TEAM MEMBERS
director & co-founder
Jennifer Crystal Chien is a documentary filmmaker with a focus on personal storytelling from underrepresented communities.
She is the Executive Producer of Alive in Bronze: Huey P. Newton, nominated for an NAACP Image Award. She has produced and directed several documentaries focused on stories from the Chinese, Guyana, Polish, and Turkish immigrant communities, including Waiting for Bekir, Advayam, 3JahLove7, and one little bird.
She is a recipient of a DOC NYC Documentary New Leaders award, Center for Cultural Innovation’s Investing in Artists grant for artistic innovation, and is a former filmmaker-in-residence with the Center for Asian American Media. She has an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in Social Documentary Film.
education and evaluation manager
Ginger Yifan Chen is a Shanghai-born writer/director based in San Francisco. They have a passion for nonbinary storytelling, immigrant narratives, and science fiction.
Ginger has worked in film production as a director, assistant director, camera assistant, and editor for over 10 years.
Their nonprofit experience includes program coordination at CAAM and the Asian American Film Lab, as well as screenwriting instruction at the BAYCAT Fellowship. Additionally, they serve as the festival director of ENBYFest, a co-op member of Adobe Books, and a script reader at Slated Analytics. They hold a BA in Screenwriting from Chapman University.
program coordinator
Amy is a producer and marketer with experience in video, film, and social media content. Amy is also the Associate Director of Filmmakers Collaborative SF.
She has been the Associate Producer on numerous documentary films, including Saving Species Together and Wilder than Wild: Fire, Forests, and the Future, both of which were broadcast on PBS. Her exhibit work includes videos for Gold Mountain: Chinese Californian Stories, a signature exhibit at The California Museum.
Amy is passionate about social and environmental issues, Asian American media, and uplifting marginalized voices. She holds a B.A. in Film and Rhetoric from UC Berkeley.
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR
Tajianna is an actor and filmmaker with a double degree in Acting and Film & TV Studies from Azusa Pacific University. She has appeared in commercials and short films as well as directed her own films and music videos. Tajianna has worked as a Production Assistant for well-renowned studios such as Amazon, Marvel, and A24.
Her 2019 documentary Flexin’ in My Complexion, exploring the effects of colorism on Black women, was selected to premiere at the Mbongui Square Festival and installed at the Unbound Roots exhibition at SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco.
She is Co-Director and Producer of Cracks in the Foundation, which won Best Direction at the WILDsound FEEDBACK Film Festival. In her screenwriting and directorial work, she likes to explore narratives through the lens of the Black experience with an Afro-surrealist approach. Tajianna is always seeking to tell stories that will shift paradigms and shake culture in our society.
impact consultant
Toni Bell is the creator/host of the What’s Up with Docs Podcast and an Impact Partnerships Strategist for
Odyssey Impact. She has been a speaker, panelist, mentor, and juror at documentary film festivals and labs such as EBS in Korea, Dok Leipzig, European Film Market, HotDocs, Docs by the Sea, and many others. She is the former Filmmaker Services Manager at the International Documentary Association.
Toni teaches courses on impact and media at Saybrook University. She holds an MA in Visual Anthropology from USC, an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University, and a certificate in professional screenwriting from UCLA.
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS
advisor
Tracey Quezada is a Mexican-American documentary filmmaker and editor with over fifteen years of experience.
Quezada recently edited Our America: Reclaiming Turtle Island, produced by ABC and National Geographic.
She writes, directs and edits independent documentaries and branded content for organizations such as the Othering and Belonging Institute, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, The New York Hall of Science, and UC Berkeley, among others.
Raised by her single mother and Mexican-American grandparents who were farmworkers, Tracey pulls from her personal experience when telling stories about marginalized communities.
advisor & re-present media stories studio producer
Ina Adele Ray is a media-maker of Vietnamese and Scots-Irish American descent.
She has worked in film and video production (from broadcast tv to social media) as a producer, director, and editor for over 20 years to support her passion for new technology, experimental media, and personal storytelling.
She is an Executive Producer for MyHealthTeams in San Francisco. Her most recent short VR documentary is The Red Room Project.
Adele has also taught film and media courses at the New School University, NYU, Parsons School of Design, Eugene Lang College, and Berkeley City College