The Team

Director: Nicola Fan

Nicola Fan is a graphic designer + filmmaker, based in Hong Kong. She works as an art director for marketing and campaign materials; and is a director/producer for branded content, music videos, documentaries and shorts. She has worked for clients such as Red Bull, Sunkist, Samsung, New Balance, J.P.Morgan, and Time Warner. Her works have been featured on billboards, in TV commercials, at film festivals, in print as well as in merchandise stores. At the recommendation of the Hong Kong International Film Festival, her latest music video “The Eve” was sponsored by Hong Kong Arts Centre in 2014 to be sent to worldwide film festivals, where it was screened at Clermont Ferrand International Film Festival, NYC Independent Film Festival, Incubator for Film and Visual Media in Asia, and more.

Nicola graduated from Rhode Island School of Design, where she grew her passion in communication design and storytelling through moving images.

Production Team: Jessica Kam and Patty Keung of GIG Creation

Jessica Kam is a film producer and senior TV executive who has more than 15 years of experience in film, TV, music, news and digital media that has spanned three continents. Jessica founded media consultancy Heart Farm Pictures in 2008, and film production company Les Petites Lumières Beijing in 2013 to bridge film resources in and outside of China. In 2009, she helped Beijing Galloping Horse to set up its film business. She was a Producer for “Kungfu Cyborg” and “Just Another Pandora’s Box” (Director Jeff Lau) that grossed RMB130M. In 2010 Jessica produced “The Piano in a Factory” which was invited to over 50 film festivals and won many international awards. Jessica also produced “Bump in the Road” with director Raymond Yip in 2012 and “Tie me up, lock him down” with Jeff Lau in 2013. Previously, she worked for Celestial Pictures, MTV Asia, Dow Jones Newswires, MGM Gold and Disney.  Jessica holds an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA in Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley. She was President of the International Advertising Association (IAA), Hong Kong Chapter (2001-05).

Patty Keung has had a distinguished career in marketing and production that has spanned over 20 years.  She has held key positions at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, Academy One Films, Hong Kong Cable Television, Turner Entertainment, Real Media and Celestial Pictures. During the course of her career, Patty has been involved in the creation and production of numerous TV commercials and promotional films where she has worked with clients from project conception to execution. While working for Celestial Pictures, Patty met many of the Shaw Studio film legends and this triggered her interest in writing stories and becoming a film director and producer in her own right.   Since then, her directorial work and work as a film producer have been showcased at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal and the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival 2013.  Patty holds an MBA Degree from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management and a Marketing Diploma from The Chartered Institute of Marketing in U.K.   She is a Management Council and Executive Committee Member of (WIFTI) Women in Film and Television – Hong Kong Chapter.

Associate Producer: Su-Mei Thompson

Su-Mei joined The Women’s Foundation as CEO in 2009. Her responsibilities include strategic planning, donor relations, overseeing grants and programmes, as well as government relations and community outreach. In 2012, Su-Mei founded the 30% Club Hong Kong, a group of chairmen and business leaders who are committed to bringing more women onto corporate boards. Su-Mei started her career at Linklaters as a corporate finance associate while also serving as a lecturer and tutor in contract and commercial law at Kings College, London. She went on to hold senior management positions at The Walt Disney Company, the Financial Times and Christie’s in Asia.

In addition to running The Women’s Foundation, Su-Mei is a Member of the Equal Opportunities Commission of Hong Kong, a board member of Opera HK and a Council member of The Cheltenham Ladies College, her alma mater. Su-Mei holds law degrees from Cambridge and Oxford and an MBA from IMD where she was the first woman to graduate on the Dean’s list. Su-Mei is also a recent recipient of the Andy Choa Scholarship which sponsors Hong Kong NGO leaders to attend the SPNM Programme at Harvard Business School. Su-Mei is the winner of the 2015 AmCham Women of Influence Award for Non-Profit Leader of the Year and the HKAH/Tatler Women of Hope Award for Power & Influence. She has also been recognised as one of Hong Kong’s 100 Most Influential People by Debrett’s and the SCMP. Su-Mei ‘s recent speaking credits include TEDxWanChaiWomen 2015 and the Women’s Forum Deauville in 2015. Su-Mei served as a judge for Diageo’s inaugural Women Empowerment (WE) Journalism Awards in 2014 and will be a jury member for the Cannes Glass Lion Awards 2016.

Associate Producer: Rita Ching

Rita joined The Women’s Foundation in September 2009 and is mainly responsible for TWF’s programme design and development and community outreach. Previously, Rita spent ten years at the Employee Retraining Board where she managed placement services working closely with the Education Bureau, the Labour and Welfare Bureau, the Commission on Poverty, the Labour Department and the Social Welfare Department. She is the Founder and Principal of a social enterprise called Above and Beyond Education – an education centre in Sham Shui Po that instructs on positive education to support students and their parents. She has also served as an External Advisor of the Higher Diploma of Public Policy and Administration Course and Yi Jin Diploma for the School of Continuing Education at the Hong Kong Baptist University. Rita is also an organising member of the 2013-16 Family-Friendly Employers Award Scheme, an Advisory Group member for the Financial Education Programmes for Grassroots and a Working Group member for the ‘Financial Literacy Framework for Hong Kong’ promoted by the Investor Education Centre, a subsidiary of the Securities & Futures Commission. She was honoured by the YWCA as one of Hong Kong’s Outstanding Women Volunteers. Rita holds a Masters in Social Policy from the University of York, UK.

Composer: Anna Lo

Anna Lo is a composer, songwriter, arranger, pianist, singer and conductor. She began her classical music training at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts at the age of 6, and proceeded to graduate from Berklee College of Music in 2010 with a degree in Contemporary Writing and Production. Prior to Berklee, she graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008 with a double degree in Linguistics and Philosophy and Music and Theater Arts, and was recipient of the 2008 Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts. While at MIT, she was Musical Director of The Chorallaries of MIT, MIT’s award-winning co-ed a cappella group.

Anna currently works both behind the scenes and as a performer, and has taken part in a number of musical theatre, theatre, music, and dance productions, including “The Passage Beyond in Concert” with Actors’ Family and Hong Kong Sinfonietta, “Shao Nian Yau” with Hong Kong Dance Company”, “Sentimental K” with Theatre Ronin, and “Our Immortal Cantata” and “Requiem HK” with Yat Po Singers. Anna also works in pop, and has performed and recorded backup vocals for singers such as Leon Lai, Kelly Chen, Andy Hui, Miriam Yeung, and Janice Vidal. Anna recently made her first foray into film composing for the documentary “She Objects”. Her upcoming shows include The Passage Beyond in Concert – Hong Kong Sinfonietta & Actors’ Family, Requiem HK with Yat Po Singers in June and Beyond Good Music @ The Fringe in August.

The Women’s Foundation

The Women’s Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls in Hong Kong. We aspire to conduct groundbreaking research, to run innovative and impactful community programmes and we engage in education and advocacy in the pursuit of three main goals: challenging gender stereotypes, empowering women in poverty to achieve a better quality of life for themselves and their families, growing the number of women in decision-making and leadership positions. For more information, please visit: www.twfhk.org 

Women Helping Women

TWF is delighted to be partnering in this project with another leading Hong Kong-based NGO, Women Helping Women Hong Kong (WHWHK), who support families facing domestic violence and abuse, among other important causes. Their goal is to promote family harmony by providing underprivileged families with programs like developmental, preventive, supportive and psychological therapy. They are dedicated to help those suffering from domestic abuse in overcoming their negative emotions and to equip them with the skills they need to rebuild their lives and restore their dignity. For more information, please visit: www.whwhk.org