Project Director and Producer
Victor is a gay Australian storyteller born in Hong Kong of Cantonese and Teochew-Malaysian background, interested in telling character driven stories that explore experiences on the margins and intersections.
He has always been drawn to community grassroots efforts for LGBTQ+ progress. In 2013, he created a petition to his old Catholic high school for the school's public support of bill to remove anti-discrimination law exemptions for private schools to the NSW Government. The petition contributed to the continued discussion of the LGBTQ+ issues in the school community, and in the midst of the 2017 marriage equality debate, the headmaster and rector issued a media interview in public support of students in same-sex relationships. He also spent 5+ years leading the LGBTQ+ employee network at a tech company where he worked, focusing on raising awareness on queer youth and intersectional issues.
A long time cinephile and amateur writer, the destruction of the 2017 Marriage Equality debate on diaspora communities in particular the Chinese diaspora community, compelled him to write and make the film To Freely Flourish in 2024 in the hopes of helping inspire healing and LGBTQ+ progress in our diaspora communities. The film has since screened at Beijing Queer Film Festival, St Kilda Film Festival, Queenstown Queer Film Festival, and he has been working with ANTRA to hold community screenings with educational talks in collaboration with councils like City of Sydney, Parramatta city council and Willoughby council.
Working with ANTRA and learning about their Coming Out, Coming Home project is what inspired him to create this community storytelling project.
Photographer, Recordist and Videographer
Matthew is a photographer and videographer working across the community and creative sectors. Since 2018 he has worked with Embraced Inc to document their intergenerational programs, creating short films for gallery exhibitions and to support project promotion in traditional media. The projects he has documented for Embraced include: Songs for You; Residence & The Centenarian Portrait Project by Teenagers (creating exhibition films for each version of the project since 2018). He has experience working in community settings across Sydney and London, including dementia reminiscence programs; youth programs creating site-specific performance in social housing; and as a volunteer coordinator for a local neighbourhood centre, (JNC) documenting their 50th year during this time.