Matt Chan knows that storytelling begins with the audience – an idea that has driven his 45 years of award-winning success in the television industry. Chan has worked in every facet of the industry, from operating television stations to running national television series. In 1998 he started Screaming Flea Productions where he created hits like A&E’s Hoarders, landing him a spot as one of the very few people of color on the Hollywood Reporter’s Top 50 Reality Power Producers list. He now teaches at the University of Washington’s Communications Leadership Graduate program and spends his time refining the science and art of storytelling in his personal projects. His newest passion is to give back to the community, training and educating new generations of citizen journalists and storytellers for the new world of media.
Shannon Gee is a producer, editor, photographer and writer with 20+ years of experience in the field of television broadcast and print/digital media. Shannon was an independent producer of television documentaries for national and local public television and cable. She also freelanced as a film writer for newspapers and websites, including imdb.com and the Seattle Times. Shannon has been with the Seattle Channel, the City of Seattle’s award winning government access channel, for over ten years and currently serves as the general manager for the organization. While at the Seattle Channel, Shannon has earned seven northwest Emmys and the Kaleidoscope award, a national award that recognizes television stations for their coverage of diversity and equity issues.
Vivian Hua is a writer, filmmaker, and organizer who regularly traverses up and down the west coast. As the Executive Director at Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, a Co-Founder of the Civil Rights Film Series, The Seventh Art Stand, and the Editor-in-Chief of the interdisciplinary arts publication, REDEFINE, much of her work unifies her interest in the metaphysical with her belief that art can positively transform the self and society. Her narrative short film, Searching Skies–which touches on the controversial topic of Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States–was released in 2017, after making festival rounds. She is currently writing her next film projects, as well as researching national efforts to preserve cultural space.
Michelle Li is an anchor and reporter for KING-TV in Seattle, and serves as a host for Take 5, an interactive weekday news show. In her career Michelle has received four national Murrow awards, nine regional Emmys, has been named Social Media Personality of the Year for Wisconsin, Anchor of the Year of the Carolinas, and Congress has honored her with an Angels in Adoption award for her dedication to international and domestic adoption causes. She launched a television program in Missouri to help foster kids find more permanent solutions and spoke at the National Press Club for international adoption awareness. For fun, Michelle once played a reporter in the movie Tammy and on the TV show The Following.
Lori Kido Lopez is an Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies in the Communication Arts Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lopez is the author of Asian American Media Activism: Fighting for Cultural Citizenship, and a co-editor of the The Routledge Companion to Asian American Media. She is the founder of the Race and Media Conference, s a member of the Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies, and also serves on the board of Freedom, Inc. Originally from Portland, Dr. Lopez researches the way that Asian Americans use media in the fight for social justice and is the Director of Madison’s Asian American Media Spotlight.
Vincent Pham is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civic Communication and Media at Willamette University, where he researches the intersection of race, media, and the politics of national belonging. He is the co-editor for the Routledge Companion to Asian American Media and the co-author of Asian Americans and the Media. He has been interviewed by NPR’s Code Switch and US News and has served on the awards jury of the San Diego Asian Film Festival. In 2017 he was the recipient of the Outstanding New Investigator Award from the Critical/Cultural Division of the National Communication Association.
Dao Strom is a writer, artist, and musician whose work explores hybridity through melding disparate “voices”—written, sung, visual—to contemplate the intersection of personal and collective histories. She is the author of a bilingual poetry/art book, You Will Always Be Someone From Somewhere Else, an experimental memoir, We Were Meant To Be a Gentle People + music album East/West, and two books of fiction, The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys and Grass Roof, Tin Roof. Her work has received support from the Creative Capital Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Precipice Fund, Regional Arts & Culture Council, Oregon Arts Commission, and others. She is the editor of diaCRITICS and co-founder of the arts collective She Who Has No Master(s).
Roger Tang, called the “Godfather of Asian American theatre” by A. Magazine, has produced numerous Northwest and world premieres, from David Henry Hwang’s Bondage and Yellow Face to Maggie Lee’s The Clockwork Professor, The Tumbleweed Zephyr, and A Hand of Talons. As a playwright he wrote She Devil of the South China Seas, The Jade Con, Shadowed Intent, Truth and Lies, Third Generation Heritage and Mac n Dex. Roger has served on the boards of ReAct Theatre and the Northwest Asian American Theatre, and is a member of the national board for the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists. He is also the Literary Manager for SIS Productions, the Executive Director of Pork Filled Productions, editor of the Asian American Theatre Revue, and a recipient of a 2016 Equity Award from the Symposium on
SAAFF runs Feb. 21 – Feb. 24. See the full SAAFF schedule.
