EUNICE LAU
DIRECTOR, WRITER, PRODUCER
A former journalist, Eunice Lau is a Singaporean filmmaker now living in New York City. Her first independent feature documentary “Accept the Call”, set in Minnesota’s Somali community, explored how the impact of inherited trauma drove a teenager to join ISIS. Currently streaming on YouTube Originals, the film received strong festival play prior, including Human Rights Watch, Woodstock and Singapore International, and aired on PBS' Independent Lens and Canal Plus. In advance of directing “Accept the Call”, Eunice traveled to Mogadishu and Somaliland in 2012 to understand, through the lens of women survivors, the genesis of the conflict and rebuilding efforts. Her resulting film , “Through the Fire”, was nominated for best documentary for AMPAS' Student Academy Awards.
A descendant of immigrants displaced by conflict, Eunice is drawn to stories about the journey of migrants and the profundity of hyphenated identities. Her second feature documentary, "A-Town Boyz”, explored the struggles of growing up Asian American in Atlanta, Georgia. It followed the lives of two aspiring young rappers and a Korean gang leader. After premiering at the New York Asian Film Festival in 2023, it was picked up for streaming on Amazon Prime and Tubi. The TV series Eunice developed based on her film "A-Town Boyz” was selected for this year’s Film Independent Episodic Lab, sponsored by Netflix. The project is also shortlisted for The [Writers] Lab, and the Nantucket Film and Festival Tony Cox Screenplay Competition.
Her latest film "Troll Storm”, distributed by Journeyman Pictures, premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival" in 2024 and is now touring the festival circuit. For her upcoming documentary project, “Son of the Soil”, she was one of four filmmakers selected for Woodstock Film Festival’s inaugural Filmmakers’ Residency.
HONEY AHMAD
SCREENWRITER & SHOW CREATOR
Honey is a Malaysian screenwriter, podcaster and food journalist. She was on the writing team for Emmy-nominated “Saladin,” Malaysia’s first fully-animated series. She has written and produced over 8,000 hours of food content, including a food drama series called “I Eat KL,” which the Asian Wall Street Journal called “a mouth-watering soap opera.” Her first film that she co-wrote, “Motif,” featured a female cop on the trail of a small-town murder. Her animation short “Walinong Sari” has won awards in LA, New York, Mexico, Chile and Japan. Her radio script “Tujuh Hari Tengkujuh” was highly commended by the BBC World Service International Playwriting Competition judging team in 2020. Based in Kuala Lumpur, she also hosts bookish podcast, “Two Book Nerds Talking” and has authored two cookbooks on traditional Malaysian desserts.
She is currently working on a book-to-screen adaptation for Disney+, and an original series adapted from the documentary film “A-Town Boyz” with Eunice. Their show is selected for the 2024 Film Independent Episodic Lab, sponsored by Netflix. It is also shortlisted for The [Writers] Lab, and the Nantucket Film and Festival Tony Cox Screenplay Competition.. Honey is an alumni of the inaugural 2024 GRR Martin Summer Intensive Writing Workshop, where she is working on her first novel.
MAYE-E WONG
PHOTOGRAPHER
She won the AP Photo Contest in June 2020 for her series on black lives matter protests in New York City including a photo of a black lives matter protester embracing a police officer. Maye-E’s work is also supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). With a grant from IWMF, she traveled across the U.S. speaking to survivors of clergy abuse for her project “Sundays After”. Using Polaroid cameras to capture the subjects, she soaked the instant photos, before freeing the images on fragile membranes — wrinkled, torn, distressed — and pasting them on watercolor paper. The film transfers themselves, with their imperfections and rough edges, are resilient, much like the survivors they portray. The photos won Pictures of the Year International 2019 at the Missouri School of Journalism.
She is now a mentor at IWMF and the Eddie Adams Photo Workshop and served as a Jury member at the 2018 and 2019 World Press Photo Contest. She is currently the Senior Editor of Reuters’ Wider Image and Special Projects, and lives in New York City with her two children and a mini Australian Labradoodle named Kaya.
A multi-award-winning photographer, Maye-E Wong has spent almost two decades documenting conflicts, disasters and disease across the globe with the Associated Press (AP). In 2017, her sensitive portrayal of Rohingya refugees who had survive rape by Myanmar's military won an Overseas Press Club Hal Boyle Award and the 2018 Ancil Payne Ethics in Journalism Award. One of the most important roles in her career was her coverage of North Korea between 2014-2018. By using a familiar and accessible visual language, her photos gave people around the world a deep look into life in the reclusive country. Since 2018, her coverage has brought her to the U.S. where she travelled across middle America documenting life in the US during the seismic changes of 2020 where people had to navigate the uncertainty of COVID as well as the political scene.
YASU INOUE
EDITOR
Inspired by the cinema of John Cassavetes and Akira Kurosawa, Yasu came to New York City to study filmmaking, and editing. He has since produced and edited over 50 features and series including “Accept the Call”, “A-Town Boyz”, “Newman”(Best documentary, 2016), “Man from Reno” (Best Narrative Feature, LA Film Festival 2014) and “Tokyo Cowboy”. His clients include Netflix, HBO, CNN Films, Showtime and PBS.
Besides being an environmentalist, Yasu is a passionate anti-nuclear energy activist. Having seen the deadly repercussion of the Fukushima disaster on his family in Japan, he has a deep sense of the ecocide humanity has wrought in the name of progress.