Rosalia Namsai Engchuan
Rosalia Namsai Engchuan is a social anthropologist and filmmaker working with audio visual media creators in Southeast Asia. She holds an MA in Modern South- and Southeast Asian Studies from Humboldt University, Berlin and a BA in Asian Studies and Management from HTWG, Konstanz.

Rosalia is particularly interested in the ways filmmakers address social issues through their artistic practices. She herself uses video as a creative channel to contemplate on her theoretical research and experience of “reality”. Her work has been screened at the Asian Film Festival Berlin and the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival. Linking theoretical research and artistic practice, she is currently working on a multimedia project to explore the possibilities of making academic arguments using audio-visual languages.

Melissa Lee (virtual)
A producer who has lived between East and West all her life, Melissa is impassioned to tell stories that are culturally specific yet emotionally universal. Past feature film credits include Bends (Cannes 2013 Un Certain Regard), Circumstance (Sundance 2011 US Dramatic Audience Award), and Dear Lemon Lima, (Los Angeles Film Festival 2009 Jury Prize). Her films have received worldwide distribution and garnered her an Independent Spirit Award nomination. Melissa then went on to produce commercials in Shanghai for five years before returning to the narrative world. Most recently, Melissa was leading original film development for Fox Networks Group Asia and is now back to producing independently, championing the inclusive stories and bold voices that drew her into this industry in the first place. Melissa is an alum of the Sundance Producing Lab, the Rotterdam Lab and the Berlinale Talent Project Market. She received a BA in Literature from Harvard College and an MFA from the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC.

Minou Norouzi
Minou Norouzi is a filmmaker, writer, curator. Her research is focused on cinematic language and aesthetic productions that communicate the ineffable and challenge normative, totalising accounts of history and knowledge production. Minou is the Principal Investigator of “Revolutionary Patience: Migrant Perspectives on Doing Politics with the Documentary“, a multi-year practice-research project funded by Kone Foundation (2021-2024). The project looks into artists’ moving image and documentary practices by women and non-binary filmmakers with personal experiences of displacement from the SWANA region (Southwest Asia & North Africa). A study of diasporic cinemas, the project puts under critical review empathy as a form of political engagement.

Daniel Howe
Daniel Howe is an American artist and educator whose work examines the writing (and close reading) of computer algorithms. Addressing issues such as privacy, surveillance, disinformation and representation, his output spans a range of media, including installations, artist books, sound recordings and software interventions. He currently lives in Hong Kong where he teaches at the School of Creative Media.

John Badalu
Indonesian by nationality, Bangkok by residence,and working for Berlin, Shanghai, Cape Town and QCinema Film Festival in Manila, John Badalu is also a freelance producer. His latest film MALILA: THE FAREWELL FLOWER bagged the Best Film Prize at Kim Jiseok Award in Busan Film Festival 2017. He was a part-time lecturer at London School of Public Relations, and one of the founders of Q! Film Festival Indonesia. When not working, John is often found in a remote island or waterfall.

Paul Fontana
Originally from Washington DC, Paul’s writing career started with plays. He then moved to LA and wrote two pilots (The Red Zone and Hard Pressed) for Actor/Producer Patrick Dempsey and Shifting Gears Productions/ABC Television. He obtained his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and was given the Charles Purpura Excellence in Screenwriting Award. His screenplay Corsage was an Official Selection for the Oaxaca International Film Festival, and soon after graduating he wrote the feature film Dirt, Darling, Who’s Worst for Hong Kong director Juno Mak (Rigor Mortis, Sons of the Neon Night). Most recently, Paul developed a television series The Pages, with actor/director Dash Mihok (Ray Donovan, The Perfect Storm, Romeo & Juliet). In addition to writing for stage, television and film, Paul has also worked as a college admissions consultant.

Jacqueline Chang
Jacqueline Chang dons two hats – as a photographer and co-founder of Prep hairstyling salon – and wears her heart on her sleeve. She believes in building businesses on the basis of good relationships and is motivated by the ability to share hope with broken hearts, hardened hearts and jaded minds.

Josh Kim
Josh Kim is a Korean-American filmmaker whose debut feature, How to Win at Checkers (Every Time), premiered in the Berlinale Panorama in 2015. The Thai-language film won 21 international and local jury/audience awards and became the country’s official entry to the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for Best Language Foreign Film. Previously, Josh worked as a producer with John Woo on the Korean remake of A Better Tomorrow and has since directed videos for Apple, Google, NPR and The Wall Street Journal. He is currently directing Forbidden, HBO’s first original TV series in Thailand.

Yasmin Morgan
Yasmin Morgan is a human who makes digital entities and future worlds that don't exist (yet). She tries to make sense of our world of pixels and soft-ware, rebuilding and unknowing AI with independent research & experiments. She uses motion and creative code to design immersive experiences. Yasmin explores ‘artificial intimacy’ and our willingness for virtual companionship and connection in today’s networked world. Crafting stories with non-human intelligence really excites her.

Gabriela Serrano
Gabriela is a director, editor, and audiovisual artist from Manila. She is interested in deeply introspective women’s stories that deconstruct forms and reimagine futures in her native Philippines. She holds a Multimedia Arts degree and is an alumna of the Ricky Lee Scriptwriting Workshop. Starting out as a print illustrator before pivoting to cinema, she has since worked in post-production, editing various film and television projects since 2018. She was named one of CNN Philippines’ “Eight Emerging Directors to Watch Out For” when she made her directorial debut with the short film, Dikit (2021) winner of the Special Jury Prize and Best Director at the Cinemalaya Film Festival. It also screened at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Queer East Film Festival, and Singapore International Film Festival. Dikit subverted Filipino folk horror through a split-screen depiction of feminine rage, desire, and dreams. Serrano continues her genre explorations of dreams in women’s spaces through the call center sci-fi drama Please Bear With Me, her first full-length film in development, selected at Full Circle Lab, BIFAN It Project, Sitges FanPitch, FNC Nouveau Marché, and SGIFF Southeast Asian Film Lab, where it won the 2022 Fellowship Prize.

Rein Maychaelson
Growing up as a minority amidst many racial and political polemics in Indonesia has made Rein question a lot of things regarding his well being and his existence in his home country. Family, social and political issues have always been the main topics in his work. His short films, Happiness of the Holy and Udin Telekomsel, both have been screened at Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival. In 2018, his short film, Errorist of Seasons won the Viddsee Juree Awards. Maychaelson was awarded as Rising Filmmaker in Popcon Asia 2018. His work also traveled to other film festivals, including XXI Short Film Festival, San Francisco Indonesian Film Festival, Los Angeles Indonesian Film Festival, Bangkok International Film Festival, Europe on Screen, etc. This year his short film The Rootless Bloom will be screened in 28th Busan International Film Festival, 2023. Durig his residency, Rein developed his first featureThe Burning Land, which the won fellowship prize from the SGIFF’s South East Asia Film Lab.

Sue Yin Goh
Having defected from the world of consumer and healthcare marketing, Sue Yin has spent the last few years creating and writing TV shows. She’s written for: the Asian adaptation of Endemol Shine’s Nordic detective series, THE BRIDGE Season 1 on HBO Asia and HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS currently streaming on Netflix Asia. In 2018, her feature screenplay SOMETHING’S OFF was selected for participation in a Talent lab led by Tribeca Film Institute. She’s an alumnus of Writers Lab 2018 and David Puttnam’s Producers Lab 2020, both led by Lasalle and IMDA Singapore. Most recently, she was Head Writer for a YA series developed by Mediacorp/Wattpadd. Also in the works: a couple of Audio Plays for Audible, as well as a feature film project with Craig Rosenthal.

Craig Rosenthal
Craig is a filmmaker who has been writing and creating content in Asia for over 20 years. His films, SHANGHAI LOVE MARKET and THE TRAINEE, have been selected at Academy/BAFTA-accredited film festivals, including the Palm Springs International Film Festival, LA Shorts Festival, and Tokyo Short Shorts Festival. Currently, his feature CLOUDMAN is in development with Escape Artists (A KNIGHT’S TALE; PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS; THE UPSIDE). During his co-residency with Sue Yin Goh at Purple Tree, they developed a mystery-thriller in the vein of SEARCHING and KNIVES OUT. The story follows an executive assistant to a powerful tech titan in her quest for the truth after his mysterious death.