About Us

Walking Iris Media is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization established in 2010 to facilitate the research, production, and distribution of media projects which aim to engage the public on relevant historical and current issues through compelling storytelling.

In addition, Walking Iris Media supports initiatives and programs that promote the visibility of documentary filmmakers of color and address the challenges around access and sustainability specifically faced by people of color within the documentary industry.

Collaborators

Yang Sun

Director/Camera

YANG SUN is a Beijing-based documentary director and cameraman. He is on staff at China’s Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio, making documentaries for broadcasters including CCTV, Youku and the Travel Channel. He has directed several short and mid-length documentaries, including The Second Album, Aken, After He Rose To Fame, as well as the ten-part series Take Me To Travel. He worked as a director of photography on A Century With Nanjing, Century Master, and South Of The Ocean. Yang Sun holds a Masters degree from the School of Television and Film Art at the Communication University of China.

Jean Tsien

Executive Producer

Jean Tsien has been working in documentary for 35 years as an editor, producer, and consultant. Her editing credits include Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, a 2001 Academy Award nominee. Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing and Miss Sharon Jones! both of which were shortlisted for the Academy Award. Tsien consulted on many award-winning films such as: American Factory, Crime + Punishment, Rich Hill, Hooligan Sparrow, Nowhere to Hide, Risk, and Still Tomorrow. She executive produced and edited Plastic China, the winner of the 54th Golden Horse Award for Best Editing. Tsien also executive produced Our Time Machine and People’s Republic of Desire, Grand Jury Award winner, 2018 SXSW Film Festival. Tsien is a recipient of the Art of Editing Mentorship Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

Betsy Tsai

Co-producer

Betsy Tsai is a director and producer. She most recently produced Confucian Dream (Special Jury Prize, Karlovy Vary 2019) and was an associate producer for Our Time Machine (Tribeca 2019). From 2015-2020, she was a staff member of the Documentary Film Program at Sundance Institute, where she provided critical operational and curatorial support for the Sundance Documentary Fund, which awards over $1.5 million in grant awards to feature documentary films from around the world. Betsy is a directing alumna from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, & Television, where she also studied English Literature and International Conflict Resolution. Betsy is based between California and Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she is developing her first hybrid film.

Daniel Chein

Associate Producer

Daniel Chein is an independent filmmaker and recipient of the 2017 Princess Grace Film Award. His most recent film Basha Man won the Student Film Award at CAAMFest2017. As an editor, his work on Changa Revisited earned the film the OutStanDox Award at the Astra Film Festival. Daniel is an Associate Producer for Walking Iris Media and a board member of the Global Lives Project. He is currently completing his MFA in Cinema at San Francisco State University.

Richard Liang

Producer

Richard Liang has been working on documentaries for over 10 years. As one of the most active producers building bridges between Chinese filmmakers and international market, Richard has produced several documentaries with international partners. In addition to being a producer, he is also a distributor and event organizer. He runs a copyright agency for feature documentaries in China; he has been scouting Chinese films for IDFA since 2013 and was in the jury of IDFA in 2015; he also organizes a monthly event that screens feature documentaries in one of the largest cities in China.

Jian Fan

Director

Jian Fan is a documentary director who focuses on Chinese social issues through character-driven storytelling. He has directed six feature-length documentary films, most recently Still Tomorrow, (Special Jury Award, IDFA 2016; HotDocs 2017). His work has screened in competition at the Berlinale, Full Frame, Sheffield, Busan, and dozens of other film festivals around the world. Jian studied at the Beijing Film Academy and is now based in Chongqing, China.

 

Yvonne Welbon

Producer/Director

Yvonne Welbon is Senior Creative Consultant at Chicken & Egg Pictures, an award-winning filmmaker and Founder and CEO of the Chicago-based non-profit Sisters in Cinema. She has produced over 20 films which have been screened on PBS, Starz, TV-ONE, Bravo, BET, HBO, Netflix, iTunes, etc. and in over 100 film festivals around the world. Raised in an Afro-Latinx Honduran household, Welbon lived in Taipei, Taiwan for six years, received a B.A from Vassar College, a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, and is a graduate of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women.

Johnny Symons

Producer/Director

JOHNNY SYMONS is a veteran documentary filmmaker. His film Daddy & Papa (2002), about gay men raising kids, premiered at Sundance, aired on PBS’ Independent Lens and received an Emmy nomination for Best Documentary. Johnny co-produced the Academy Award-nominated Long Night’s Journey Into Day (2000), about South Africa’s search for truth and reconciliation, which won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance. Ask Not (2008), about the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens. He has a BA in Development Studies from Brown, and an MA in Documentary Production from Stanford. He is an assistant professor at San Francisco State University.

Laura Nix

Producer/Director

LAURA NIX is an independent filmmaker committed to exploring provocative characters and subject matter. She directed the documentary The Light In Her Eyes, about a Syrian Quran school for women, which premiered at IDFA in 2011, was broadcast on the series POV on PBS, and was included in Sundance’s Film Forward program. Other feature directing credits include the critically acclaimed fiction feature The Politics of Fur, Whether You Like It or Not: The Story of Hedwig, and The Yes Men Are Revolting. Nix co-wrote the Emmy-nominated PBS doc California State of Mind: The Legacy of Pat Brown. Her nonfiction television work has appeared on HBO, IFC, Planet Green, and the History Channel.

Sally Wu

Producer/Director

SALLY WU was born and raised in Taiwan. She studied media and advertising before transitioning into documentary film editing. She produced & co-directed The Mosou Sisters, the story of two spirited daughters from China’s last matriarchal society, which was funded by ITVS and aired on PBS’s Global Voice in 2014. She spent five years collaborating as an editor with David Sutherland on his six hour FRONTLINE series, Country Boys, which aired nationally on PBS in January 2006. She was a co-editor on HBO’s Run Granny Run (Audience Award, SXSW 2007) and was also editor on Sutherland’s Independent Lens/FRONTLINE series A Kind Hearted Woman, which aired on PBS in 2013.

Mercedes Coats

Producer/Director

MERCEDES COATS has directed and produced the award-winning documentaries Little Stars, about the unpredictable and challenging world of child actors, and Seoul II Soul, about a Korean/African-American family in post-riot Los Angeles (National PBS broadcast, 2002). She is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the Alfred P. Sloan Award, an Entertainment Weekly production grant, and the Women in Film/Paramount Pictures Crystal Award. Mercedes collaborated with producing partner, S. Leo Chiang, on To You Sweetheart, Aloha. She earned her MFA in Film Production from University of Southern California, and holds a BA in Theater from Occidental College.

Brittney Shepherd

Director/Producer

BRITTNEY SHEPHERD is currently producing and directing Eye, Camera, about a San Franciscan artist’s attempt to install a wireless video camera into her prosthetic eye. She co­‐produced A Fragile Trust (ITVS), about the Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal at The New York Times, and a co-­‐creator of the ITVS-­funded alternate reality news game, Decisions on Deadline. A longtime Walking Iris collaborator, she is co-producing Out Run and associate produced A Village Called Versailles and Mr. Cao Goes to Washington. Brittney has produced extensively with the Academy-­Award winning director Debra Chasnoff. She has a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from University of California, Berkeley.