S. Leo Chiang – Producer/Director
S. Leo Chiang is a filmmaker based in Taipei & San Francisco. His most recent film, Island in Between, received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Short Film in 2024. His previous film, Our Time Machine, played at over 50 film festivals worldwide, winning 10 awards, and was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy Award and a Gotham Award. In 2020, he directed two episodes of the Peabody Award-winning 5-part PBS series, Asian Americans, which traces the epic history of Asians in the US over the past 200 years.His previous films include Emmy Award-nominated film, A Village Called Versailles, about the rebuilding and transformation of the Vietnamese American community in post-Katrina New Orleans (PBS Independent Lens), Out Run, which profiles the only LGBT political party
in the world, Mr. Cao Goes to Washington (Inspiration Award 2012, PBS broadcast 2013), To You Sweetheart, Aloha (PBS broadcast 2006), One + One (CINE Golden Eagle Award 2002), and Safe Journey (PlanetOut.com Short Movie Award 2002).
Besides his directing work, Leo served as a producer for After the Rain (Special Jury Award, Doc NYC 2021), and is producing the upcoming films Dark is not Black, and My Sister-in-Law, the Prime Minister. He has also collaborated with other filmmakers as an editor (True-Hearted Vixen, POV 2001; Recalling Orange County, PBS/VOCES 2006), and as a cameraman (United in Anger, MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight 2012; Ask Not, Independent Lens 2009; The Tailenders, POV 2006).
Leo holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical & computer engineering and received his MFA in film production from University of Southern California. His work has received support from funders such as Sundance, Tribeca, ITVS, Creative Capital, Catapult Film Fund & CAAM. He has taught documentary production at the University of California at Santa Cruz, University of California at Berkeley, Northwestern University, and the Communication University of China. He is a co-founder of the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc) and previously the co-chair of New Day Films, the social-issue documentary distribution co-operative. Leo is a consulting producer for CNEX, the Chinese documentary foundation, and a Documentary branch member of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences (AMPAS).
Brittney Shepherd – Associate Producer
BRITTNEY SHEPHERD loves the idea of media as a means of connection. With a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, Brittney was a founding member of the student run production team MothaBase Productions whose short film entitled Hurricane Katrina: Ya’ll Know Where the Vietnamese Were? is used as a discussion tool for community groups, policy makers, and educators around the country concerning the issues of language access and disaster preparedness for immigrant communities. She has gone on help produce many independent documentaries including Ask Not, A Village Called Versailles, and Straightlaced.
Eva Moss – Associate Producer
EVA MOSS has been involved in documentary filmmaking since graduating from Smith College in 2003. She has worked as both an editor and producer on many films whose topics range from alleviating water shortages in Kenya and Mali, Aboriginal artists and the intersection of storytelling and painting, the transition of a transsexual woman as seen through the eyes of her 3 young nieces (No Dumb Questions, Melissa Regan), a family working to understand their child’s learning disabilities, a sequel to The Celluloid Closet (Here’s Looking At You Boy, Michael Ehrenzweig), a gay couple’s experience trying to conceive a child through insemination, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and those working to overturn it (Ask Not, Johnny Symons), a 90 year old successful actress who started her career at 70, and the first documentary made by gay filmmakers depicting gay people (Word Is Out, Veronica Selver, Janet Cole). She uses filmmaking as a means to promote social change and introspection and works to facilitate the telling of others’ stories, giving voice to those without a voice and sharing with the world that which is rarely seen.
Loan Dao – Associate Producer
LOAN DAO is a Ph.D. candidate of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her interest and focus on the historical impact of a new generation of Southeast Asian American leaders stems from her experiences as the Director of Huong Viet Community Center and as a national leader in the fight against Cambodian deportations. She produced and wrote We Will Not Be Moved, and served as an outreach and promotional events coordinator for Sentenced Home, two films that document the Cambodian deportation process. She is the co-editor of an anthology on the impact of Hurricane Katrina on Vietnamese Americans throughout the Gulf Coast (forthcoming), and currently teaches at Stanford University, New College of California, and Laney College.
Rebecca Snedeker – Archival Researcher
REBECCA SNEDEKER is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in New Orleans. By Invitation Only, her first feature-length documentary, premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS stations nationwide. The film recently won Best Documentary at the New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival and has been presented at numerous festivals, conferences, and campuses. Snedeker also Associate Producer Julie Gustafson’s Desire and Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Elie’s Faubourg Treme. At home in post-Katrina New Orleans, she is producing a new film in which she asks diverse people about their dreams for the future of the city. Snedeker received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and is a Visiting Scholar at Tulane University’s Newcomb College Center for Research on Women.
Kristy Guevara-Flanagan – Editor
KRISTY GUEVARA-FLANAGAN picked up her first camera in middle school and hasn’t put it down since. Her short films include, El Corrido de Cecelia Rose, chronicling the violent death of a Richmond teen. The film won the Golden Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival, was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival, and was subsequently broadcast on the Sundance Channel. Kristy holds an MFA in Cinema and, in addition to directing films, is an editor and film instructor.
Joel Goodman – Composer
JOEL GOODMAN, a native New Yorker, began his musical career at the famed High School of Music and Art. Having spent many years as a studio musician/performer, and working with legendary musicians (including Cab Calloway and Ralph Towner), Joel transitioned into focusing his musical acumen on scoring. He recently scored Canvas, starring Oscar winning actress Marcia Gay Harden & Joe Pantoliano, Constantine‘s Sword, Hear & Now (HBO), Walt Whitman (PBS – American Experience), the multi award winning film The Cats of Mirikitani, Sister Rose‘s Passion (‘05 Academy Award Nomination), The Collector of Bedford Street (‘04 Academy Award Nomination), and Children Underground (‘02 Academy Award Nomination).