Sung-Chang Leo Chiang (, born in

Kaohsiung City Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiu ...

) is a documentary filmmaker. Born in Taiwan and based in San Francisco, Leo received his MFA in film production from

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. He lectured in the Social Documentation program at

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

, and was a fellow in the

Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada *Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood *Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated place ...

Institute Documentary Film Program. His film ''Out Run'', co-directed with award-winning filmmaker Johnny Symons, premiered at the

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of non-fiction cinema. The festival is a program of the Center for Documentary Studies, a non-profit, 501(c)(3) at Duke University. ...

and won Best Cinematography for a Feature Length Documentary Film at the

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) – formerly known as VC FilmFest – is an annual film festival presented by Visual Communications (VC). It was established in 1983 by Linda Mabalot as a vehicle to promote Asian Pacific Amer ...

. His previous documentary, ''Mr. Cao Goes to Washington'', won the Inspiration Award at the 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. His film, ''A Village Called

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

'', about the rebuilding and transformation of the Vietnamese American community in post-Katrina New Orleans, was nominated for a national

News & Documentary Emmy Award The News & Documentary Emmy Awards, or News & Documentary Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Scien ...

. It picked up eight film festival awards, aired on PBS

Independent Lens ''Independent Lens'' is a weekly television series airing on PBS featuring documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of ''Independent Lens'' were hosted by Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Ho ...

series, and has been acquired by more than 200 academic and public libraries. His other films include ''To You Sweetheart, Aloha'' (PBS broadcast 2006), ''One + One'' (CINE Golden Eagle Award 2002), and ''Safe Journey''. Leo also collaborates with other documentary filmmakers as an editor (''True-Hearted Vixen'', POV 2001; ''Recalling Orange County'', PBS/VOCES 2006) and as a cameraman (''Ask Not'', Independent Lens 2009). His 2023 film '' Island in Between'', about

Kinmen Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed as a county by the Republic of China (Taiwan), off the southeastern coast of mainland China. It lies roughly east of the city of Xiamen in Fujian, from which it is separate ...

Island and its Cold War past (e.g.

First Taiwan Strait Crisis The First Taiwan Strait Crisis (also the Formosa Crisis, the 1954–1955 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the Offshore Islands Crisis, the Quemoy-Matsu Crisis, and the 1955 Taiwan Strait Crisis) was a brief armed conflict between the Communist People's ...

and

Second Taiwan Strait Crisis The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, also called the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis, was a conflict that took place between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC). In this conflict, the PRC shelled the islands of Kinme ...

), was nominated for the

96th Academy Awards The 96th Academy Awards is an upcoming ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which will honor the best 2023 in film, films of 2023, and is expected to take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Ange ...

in the category of

Best Documentary Short Subject This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are annou ...

. Reuters reported that Chiang "aimed to use the island as a visual representation of the tensions with China, but also to ultimately tell a story about what it means to be Taiwanese."

Filmography

* '' Island in Between'' (2023) * ''Our Time Machine'' (2019) * ''Out Run'' (2016) * ''Mr. Cao Goes to Washington'' (2012) * ''A Village Called Versailles'' (2009) * ''To You Sweetheart, Aloha'' (2004) * ''Safe Journey'' (2004) * ''One + One'' (2002)

References

External links

S. Leo Chiang Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chiang, S. American documentary filmmakers American film directors of Taiwanese descent