Vina Sun is an aspiring filmmaker and PR coordinator who devotes her passion to quality stories with strong investment in gender equality. Currently, she is a graduate student of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University, aiming to combine her knowledge of film theory and history with filmmaking and producing practices. Also among her interests is virtual reality and its potentials in transforming conventional storytelling mode into more relatable spectatorial experiences.
Winona Wei has a Master’s degree in Public Administration; after graduation, she has conducted comprehensive market research for the Aspen Institute. She is an experienced event organizer and the co-founder of 2013 Alibaba Global Dreamer Program. Her experience in planning events also prevails to founding the TEDx Talk in China, where she polished her skill in running NGO and big-revenue public social occasions.
Jin (Qing Jin) is a film professional and cultural inclusiveness promoter. She gained experiences and insights through working at several film festivals/distributors, including the New York Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Kino Lorber. In 2017, she was selected as one of ten attendees for the seconded annual industry academy, co-hosted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Locarno international Film Festival. Working in marketing and Publicity, she wants to bring awareness of Chinese independent films to the US audience and connect chinese filmmakers with local distributors. She holds MA in Cinema Studies from New York University and King’s College London. She works at the independent distributor in New York.
Yue Huang recently graduated from the Master of Arts in Religion program at Yale Divinity School. There he also studied with film theorist Dudley Andrew and developed a strong interest in world cinema. Currently based in Shanghai, he is planning to open a library/cultural center that would host talks, seminars, and film screenings. He is a contributor to DeepFocus, a Chinese social media outlet devoted to film criticism, and covered film festivals in Shanghai, New York, Toronto, and Bologna.
Wentao Ma is an Arts Events Manager and Research Assistant of film department at Columbia University. He has worked as curator for serial film exhibitions at Lenfest Center of the Arts in New York, including “Zoom In: MA Students Curate Thesis Project” and “‘Columbia Revolt’ at 50: Remembering the Radical Film and its Moment”. Wentao holds an MA degree in Film and Media Studies from Columbia University and a BA in Media and Communication from Swansea University in UK. His research interests lie in Chinese cinema, medium specificity, and body politics. Wentao is also an experienced translator, whose works include the upcoming “Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2017” (University of Chicago Press, 2019).
Ruicheng Yan is the co-founder and writer/editor of Soundtrack Magazine, a Chinese social media outlet devoted to the art of film music. He has interviewed major Hollywood composers and written film music reviews for years. He also worked as an archivist for Sherman Grinberg Film Library on newsreel preservations. Ruicheng holds a B.A. diploma in Political Science from University of California, Los Angeles and is currently a M.A. candidate in Cinema Studies from New York University.
Tinghao Zhou is currently an M.A. candidate in Film and Media Studies at Columbia University. As a film scholar, he is primarily interested in documentary theory, philosophy of technics, phenomenology and his previous works have also covered topics in Chinese cinema and genre studies. He worked for Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival as an executive curator. He is more than thrilled to bring Chinese independent films to the cinephiles in New York area.