LEO CHIANG – Director/Producer/Cinematographer
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 2019 film, OUR TIME MAHINE, 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 other films include Emmy Award-nominated A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES, about the rebuilding and transformation of the Vietnamese American community in post-Katrina New Orleans (PBS Independent Lens); and OUT RUN, which profiles the only LGBTQ+ political party in the world Leo received his MFA in film production from University of Southern California. He is currently the co-chair of New Day Films, the American social-issue documentary distribution co-operative.
JOHNNY SYMONS – Director/Producer/Sound/Second Camera
Johnny Symons is a Bay Area documentary filmmaker focusing on LGBT cultural and political issues. His feature documentary DADDY & PAPA (2002) premiered at Sundance, broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens, and was nominated for a national Emmy® for Best Documentary. BEYOND CONCEPTION (2006) premiered at the Florida Film Festival and broadcast on Discovery Channel. ASK NOT (2008) won four festival awards, aired on PBS’ Independent Lens and screened on Capitol Hill for members of Congress. He co-produced the Academy Award® nominated LONG NIGHT’S JOURNEY INTO DAY, which won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance in 2000. Johnny has a master’s in documentary production from Stanford. He is Assistant Professor in the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University, where he is Coordinator of the Documentary Program and Director of the Queer Cinema Institute.