OUR INSTRUCTORS

Amrita Chandradas

Amrita Chandradas is a Singaporean documentary photographer who holds an M.A. in Photojournalism and Documentary photography from London College of Communications. She is also an alumni of the Angkor Photo Festival (2016). Amrita aspires to explore the intersection between changing environments and its inhabitants, where her work continues to bring forth the less-discussed issues and struggles of displacement.

In 2014, Amrita won the top 30 under 30 documentary photographers showcase by Magnum Photos & IdeasTap. She was a finalist in the Asian Women Photographers showcase and the Invisible Photographer Asia Awards. Her works were also a contender for Excellence in Digital News by SOPA News. Amrita’s work has been featured in The National Geographic, The New York Times, The LA Times, SONY, National Heritage Board, Singapore Tourism Board, Time Out Singapore, BBC World, British Journal of Photography, NPR, SWCP, Financial Times, and Dagbladet.

Aparna Nori

Aparna Nori is a photographer and visual artist based between Singapore and Bangalore, India. Aparna draws upon personal memory to have a dialogue with the quotidian. Her response is articulated through a range of mediums including alternative photographic processes, installations, video, digital photography and the book form. Aparna is a member of Women Photograph. As a pedagogic extension of her practice, she continues to facilitate workshops to teach photography, bookmaking and alternative photographic processes.

Daniel Hui

Daniel Hui is a filmmaker. A graduate of the film program in California Institute of the Arts, he is one of the founding members of 13 Little Pictures, a critically acclaimed independent film collective in Singapore. He has made four feature-length films — Eclipses (Pixel Bunker Award for International New Talent, Doclisboa IFF 2013), Snakeskin (Special Jury Award TFFDoc, Torino FF 2014; Award of Excellence, Yamagata IDFF 2015; Special Jury Mention, RIDM 2015), Demons (In Competition, Kim Jiseok Award, Busan IFF 2018; Berlinale Forum 2019), and Small Hours of the Night (IFFR 2024).

Deanna Ng

Deanna Ng is an independent photographer and passionate arts educator who holds a Specialist Diploma in Arts Education from Singapore’s National Institute of Education. Her photographic interests lie in documenting fragments of memory that can still be found in the rapidly changing urban landscape of Singapore.

Deanna’s work is featured in the book Singapore Eye – Contemporary Singapore Art (2015), as well as the Land Transport Authority’s Arts in Transit programme, where her work is showcased at Beauty World MRT Station along the Thomson Line. 

In her classes, Deanna challenges students to discover their own voice in photography. She also believes that it is important that students practise the craft with an understanding of its artistic history. 

Gladys Ng

Gladys Ng is a film writer-director from Singapore whose works are often celebrated for being nuanced, subtle, and interspersed with wry humour. As a Victorian College of the Arts graduate, ASEAN-ROK Film Leaders Alumnus, and Cinemovement fellow, her short films have competed in and won awards at various film festivals, like the Uppsala International Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), and Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, amongst others.

Gladys’ film, My Father After Dinner, was presented with the Best Singapore Short Film at the 26th SGIFF. Under a commission from SGIFF, she wrote and directed The Pursuit of a Happy Human Life, which opened the festival in 2016. In 2020, her film Under the Same Pink Sky was awarded Best Directing and Best Editing at the 2020 National Youth Film Awards. Besides narrative films, Gladys has also directed, shot, and edited numerous documentaries and social media content for both brands and non-profit organisations.

Ivan Tan

Ivan Tan is a writer-director from Singapore. His first short film, Tadpoles, was awarded the jury prize at the 66th Locarno International Film Festival – the first for a Singaporean director. Shortly after, he was one of eight directors accepted into the National Film & Television School in the UK under a national scholarship.

Ivan spent the first seven years of his life living with his grandparents. At eight, he found out that they were not his real grandparents. This rupture in his childhood allowed him to understand how powerful stories can be in shaping one’s reality. Ivan’s early films constantly probed at what ‘family’ meant. Today, Ivan’s work examines contemporary Singaporean society through bizarre and absurd situations. He also likes Ozu, Teresa Teng, Chinese tea, and cheeseburgers.

Jessica Lee

Jessica is an award-winning director and producer. She directed Secret Lives of Trees, a premium history documentary series for Channel NewsAsia, nominated for the SILBERSALZ Science & Media Awards 2023, a Women in History series for the National Library Board of Singapore, and is the only Singaporean awarded the FreedomFilmFest Justin Louis award for directing The Shades of Love, a documentary on sex workers in Singapore.

Jessica produced Netflix’s first Korean true crime series The Raincoat Killer which ranked top 5 on Netflix Korea, and was a supervising producer on Ice Cold: Murder, Coffee and Jessica Wongso, the first documentary to rank number 1 on Netflix Indonesia and top 10 non- English films globally.

Jessica was previously Head of Development at Beach House Pictures, one of Asia’s largest independent production companies. She oversaw the strategy, origination, packaging and pitching of all non-scripted shows, including managing the relationships with buyers and talents from the US to Asia. Jessica was involved in selling many of BHP’s most high-profile documentary and unscripted programming such as the Emmy- nominated lifestyle series Mind Your Manners (Netflix), The Raincoat Killer (Netflix), feature length human interest doc Best Dog India (Netflix), science series Evolve (Curiosity, Amazon Prime), and natural history series Otter Dynasty (Max, Discovery+, Love Nature).

A graduate of Busan International Film Festival Platform Busan 2023 and featured in Prestige Magazine’s 40 under 40, Jessica is also a lecturer in documentary filmmaking at the National University of Singapore.

Koo Chia Meng

Trained as a filmmaker, Chia Meng has been actively involved in various aspects of film production since 2009. He co-founded his production company Fiction Shore in 2013, and subsequently completed his Master of Fine Arts in Film Directing at the Taipei National University of the Arts in 2019.

Some of his earlier short films were official selections at regional film festivals including Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival, ifva Hong Kong, Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore Shorts ’21 and Minikino Film Week. Chia Meng also directed live-action films for National Day 2020 and 2021, featuring interviews with inspiring Singaporeans. Most recently, he directed Singaporean actors Andie Chen and Rui En for his upcoming short film Yearbook, a co-production with Giraffe Pictures.

Chia Meng was also Casting Director for Singaporean feature films such as Boo Junfeng’s Apprentice (2016), Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo (2013) and Wet Season (2019), as well as He Shuming’s Ajoomma (2022). Screen performance work remains a key area of focus for his company, and Chia Meng continuously conducts performance workshops with emerging filmmakers and actors as a way of contributing to the industry. Fiction Shore also proudly sponsored the Best Performance Award for the Southeast Asian Short Film Competition at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2022.

As Multimedia Designer, Chia Meng’s credits include productions by W!ld Rice, The Finger Players, Drama Box, Toy Factory, Warner Music Singapore and Singapore Repertory Theatre. He also worked on larger scale shows like Michael Learns To Rock 25: Live in Singapore. Aside from Multimedia work, Chia Meng also directed concerts for The TENG Ensemble in 2019 and 2022. At the Straits Times Life Theatre Awards 2019, Chia Meng and co-designer Andrew Robert Ng were awarded Best Multimedia for their work on W!ld Rice’s Supervision. In 2022, Chia Meng served as Multimedia Director (Film) for National Day Parade Singapore. As Fiction Shore’s Creative Director, Chia Meng continues to develop content with collaborators and artists, for the film and theatre industries.

Pok Yue Weng

Pok Yue Weng is the co-founder of production house, The Creative Room. He is an experienced cameraman and cinematographer who has worked on projects in Singapore and Hong Kong. Yue Weng was among the first batch of students to graduate from the Film, Sound, and Video programme in Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

To date, Yue Weng has more than a decade of experience in the media production industry. With his keen interest in cinematography, he embarked on an 8 year stint as a freelance camera assistant, working under illustrious cinematographers like Willie Tang from the Picture Farm, Gary Wapshott, and Jake Scott, amongst others.

Yue Weng has also been involved in many major Singaporean and Hong Kong film productions in the camera and lighting department. His production credits include The Road Less Travelled, The Tree, and many other film projects and television commercials. He directed superDONG, a short film which screened at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2007.

Ric Aw

Ric Aw is an award-winning director and producer who has been making films that reflect on the human condition since 2005. His works often seek to address the themes of justice, transformation, love, and hope.

Ric has directed 11 short films to date, and has won awards for Buy Me Love, Villain, and Silent Girls. He has also received accolades as a producer, with superDONG being selected for Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and 7 Letters: Pineapple Town selected for Busan International Film Festival. Benjamin’s Last Day at Katong Swimming Complex, which he also produced, won Best Film, George Lucas Award at Short Shorts Tokyo Film Festival.

Ric’s films have screened at prestigious festivals such as the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival and Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. He also presented his video art installation “Man of the Forest” at the Yokohama Triennale, Japan.

Tang Kang Sheng

Kang Sheng is a director whose short films have traveled to film festivals globally, showcasing his unique storytelling style. He holds an MFA in Directing from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and takes a strong interest in Singaporean media history.

His works have been featured locally at the Singapore International Film Festival and the National Youth Film Awards. In 2021, Kang Sheng founded Waking Life Pictures to produce independent feature films and television content. His goal is to create stories centered on human connection within the evolving Southeast Asian landscape. He is also an educator who has taught at various higher learning institutions.

Tom White

Tom White is a freelance photographer who studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, and Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the International Center of Photography in New York. From 2015-2022, he taught Documentary & Photojournalism at Yale-NUS College. He has also taught classes at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, International Center of Photography.

Tom’s work has been published and exhibited internationally, including in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Wall Street Journal, TIME magazine, The Guardian U.K, and for Thompson Reuters and The European Pressphoto Agency.

Tom continues to work on a variety of photography-based social engagement projects and is interested in all aspects of visual literacy and communication, particularly in regard to environmental issues, socially engaged art, journalism and the intersection of political economy, media, technology, and society.