For the sixth consecutive year, Asia Society hosts conversations honoring Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander talent at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Find us at Filmmaker Lodge on Tuesday, Jan 23, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. MT for an engaging panel discussion on the nuances of "voice" - directorial voice, artistic voice, and the pain and joy of reclaiming one's voice in the face of obstinate systems. Our speakers include Sean Wang, Shiori Ito, Luciane Buchanan, Vea Mafile’o, and Renee Zhan and the conversations will be moderated by Margaret Conley. 

This year we uplift the feature film Black Box Diaries, a documentary about Journalist Shiori Ito's courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. We also uplift the feature film Dìdi (弟弟), an ode to first-generation, Asian teenagers navigating the beauty and pain of cultural heritage in a sea of conformity.

From the short film category, we uplift Lea Tupu’anga / Mother Tongue - a story about a young speech therapist disconnected from her Tongan heritage who must communicate or risk her patient’s life - and SHÉ (SNAKE) - about a top Chinese violinist in her elite youth orchestra whose internal demons whisper to her, urging her to be the best, no matter the cost.

• Sean Wang is a filmmaker from Fremont, California, Google Creative Lab 5 alum, former Sundance Ignite fellow, and 2023 Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab fellow. His film "Dìdi (弟弟)" is a 2024 Sundance Film Festival crowd favorite.
• Shiori Ito is a courageous journalist, documentary filmmaker, and writer, Asia 21 Next Generation fellow (2019), and one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2020 for her contribution to Japan's #MeToo movement. 
• Luciane Buchanan is an actor and director of Tongan descent who recently performed leading roles in the hit Netflix series The Night Agent and the forthcoming Apple TV+ series Chief of War. 
• Vea Mafile’o is a director of film and television who has worked extensively throughout the Pacific. Her documentary "For My Father’s Kingdom" (2019) was the first Tongan feature documentary for cinema; the first directed by a Tongan female in the world.
• Renee Zhan is a Chinese-American director and animator. Her short films have screened and won awards internationally including Annecy, Tiff, SXSW, and the Jury Prize for animated short at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
• Margaret Conley (moderator) is the Executive Director of Asia Society Northern California.

Watch videos from previous Asia Society programs at Sundance Film Festival:

• 2023 Sundance Film Festival featuring Chiaki Yanagimoto, Anaita Wali Zada, Kayla Abuda Galang, and more; 
• 2022 Sundance Film Festival featuring Janet Yang, Julie Ha, Eugene Yi, Ham Tran, and more; 
• 2021 Sundance Film Festival featuring Amy Tan, Leonardo Nam, Miya Cech, Debbie Lum, Baz Poonpiriya, and more; 
• 2020 Sundance Film Festival featuring Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Chris Peng, Nina Yang Bongiovi, and more;
• 2019 Sundance Film Festival featuring Lulu Wang, Richie Mehta, Justin Chon, and Anita Gou.

Learn more about two other AAPI-related content series Asia Society at the Movies and Asian Americans Building America.

SPEAKERS:

Born in Aotearoa New Zealand, Luciane Buchanan is of Tongan descent. An experienced actor in film and television, Luciane has recently performed leading roles in the hit Netflix series The Night Agent and the forthcoming Apple TV+ series Chief of War. 

Previously, Luciane starred as ‘Tripitaka’ in the Netflix series The New Legends of Monkey and as a core cast member on Filthy Rich for BBC. 

Lea Tupu’anga / Mother Tongue is Luciane’s first screenplay and it was an opportunity to write (and act) very personal material connected to her Tongan heritage, distinct from the stories and characters she has previously been associated with.

Luciane was an associate producer on primetime New Zealand drama The Panthers. The miniseries broke local domestic streaming records and also screened at Toronto International Film Festival’s Primetime section in September 2021. 

In addition to her screen work, Luciane holds a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Psychology from The University of Auckland.

SOCIAL: instagram.com/lucianebuchanan

Read more about "Lea Tupu’anga / Mother Tongue," featured at 2024 Sundance Film Festival, here. 

Shiori Ito is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. Her primary focus is gender-based human rights issues.

In 2017, she wrote the book “Black Box,” based upon her own experience of rape. The book reveals the sexism in Japan’ s society and institutions, and she won the Free Press Association of Japan Award for Best Journalism in 2018. “Black Box” is now available in Japanese, English, Chinese, French, Korean, and Italian, among other languages.

For her contribution to Japan's #MeToo movement, she was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2020. She was also selected by Newsweek in 2019 for The Most Respected Japanese 100. 

Shiori Ito is also an Asia 21 Next Generation fellow (Class of 2019). 

BLACK BOX DIARIES is her feature documentary debut, featured at 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Read more about the film here. 

Vea Mafile’o is a director of film and television who has worked extensively throughout the Pacific. Lea Tupu’anga / Mother Tongue is Vea's first drama-based film, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024.

Her debut feature documentary For My Father’s Kingdom (2019) had its world premiere at Berlinale, placed 3rd in the People's Choice Award at Melbourne International Film Festival and was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. It was the first Tongan feature documentary for cinema; the first directed by a Tongan female in the world.

In 2021, Vea directed two episodes of the primetime New Zealand television drama The Panthers and was nominated for Best Director at the 2022 New Zealand Television Awards. The Panthers broke domestic streaming records with the strongest-ever opening week for a local drama. The miniseries also screened at Toronto International Film Festival’s Primetime section in September 2021. 

Vea is the co-founder of Taro Patch Creative. Based in South Auckland, the initiative encourages storytelling with marginalised Pasifika and Māori communities with the goal of finding ways to thrive and heal. The organisation brings together collective skills in filmmaking, storytelling, tutoring, production design, public programming, arts facilitation and occupational health therapy in the mental health and disabilities sector. Vea is also co-founder of PISA (Pacific Islands Screen Artists), the Nuku'alofa Film Festival in Tonga and the founder of the Okalani Film Festival.

SOCIALS: instagram.com/vea_mafileo; twitter.com/malosipictures

Read more about "Lea Tupu’anga / Mother Tongue," featured at 2024 Sundance Film Festival, here. 

Sean Wang is a filmmaker from Fremont, CA. He is a Google Creative Lab 5 alum, former Sundance Ignite fellow, and 2023 Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab fellow.

His work has screened at world-class festivals including Sundance, SXSW, and SFFILM, and has been featured online by The New York Times, Vimeo’s Best of the Year Staff Picks, and TheWrap’s ShortList. His latest short film, Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Grandma & Grandma), premiered at SXSW 2023 where it won the Grand Jury Prize & Audience Award. Since then, it has gone on to receive Grand Jury Awards at AFI Fest and SIFF 2023, was acquired by Disney+ to release in early 2024, and was shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Film for the 96th Academy Awards.

His debut feature film, Dìdi (弟弟), will have its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Read more about Dìdi (弟弟) here. 

Renee Zhan is a Chinese-American director and animator from Houston, Texas now based in London. Her short films have screened and won awards internationally including Annecy, Tiff, SXSW, and the Jury Prize for animated short at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Her work explores a range of topics such as the body, nature and sexuality. Yet all of her films are incredibly balanced between the lovely and the visceral; they are deeply satisfying to watch. Renee uses a wide range of techniques in her work that have a tactile feel, breathing life into the audience’s senses. From hand-drawn 2D to watercolor and claymation, she expresses something new and pushes boundaries on each project.

Read more about "SHÉ (SNAKE)," featured at 2024 Sundance Film Festival, here. 

Margaret Conley, a Bay Area native, is the Executive Director of Asia Society Northern California. She is Chair of Asia Society's global Asian Americans Building America task force. Margaret was previously based in Asia for several years as a television news correspondent with ABC News in Jakarta and Tokyo, and with Bloomberg Television in Shanghai. She was part of the global ABC team that won a News and Documentary Emmy Award for presidential inauguration coverage. Her interviews include Howard Schultz, Richard Branson, Ban Ki-Moon, LeBron James and Beyoncé. Her non-profit experience includes the Berggruen Institute, where she built and launched a Philosophy + Culture Institute with a focus on the US and China. She has a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a master’s in journalism from the University of Hong Kong, which specializes in coverage of Asia. Margaret was selected as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times in 2019. She is on the Advisory Committee of TiE, and is a member of the board of the International Women's Forum.   

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