in mainland China, Lemon started her academic life in Canada since 2013. She is now a 4th year Marketing and Business Analytics student from UBC. Passionates in photography and videography, she is looking forward to experience how the film industries look like, so she decided to be a part of the VAFF community, to develop more marketing-related skills through this experience.