Face-to-Face with the 2020 FEFF Campus team
Meet the 8 aspiring media types joining this year’s FEFF Family
The 6th edition of the Far East Film Festival’s Campus programme for aspiring media types has gathered together 8 young talents, from 8 countries – and 4 time zones – as it continues to the spread the cinematic love between East and West.
Across the dates of this year’s digital FEFF – from June 26 to July 4, 2020 - the Campus will take a deep dive into the life and the times of the world’s favourite celebration of commercial Asian cinema, reviewing films, listening to the wise words of industry veterans, and interviewing the filmmakers who bring Asian cinema to life.
As this newest generation of the FEFF Family sets out to work, let’s hear about who they are, where they are from, and what, exactly, are their hopes and dreams …
Adora Tan (Singapore)
Adora Tan has a strong passion for filmmaking, film festivals and film criticism. Her production and research work with Channel NewsAsia includes China's
Growing Appetite, a three 45-minute episode series that ties China's political power with food, as well as
On The Red Dot, a weekly series on inspiring stories of fellow Singaporeans. Passionate about mastering various aspects of film, Adora has also taken on the post-producer role at Singapore’s primary post-production facility Mocha Chai Laboratories. Adora’s interests also extend to film criticism and she took part in the Singapore International Film Festival’s Youth Jury & Critics Programme. Adora has also helped organise multiple film festivals including the MINDS Film Festival and the Malaysian Film Festival in Singapore. Adora has also directed and edited short films, including
Pawnshop (2019) and
Stories by the River (2018). Adora is currently a producer for video and collateral content.
Choo Suet Fun (Malaysia)
Choo Suet Fun is a translator and editor based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her enduring curiosity towards Asian cinema was sparked after studying a minor in film studies at university and she has been drawn to films from the region ever since, especially Malaysian, Singaporean and Japanese films. She appreciates the potential of cinema to open doors to new ways of seeing the world and in offering diverse perspectives on life.
Diego Aparicio (Cyprus)
Diego Aparicio is a freelance and aspiring filmmaker. He considers cinema to be the most beautiful means of expression for the cultivation of empathy and mutual understanding between people, and hopes to one day share his own films with an audience. His work in film journalism includes an interview at IFFR 2019 with Oscar-winning director László Nemes (
Son of Saul) for London’s Curzon Cinema blog in the UK; and coverage of the Berlinale 2020 official competition for A Cuarta Parede in Spain. In 2018 he was the Cypriot ambassador for the European Parliament’s LUX Film Prize. He was also a member of the official jury for the Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori (Venice Days) strand that same year, and has since helped as pre-selector for the Giornate. In 2019 he was head of partnerships for the 10th edition of the Watersprite short film festival in Cambridge, UK. Before the pandemic, he worked with the Cyprus-based production company AMP Filmworks as a production assistant, earning two feature film credits:
Sous Le Ciel d’Alice (Cannes Critics’ Week 2020); and
Patchwork (post-production). Diego studied physics at Imperial College London, and left a career in medical physics to pursue his love for cinema.
Linda Santu Lama (Italy)
Linda Santu Lama is an Italian Tibetan enthusiast of cinema. She has just graduated from her master’s degree in Japanese studies at Ca’ Foscari University (Venice), after spending almost a year in Tokyo. Since childhood, Linda has watched all sorts of movies ranging from European, to Bollywood to her father’s favorites: Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. On the day of her 11th birthday, Linda’s mother gave her a collection of Akira Kurosawa’s movies and this represented a great turning point in her life: She started getting passionate about Japanese cinema and this escalated quickly into a discovery for Asian movies, also nurtured by the Far East Film Festival. Linda thinks that cinema has the power to give minorities and marginalised people the chance to have their voices heard, and to have their stories shared. That is why she feels extremely excited about the Tibetan new wave of cinema made by Tibetans in the PRC, including Pema Tseden, and by Tibetans in the diaspora. Linda is eager to see more Tibetan films at international film festivals and she hopes to be able to share their stories after the FEFF Campus.
Kelly Le (Hong Kong)
Kelly Le is a multi-media reporter based in Hong Kong. As a film lover and reporter, Kelly has had opportunities to participate in film festivals and events, expressing her enthusiasm for visual arts and films through her reporting and multi-media work. At the FEFF Campus, Kelly is eager to tell stories from the film industry and to build the bridge between eastern and western audiences.
Josep Santcristofol (Spain)
Josep Santcristofol was born in a little town in the north east of Spain - near Barcelona - in 1995. His love for cinema started as a kid and it came thanks to his father. Together, they went to the cinema almost every week and at home they would watch a lot of comedies and action films. Despite this love for cinema, which was maintained through his teen years, Josep never really thought about it as a plausible future for himself until three or four years ago. He was studying East Asian studies at university and had to start deciding what he wanted to do after finishing the degree. Despite also enjoying politics, a subject that would have given him the most professional opportunities, Josep decided that he wanted to do what he was most passionate about, which was cinema. Josep still can’t say for certain, but he thinks he made the right choice because he has never been happier than now, studying what he loves the most: cinema studies. Josep believes the FEFF Campus is a great opportunity for him to explore and discover new possibilities for his future as in just one year he will be finished with his masters degree.
Fan Hong (China)
Fan Hong is Chinese by passport, a world citizen by heart, and is currently based in Tokyo. Being a curious cinephile, an aspiring novelist and a self-proclaimed intellectual, Fan is always looking for heavy, critical, social realist art films that stir her into an endless diatribe against all forms of injustices. When being less on guard, cheesy romances and goofy comedies are her non-disclosed guilty pleasure. If Fan is not thinking about films or books, she can often be caught giggling at a funny internet meme with eyes glued to some screen, or wandering in the back alleys of Tokyo and musing over what to have for her next meal.
Kalash Nanda Kumar (Malaysia)
Kalash Nanda Kumar is currently pursuing his postgraduate studies in English literature at University Malaya (Malaysia). Over the past six years, he has worked in media and journalism while occasionally moonlighting as a researcher. During his brief stint at a news organisation, Kalash covered a wide range of subjects including Malaysia’s legal institutions, indigenous rights, terrorism and environmental issues. Kalash inherited his love for cinema from his father.
The 6th edition of the FEFF Campus is being supported by media platforms
China Film Insider,
China Daily Hong Kong,
Jakarta Post,
Taiwan News,
New Straits Times,
Cyprus Mail and
Easternkicks.com, who have all offered opportunities for the work produced by the Campus to be published – and to be seen by the world. The FEFF Campus is also supported by
Europa Cinemas and
Telum Media.