Byrant Cheng
Director
Born and raised in L.A. to parents from Hong Kong, Byrant always had an interest in culture and observing how people live. As this curiosity grew, he travelled more and met extraordinary people around the world. Hearing their stories emboldened him to make a difference. Byrant wants to give voice to the voiceless, and he hopes to connect people through video and showing compassion. His goal is simple – make ripples, however large or small, that result in positive change.
Starting his career off as a photographer, he wanted to expand his repertoire by taking on videography – which led him to work for a Reflex Productions, a boutique video production company in Hong Kong. He took those filmmaking skills and began producing media for Hollywood actor Donnie Yen (Star Wars, Triple X, Ip Man). After two years with Donnie Yen, Byrant decided to answer a higher calling and packed his bags to join his long time friend, Seok Hyun in South Korea with the desire to create meaningful and inspiring films.
Currently, Byrant is dedicated to his pursuit of a Master's in Education, driven by his aspiration to amplify the potential of young minds, nurturing their innate curiosity and cultivating a deep passion for learning.
Seok Hyun Joo
Director
Seok Hyun is a Korean national who lived most of his life in Vietnam, with experience producing music and high-end marketing videos for multinational corporations. He started his videography journey shooting short films with the intention of raising awareness of social issues, and is currently working for a major Korean marketing agency.
Seok Hyun’s inner passion is to create documentaries, with the belief that telling great stories about good people can make this world a more understanding place.
Tobias Reeuwijk
Producer
Tobias “Tobie” Reeuwijk is a producer, editor, writer, and director who works in visual effects at Warner Bros. He graduated from USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program and is a 2023 Asian American Documentary Network Emerging Filmmaker. Tobie has worked at Marvel Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Franklin Entertainment, Suzanne Todd Productions, Iwerks & Co., and The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong. He is the director and producer of the feature-length documentary 1000 HANDS OF THE GURU, which premiered at the Asian American International Film Festival in New York and found distribution on Amazon Prime Video and TubiTV. He is motivated by telling stories that speak truth to power, and his work is grounded in a journalistic approach to storytelling.
He is co-producing scripted feature film and TV projects with fellow multi-hyphenate creators at Autotelic Pictures. He is independently developing scripted and unscripted projects that explore themes of spirituality, Asian-American identity, and that give voices to underrepresented perspectives.
Paul Lee
Associate Producer
Paul Lee specializes in producing first short and feature films for new and emergent filmmakers, as well as human rights/social justice films, environmental films, women's films, gender issues films and Asian films (IMDB).
In addition to producing films, Paul also curates museum exhibitions and prepares programming for film festivals around the world.
Paul also makes his own films: Berlin-premiered THICK LIPS THIN LIPS (1994, 200+ festivals, 8 awards), Sydney-premiered THESE SHOES WEREN'T MADE FOR WALKING (1995, 150 festivals, 6 awards), Berlin-premiered THE OFFERING (1999, 500+ festivals, 72 awards).
Paul has produced several short documentaries about various aspects of the solitudes from social isolation experiences, including how poverty impacts childhood learning and education (especially in marginalized and Indigenous communities) in One in Six (the film is used by multiple school boards in Canada for sensitizing teachers to social disparity issues in learning).
Paul was educated at the University of Toronto (Hon.B.Sc. in Biology/Anthropology/Latin American Studies, M.A. in Anthropology, PhD in Education) and York University (M.B.A. in Marketing and Arts & Media Administration, and M.F.A. in Film Production), and divides his time producing films in Hong Kong, San Francisco and Toronto.
Jae Shim
Editor
Jae Shim is an award-winning filmmaker whose interests and tastes gravitate towards the irreverent, profound, and romantic.
Jae's trajectory in the documentary world has informed his approach to filmmaking, imploring the auteur to go beyond mere observation to arrive at a greater reality and truth, and to pursue meaning over pure aesthetic. He was selected as a finalist for the Warner Bros. Emerging Film Directors Workshop for a story centering around fake funerals in South Korea.
Jae eventually stumbled upon the ground-breaking work of David Cope who famously experimented with artificial intelligence and music. Nothing short of a dream project, he embarked on a five yearjourney with the algorithmic composer to make a film about the creative process itself. 'Opus Cope: An Algorithmic Opera' imagines David’s world as a “documentary” and marks Jae’s feature film debut.
Jae's work outside of directing extends into camera and editing departments on films 'THIS TIME’ (2022) starring Asian American leads Ken Kirby and Leila Perry, and 'PAPER MARRIAGE' (2024) produced by the Duplass brothers.
Yves Matar
Score composer
I am a composer currently based in Canada, with a great passion for music for film. I have known many with great passion and untapped potential who never get fulfilled because of lack of support or traumatic events. I know what it is to be engulfed in a personal bubble, to feel alone in the world. Music is often an exploration of thoughts and feelings, and with Breaking Isolation, I aim to use it to echo this vision: The struggle doesn’t define the person. Differences are no indicator of value. Listening and understanding the other are the key to creating a better world, and if we can make even the slightest difference by giving a voice to the voiceless, then our efforts will be worth it.
Pierre Ghanem
Audio Mixer
Put him in a recording studio and you'll both be happy!
Pierre is a Lebanese sound designer and musician. He has worked on dozens of short films, documentaries and web series as sound designer/audio producer, as well as producing countless local radio shows. He also has lengthy experience in dubbing to 3 languages (English, French and Arabic) as voice casting director, recordist and voice/sound effects editor.