Narrative Feature Jurors
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Christie Zhao
Christie Zhao (she/her), a Seattle-based Chinese theatre director and producer, founded Yun Theatre, focusing on socio-political issues and ensemble work. Her directing credits include “Young People Social Death Archive” (2024), “In Between” (2023), 14/48 festival, “Caught” (2023), and “Monologues of n Women” (2022). She’s skilled in stage management, lighting design, collaborating with Theatre Off Jackson, Dacha, Dunya Productions, eSe Teatro, and Sound Theatre Company. Christie also volunteers with MPOP, demonstrating her commitment to community and theatre’s power to effect change.
Socials: @crystor on IG, https://yun-theatre.com, https://www.christiezhao.com
Michael Velasquez
Michael Velasquez is a producer of The Paper Tigers. He still hopes to one day be paid to make art.
Socials: @_thepapertigers on IG
Tara Tamaribuchi
Tara Tamaribuchi is a Chinese and Japanese American visual artist, raised in Irvine, CA and living in Seattle. Film is a part of her family’s immigrant history. Her ancestor King Hou Chang (born Hawaiian Kingdom) played “Jim” in the silent film “Piccadilly” alongside Anna May Wong. Her family from Hiroshima opened a Japanese movie theater in 1920s Sacramento, CA. Tara works across mediums (installation, video, fiber, sound) from a Buddhist and diasporic perspective to connect the past and present to new futures. In the past two years, she has shown at the UW Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Method, Soil, Eastover Contemporary Art Center (Lenox, MA), Seattle U Hedreen Gallery, and Galpão (São Paulo). She is a leader in the effort to save art studios and immigrant history from redevelopment at the Inscape Arts, the former immigration and detention center in the Chinatown-International District.
Socials: @tara_tamaribuchi, www.taratamaribuchi.com
Documentary Feature Jurors
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Vince Schleitwiler
Vince Schleitwiler teaches comparative ethnic studies at the University of Washington. He is the author of Strange Fruit of the Black Pacific (NYU Press), and scholarly and critical writing in African American Review, Film Quarterly, The Margins, the International Examiner, the Village Voice, and elsewhere. He has collaborated on public arts and humanities projects for the Smithsonian APA Center, the Washington Trust for Historical Preservation, the Center for Art and Thought, and other organizations. A Yonsei, or fourth-generation Japanese American, Vince was raised in Chicago, and currently lives in Beacon Hill.
Aleksa Manila
Aleksa Manila is Seattle’s sweetheart of fundraising and everything fabulous! She’s a former Miss Gay Filipino, Miss Gay Seattle and Empress of Seattle among many of her crowns. She’s recognized for her social activism and community leadership by Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, The Greater Seattle Business Association, Seattle Women’s Pride, Public Health – Seattle & King County, The Filipino Community of Seattle and so on. She is featured in GLAAD and Emmy nominated PBS documentary, CARETAKERS. Follow her journey at ALEKSAMANILA.com and all social media platforms via @ALEKSAMANILA.
Rana San
Rana San is an intermedia artist, curator, and night dreamer pondering language and lineage, intimacy and interdependence. Her creative and curatorial practice centers experimental and analog approaches to storytelling through film, writing, and movement presented on screen and stage. Based between Seattle and Istanbul, she co-directs Cadence Video Poetry Festival and is a co-curator of Good Symptom: A Serial Anthology of Time-Based Disturbances.
Narrative Shorts Jurors
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Douglas Ishii
Douglas S. Ishii (he/him) is an assistant professor of Asian American literature & culture at the University of Washington-Seattle. His research focuses on Asian American art, literature, and media after the Asian American Movement of 1968 to 1977. His courses explore the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship in the works of North American Black and Indigenous artists and artists of color after World War II.
Mahnoor Euceph
Mahnoor Euceph is an award-winning Pakistani-American writer and director. She has a BA from UCLA in Design Media Arts and an MFA from USC in Film & TV Production. She was a fellow in Islamic Scholarship Fund’s Muslim Centered Writers’ Lab, with support from Extracurricular and The Black List, for her feature film QUEEN OF DIAMONDS. Her internationally awarded short film EID MUBARAK was longlisted for the 96th Academy Awards.
Socials: @euceph, https://www.nooreuceph.com
Woody Fu
Woody Fu is an actor/creator based in Los Angeles. He trained at the UCB Theater, where he performed on Maude (sketch), Betty (characters), and Baby Wants Candy (musical improv). His one-man shows were featured in The New York Times and toured New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Orlando, Philadelphia, and Toronto. As an actor, Woody has appeared on ABC, CBS, FX, Max, HULU, Comedy Central, Peacock, Netflix, TBS, AppleTV+, and Amazon. He co-hosts the Emotional Slut podcast (Spotify/Apple) with SJ Son, where they discuss the Asian American experience, repression, sex, racism, and immigrant parents. But it’s fun!
Socials: @woodyfu
Documentary Shorts Jurors
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Rahul Gupta
Rahul is a father, activist, and community advocate. He has trained grassroots leaders, students, and educators in storytelling, narrative building, and techniques for use in social justice advocacy and community organizing. His career has spanned a number of areas including social justice communications, community organizing, and humanitarian assistance.
Tracey Wong
Tracey Wong 黃麗塋 (she/her) is a queer Teochew-American interdisciplinary artist that lights up and inspires spaces through her art. She was born and raised on Duwamish Land/ Seattle, WA and she is the co-director and co-founder of Malicious Vixens, a dance crew and sisterhood of Asian American women that perform globally. Tracey currently teaches dance at The Beacon: Massive Monkees Studio, a place she considers her home. Tracey also recently joined the faculty team at the University of Washington as a part-time lecturer, helping to develop the street and club-styles curriculum.
Chris Woon-Chen
Chris Woon-Chen is a Seattle based documentary filmmaker and musician. An alumni of UCLA’s Ethnocommunications program under Robert Nakamura, his past films explore themes of Hip Hop, martial arts, aging, and Asian American diaspora. Musically, he works under the name “Paper Son”, crafting beats and compositions exploring sample Hip Hop, electronic synthesis and free jazz.
Chris is also a proud alumni of SAAFF as a former artist liaison and festival programming manager. When he’s not making art he enjoys playing with his two kids, training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and dancing with his crew Time 2 Rock. You can check out his past and future projects at www.chriswoonchen.com
