DOCUMENTARY
At Al Jazeera English's 101 East, an award-winning weekly programme that produces 25-minute documentaries covering the issues that unite and divide Asia Pacific, I assisted with the production of Worked to Death (a gripping documentary about migrant labour rights in Malaysia), and produced research briefs for Phoning from the Philippines (examining the Philippines' growing economic dependence on meeting developed countries' demands for outsourcing) and Ageing Japan (uncovering Japan's insecurities of a rapidly ageing population).
short film
In short documentary called In Paris, a multicultural haven, co-produced with RuoLin Yang, we follow an unusual Frenchman who has never been to China but teaches Mandarin Chinese in Paris's Chinatown. Originally produced for the ASEF short film contest, our film was voted the top 10 videos out of 103 entries. The film documents how charismatic Frenchman Donatien Schramm inadvertently created a cultural melting pot by teaching Mandarin Chinese in Paris.
Photography
In photo-documentary An Afternoon with Ali Akbar, I follow newspaper vendor Ali around the affluent Saint-Germain-des-Prés quarter of Paris, where he is a well-loved celebrity. Initially an illegal immigrant, he gained the right to stay in France when François Mittérand’s government retroactively regularised illegal migrants in the 1980′s. His humorous headlines (“Sarkozy assassiné! Sarkozy assassinated!”) and emblematic personality has won him much popularity in the quarter, an asset which has helped him build a life in Paris. The full photo documentary can be viewed on Vuvox.
