Alvin Tsang, Director
Alvin Tsang is a documentary filmmaker and artist based in New York City. His work explores the more personal human experience to inform on bigger issues of community, migration and humanity. Alvin’s REUNIFICATION (2015) is an award-winning personal feature-length documentary about memories of migration and divorce. It was praised by The Boston Globe for “exploring the past with a Proustian sensitivity”; by Meredith Monk for its “clear-eyed honesty”; and by Salon for “coming closest to feeling like a truly distinct Asian-American film.”

Alvin is currently working on REUNIFICATION’s sequel entitled WHEN HOME IS ELSEWHERE (wip), which further reflects on the idea of home by recounting the life of his “minimalist” father who was an orphan and refugee from Vietnam. It is sponsored by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and received grants from New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and Queens Council on the Arts (QCA).

Alvin served as an assistant editor for THAT’S MY FACE (2001), a Berlinale Ecumenical Prize winner by Thomas Allen Harris that explores the mythical “face” of the African diaspora. Alvin was a co-producer for TEA & JUSTICE (2007), a documentary by Ermena Vinluan that chronicles the very first female Asian-American police officers on the force in New York City’s NYPD. He also served as a cinematographer for various short narrative and documentary work. In 2022, Alvin was an artist fellow/cinematographer for artist Diogenes Ballaster at La Casa de Cultura de la Playa in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His own shorts include FISH (2010), PRESERVATION (2011) and A MINUTE WITH THE ELDERS (2000).

Since 2019, Alvin has embarked on social justice art practice by collaborating with painter Siyan Wong on three art exhibitions about the elderly low-income immigrants in New York City who collect and redeem cans and bottles in order to survive. From 5,000 painted gold soda cans, Alvin and Siyan created a “gold mountain” and several other conceptual installations to meditate on the experiences of these “canners.” Alvin also incorporated video into the installations and video projections into the gallery spaces. From these collaborative art exhibitions, Alvin and Siyan are currently co-directing PAINTING ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERS (wip), a feature-length documentary which looks into the lives of some of these elderly canners, the value of their work as seen by society, and contemplates the meaning of work in our lives.

Joanna Karselis, Music Composer – website
Joanna Karselis is a competition winning composer based in Birmingham, UK. Born in Oxford, Karselis trained as a violinist and pianist for music performance and later discovered a passion for composition during her undergraduate degree at the University of Birmingham. Since then, Karselis received several commissions and won several competitions, notably winning the University’s Composition Competition (2013) and was selected as a finalist at the Iris Theatre Christmas Songwriting Competition (2013). Karselis also scored two plays (HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA, 2013, and HIDE & SEEK, 2013) and completed her masters in composition in 2014. After finishing the original score for Alvin Tsang’s award-winning film REUNIFICATION (2015), Karselis recorded her debut EP as a singer-songwriter and begun working on a new theatre score. Karselis has a strong interest in acoustic, electro-acoustic and mixed composition, and how music can be used to add to visual drama.

Amy Epstein, Editing/Script Consultant – website
Amy Epstein’s film I’VE GOT YOU BABE (an action/adventure pic) which she wrote, produced and directed, premiered at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 2000 New Directors/New Films Series at the Museum of Modern Art.  It featured Fredrick Neumann of Mabou Mines and Lisa Welti and was sold to the Sundance Film Channel.  It has also played at the 30 Festival de Cine Alcala de Hanares Comunidad in Madrid, the Clermont-Ferrand Festival in France, the 20th Women in the Director’s Chair Festival in Chicago, the Not Hollywood Film Festival in New Paltz, New York, the Kino Film Festival in Manchester, England, the Chashama Arts Festival and the Coney Island Film Festival in New York.  She has recently completed writing, producing and directing a new twenty minute film entitled BUT THIS IS HOW IT WILL END which stars Obie award winning actor Steven Rattazzi.  Other works include a five minute music film HOMAGE TO DRINK, which she directed, edited, co-wrote and co-produced with Obie award winner Cynthia Hopkins, who also performs in the film as well as the short piece JOSEPH (which played last spring at The American Film Festival of New York) — about a 13 year old boy and his love of writing – produced and directed by Ms. Epstein and edited by Jeff Drury of Mad Mad Judy Productions.  In support of her playwrighting and screenwriting, Ms. Epstein has received fellowships from the Edward Albee Foundation and the MacDowell Colony.

Consultant – Ermena Vinluan
Poster Design & Website – Boon Khoo – website
Community Promotion Consultants – Corky Lee, Bayer Lee
Distribution (US) – Facets – website
Distribution (HK) – Ying E Chi – website
“Modern” DVD Cover Concept (HK) – Peter Bird Studio – website
Supported by – The United States Consulate General Hong Kong, Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO) New York & DC, Queens Memory Project, Memories of Migration