CORE TEAM: WOMEN’S SCREEN WORK

Louisa Wei

Wikanda Promkhuntong

Kate Taylor-Jones

Louisa received a Ph.D. in Film Studies from the University of Alberta, Canada,  and is currently  Professor of Cinematic Arts teaching theory and production courses in the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong. An independent documentary filmmaker, Louisa joined the Hong Kong Director’s Guild in 2018 and has twice served as a professional juror for the Hong Kong Film Awards. She became a member of the Hong Kong Film Critic Society in 2024. Louisa has written and directed four feature and three television documentaries, including Storm under the Sun (紅日風暴2009), Golden Gate Girls (金門銀光夢2014), Wang Shiwei: The Buried Writer (王實味：被淹沒的作家2016, for RTHK), Havana Divas (古巴花旦 2018), Writing 10000 Miles (跋涉者蕭紅2019, for RTHK), and A Life in Six Chapters (蕭軍 六記2022). Her feature films have received international acclaim from academics and film festivals and have attracted media attention from Hollywood trade magazines to major English and Chinese media, including The Hollywood Reporter, BBC, South China Morning Post, etc.. As a scholar and writer, Louisa has published many articles on women writers/directors in Sinophone cinema in academic journals, anthologies, and encyclopedias. She has published four cinema-related books, including Esther Eng: Ocean-crossing Film and Women Pioneers (霞哥傳奇：跨洋電影與女性先鋒2016, winner of Hong Kong Book Award 2017, co- author Law Kar), Cinema East and West (東西方電影 2016, expanded edition), Animate! ( 開始學動畫, 2010, co-author Karen McCann), and Women’s Cinema: Dialogues with Chinese and Japanese Female Directors (女性的電影：對話中日女導演, 2009, co-author Yang Yuanying). Her monographs on China’s intellectual history also received positive reviews. Wang Shiwei: A Reform in Thinking (王實味：文藝整風與思想改造2016) had three prints within a year of initial publication, winning the Distinguished Publishing Prize in the Literature and Fiction Category at The First Hong Kong Biennial Publishing Prize, 2017. Hu Feng: Poetic Ideals, Political Storm (胡風：詩人理想與政治風暴 2017) has been endorsed by historians, writers, and literary scholars.

Wikanda is an assistant professor in Film and Cultural Studies at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia, Mahidol University. Her research engages with transnational East Asian cinema and different forms of film cultures. A significant part of her work explores the discourses around and practices of screen industry agents, from artists/auteurs/stars to cinephiles/fans, and how they navigate the changing conditions that shaped their lives and practices over time. Since being based in Thailand, her research also explores film cultures in relation to fan tourism, different forms of cinematic mobilities, and historical film receptions (https://www.filmfantourism.org/). The pandemic also led to a trajectory of work  towards screen labour, solidary writings, industry collectives, and production cultures in the global South. With the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia, she co-founded the Aesthetics and Sociology of Culture Research cluster, which seeks interdisciplinary research collaborations within and outside Thailand. (https://www.rilcaaestheticsandculture.org/) RILCA’s profile: https://lc.mahidol.ac.th/en/rilca-people-en/pg-12000186/

Kate is Professor of Global Cinema and Media in the School of Languages, Arts and Societies, University of Sheffield. Her research is highly interdisciplinary and draws on a variety of fields including film studies, history, gender and sexuality studies, media studies, visual culture and critical theory. She has a longstanding record of external engagement – working with film festivals, distributors, schools and diverse audiences on the topic of East Asian cinema and culture.  She has received funding from the AHRC, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy and the European Research Council. She is the co-editor of International Cinema and the Girl(Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 with Fiona Handyside) and Prostitution and Sex Work in Global Cinema: New Takes on Fallen Women (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 with Danielle Hipkins) and Global ScreenWorlds: Global Screen Worlds: Conversations across Cinema Cultures (Bloomsbury Press, forthcoming, edited with Lindiwe Dovey and Georgia Thomas-Parr.  She was senior researcher on the Screenworlds Project.  Her last monograph Divine Work: Japanese Colonial Cinema and its Legacy was published by Bloomsbury Press in 2017 and her most recent project – Ninagawa Mika, Miyake Kyoto and Ando Momoko: Shōjo Dreams and Unruly Idols will be published by Edinburgh University Press.