I Am YEG Arts: Shawn Tse & Su Chau, FascinAsian Film Festival

Shawn Tse and Su Chau are local community connectors who have come together to co-produce Edmonton’s first FascinAsian Film Festival, running May 9 – 11, 2025. The film festival celebrates Asian contributions to the film and media landscape and aims to showcase the talents of Asian-Canadian and Asian-American artists in film. The festival also looks to give local filmmakers and film professionals another place to connect with each other and gather as a community with networking and professional development opportunities. In this week’s I Am YEG Arts feature, we talk to Shawn and Su about how the festival started in Edmonton, how the festival promotes diversity and representation in the film industry, and what audiences can expect when attending this inaugural event.

Tell us about your backgrounds as artists and community builders. How did you two connect to co-produce the Edmonton FascinAsian Film Festival? 

Shawn: My background is in film and education. I moved to Edmonton in 2016 for love and started a production company called Fallout Media and really wanted to focus on community storytelling. I was embraced by many different newcomer organizations like Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative, Assist Community Services Centre – groups that normally wouldn’t have necessarily thought to be looking for video producers. They gave me opportunities to create videos with them to share stories of underrepresented community members and what they do as organizations. Flash forward to 2025, I feel like I’ve been so well nurtured from so many amazing BIPOC artists, groups and projects. For example, I’m part of the Aiya collective, and last year I worked at Ociciwan with Becca Taylor. I’ve just been so well taken care of and really have a better understanding of not just filmmaking and arts, but also the administration side. So, when there was this opportunity for FascinAsian to come to Edmonton, I tapped into a bunch of different national Asian organizing circles, and I jumped on it because I really wanted to see more exposure for Asian films here. Knowing that FascinAsian is a volunteer run organization I knew I needed to build a team. Through the connections I have I asked like 10 people and I said, ​“hey, what do you think if we try to bring this festival over?” and that pretty much is how it all started. 

Su: And that’s how we connected; I was one of the ten! We connected over film and food. We’ve been friends of a friend and then we connected with Calgary-based Director Vicki Chau. She came back to Edmonton to do a film shoot and through that production I got to work with Shawn and see the filmmaking side of him. We got along so well, and this has been a great partnership; there’s a lot of trust and leadership. I’m a trained librarian so I have a lot of relationships as a community builder. In terms of programming, I’ve worked with a lot of different communities and groups that are very diverse.. I’ve done a lot of digital storytelling outreach and working with communities, so I feel like I’ve always been around groups and individuals helping them find their voice. I love stories and being a librarian, that’s kind of within my identity too: being surrounded by stories and connecting with people. With this festival I’ve met so many friends; our team is just incredible. I’ve talked to a lot of new filmmakers, people who may not have that traditional path of going to school to pursue the arts. It’s nice to hear their perspectives. Having that space and having those conversations has been really motivating for me. 

Can you share the story behind the FascinAsian Film Festival? What inspired you to bring the festival to Edmonton? 

Shawn: I’ve been following FascinAsian since it started in Winnipeg in 2021. That was right during COVID, and I don’t think I would have even known about it if it wasn’t for COVID because we were online all the time and we were starting to make these national connections. The silver lining of that period was that I got to meet a lot of these amazing Asian led organizations that were out there. I met Alan Wong, who’s the president of the FasinAsian Film Festival and I submitted my short film in 2022. That was my first direct connection, and I ended up helping to tour as an impact producer for a film called Big Fight in Little Chinatown. Through that film, I got to go to Calgary and Winnipeg and a bunch of cities across Canada and host that film at FascinAsian in 2023. I really love the organizing teams in those cities, and I love how they’ve centered the Asian diaspora in terms of their organization, but also in the storytelling. So of course I wanted to bring that over here. 

Su: My connection was through meeting the FascinAsian team in Vancouver and experiencing the Vancouver Asian Film Festival there. We met with Barbara, who was the President, and she took time to explain and give us a sense of how to go about it. I also got to experience cultural appreciation for my own Asianness; before that I had to go to Montréal or New York to see that kind of representation through film. Seeing that this could be done here and that there isn’t something here already, it’s much needed. We’re a growing city and our Asian population has grown too. It’s definitely different from growing up where I felt like I was that one Asian kid in the room. 

What are some of the core goals and values of the festival? Tell us about some of the initiatives the festival has tailored to support Asian filmmakers.

Su: Our mission is to create an inclusive space for storytelling that’s rich with multifaceted experiences of Asian communities where we can explore together, celebrate and share with diverse audiences. We’re amplifying Asian talent and storytelling, and showing that there are universal themes: culture and identity, and the expression of art. It’s a welcoming space for everyone to start that dialogue about those meaningful connections that you can relate to. 

Shawn: We’re both working parents, so I think a big part of this is a stake in seeing that our kids can grow up where all different types of dreams are there for them. It’s a huge win for Canada as well because there are so many stories that Canadians don’t know about, and don’t know about their neighbours. For us to unlock those opportunities and have presentation spaces where everyone can come and celebrate and value each other’s diversity is amazing.

What role does the festival play in promoting diversity and representation within the film industry, particularly for the Asian diaspora communities?

Su: Expanding from what Shawn had mentioned, there’s a lot of Canadian history that doesn’t capture Asian contributions. For example, there are a lot of Asian veterans that aren’t remembered. There are stories about them and unless you look for it, there’s very little education around it. Having this festival, we want to educate and provide a platform where these stories can be told and show that there’s a lot of Asian Canadians who have made huge contributions, not just historically, but even in modern arts and in filmmaking. Having this festival where we run professional development workshops, we want to showcase that success can be here in Edmonton too. We don’t want to lose all our talent. We want to have this festival so filmmakers can have their films shown here and they can also learn professionally, build that community, and support each other. We’re really building that inclusive space that everyone benefits from because you get to watch these amazing films that you might not have known about before.

Shawn: I’ve been organizing in the racial equity space for a few years now, and more and more arts data is coming out to talk about the inequities in our systems. It’s obviously not just in the arts, it’s in every system that we live in and work in. It’s so important for this festival to take place because we are now one of the very few to add to that data point to say, hey, there’s groups out there that really care about elevating Asian film in our city and we have a lot of hopes and dreams. It’s a very palatable way for people to enter into a space that talks about some of the issues surrounding Asian communities. Hopefully it opens up other pathways for people to ask, why aren’t we investing in the filmmakers here? That’s definitely one of the big goals for me, as someone that has been frontline and doing the production side. It would be really nice if I could pitch a story that was about the Chinese community here in Edmonton to a major broadcaster and it’s not seen as too niche. That should just be seen as authentic Canadian content.

Su: It’s also a bit of that narrative that you can have an Asian story that speaks of universal truths that [is also commercially viable]. Right now, we’re seeing a lot of successful Asian films. I think that was a big win to see Michelle Yeoh, who I grew up watching in films like Hong Kong Cinema, have her moment. She’s finally getting the kudos and recognition. On a smaller scale, we want to show that you can be successful. I’ve been talking to a lot of female filmmakers who are not sure that they’re ready to take that risk. And I say, why not? You made a film, submit it. They tell me they’re not sure they’re ready yet, and that’s because there isn’t that safe space.

Shawn: And to add to that, if you look at our sponsor list, we’ve been so embraced in what we’re doing here and these organizations that have supported us and invested in this really get it. They understand that there is this great opportunity for the local community to see more of these kind of stories. We’re also having these great conversations with institutions like NAIT that has a new cinema program and MacEwan has a journalism program. We’re so excited to open up these different pathways for potential partnerships with institutions.

With many great films and events at this year’s festival, what are you most looking forward to checking out?

Su: I spent over 25 hours watching films to program. There were 100 shorts and 10 shortlisted features to run through, and each one took me on a different journey. I’m really excited that we created these two shorts programs. One is Unspoken Bonds, and the other one is about Acceptance. There was a lot of grief, dark stories, and trauma that we watched through. But then what came out of it is a lot of joy, resilience, and courage. I feel like there’s some incredible short films this year and we’re so lucky. The amazing lineup that has been put together will take you through an emotional journey.

Shawn: Our theme is ​“the year being bold” and I really think that the filmmakers who put their films together were bold and vulnerable with their stories and with the people that they worked with to get it to happen. That might also explain some of that heaviness. On one hand we’re left as viewers potentially with a lot to unpack, but the courage it takes for someone to want to share such a vulnerable experience is so inspiring. I think that’s something that really leaves an impact on you coming out of any of these films. Because we’ve already watched so much, I don’t have a specific film that I can vouch for over others. I would say just come to as many as you can because they are so different. Personally, what I think is going to be so exciting are the conversations that are going to emerge. What does the local community take away? What do they carry forward? I’m so looking forward to hearing what people think of that entire experience and what we can implement next year. Also, the four features are premiering in Edmonton, so it is literally a secret – no one has seen these on the big screen in Edmonton.

What do you hope festival-goers take away from the experience?

Shawn: I think by just showing up that’s already going challenge preconceived ideas on what Asianness might be. As someone who is Asian, I am constantly surprised at other people’s Asian experiences. That is essentially what art and culture does for us, right? It opens up our minds. Just getting to the theatre is already a big part of that. I’m so excited to embrace people and host people and have big parties, enjoy and celebrate, and then talk about the futures to come.

Su: We have an Audience Choice award, so I’m excited to see how people vote. That will give us feedback to see what is relatable for them. I’m going to be watching the audience while they’re watching the films on the big screen. I really want to see how they react to the films. And then that will also shape how we program for next year. We’re going to talk to our attendees, we’re going to hear from our volunteers and even the filmmakers and directors who are flying in to be part of this festival. We want to know what their experience is like. As part of building that community, we want to shape it to the voices that we’ve heard.

Shawn: I want to give a shout out to our whole volunteer team. I think sometimes people don’t realize that we are all volunteers. It would mean so much to us to see the community respond, to come and fill the theatres. That would really validate all this hard work that everyone’s been putting in. I love this team so much and I really want them to know that I’ve had such a great time organizing with them, and I can’t wait to keep plugging away at this.

To learn more about the incredible films at this year’s FascinAsian Film Festival, check out the program guide. Click here to purchase tickets and festival passes.