Alex Lee

Chairman & Founding Trustee

An Asian New Zealander, Alex practises commercial and entertainment law along side his filmmaking interests but has always had a passion for film and television. He was an actor/presenter and writer/presenter on The World Today, (a primetime nightly English language current affairs programme screened on Asia TV in Hong Kong) as well a radio producer and host. Merging his law skills and filmmaking passion, Alex produced and directed instructional videos for the Institute of Professional Legal Studies.

In 2002, he returned to study for a Masters of Creative & Performing Arts (Film & TV Drama Directing) at the University of Auckland, graduating with First Class Honours in September 2004. </p><p>He wrote and directed Wong Cha Cha, a Creative New Zealand supported short film, completed n February 2004. He has also been a line producer for overseas television and commercial productions.

A short documentary Ma-kara at Makara directed by Alex and Dan Shanan was screened at the 2004 Warsaw International Jewish Film Festival, the 2004 Jewish Film Festival in Jerusalem, and DOCNZ 2005. Alex produced the independent low budget feature film The Last Magic Show, which is now doing the international festival rounds and has been picked up Arkles Distribution Ltd. He was also the Executive Producer of Song of the Hunted, a low budget Middle Kingdom fantasy feature film due to release in 2008. Currently, he is working on post-production of a documentary feature Musical Chairs, which he is the Co-Producer and Director.

Alex set up Tsunami Actors & Talent Limited, a talent agency and Tamarillo Films Limited (previously Escapade Films Limited). He has also joined Timeline Productions Limited and Smiley International Documentary Film Distribution Limited as a Director. In 2003, he founded and set up the Asia Film Festival Aotearoa, a Pan-Asian film festival with the inaugural festival held in February 2004. As a Trustee for the Asia NZ Film Foundation Trust, he advocates Asian representation in the New Zealand film and TV industry. He is a National Executive Board Member of the Screen Directors Guild of New Zealand and teaches Production Management to the postgraduate film students at the University of Auckland.

Alex is passionate about supporting and promoting stories, story telling and filmmaking.

Yee Yang “Square” Lee

General Manager & Founding Trustee

With an interest in theatre from young, Yee Yang co-founded Chaotic Harmony Theatre at age 18, one of the first professional theatre companies specifically set up to encourage performing arts amongst Malaysian youths.

Having amassed Producer credits for Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit and Shorts, a collection of original and published one-act plays, and a Director’s credit for Shakespeare Schizophrenia, Yee Yang moved to the Victorian Theatre Company where he continued to promote performing arts for young Malaysians.

Besides productions such as Brad Slaight’s Sightings & High Tide, Shorts II, Yee Yang created and provided speech & drama courses for children aged 7-12. The success of the courses led to the creation of youth.arm, a youth division of the company set up to provide training and facilities for creative development and expression at sspace, the company studio. He also participated as a representative for youth theatre in a series of dialogues between the Malaysian Ministry of Culture and Heritage and the performing arts industry.

After internships at Thompson Associates, an intellectual property law firm and MindVault, an intellectual property consultancy, Yee Yang decided to leave his home country in 2003 to complete his education in Wales, graduating with Honours in Law from the University of Cardiff where he also co-directed and produced the University production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. He also began a career as a professional chef at The St. David’s Hotel & Spa, Cardiff’s only 5-star luxury hotel.

A recent immigrant to New Zealand, Yee Yang completed a Graduate Diploma in Arts from the University of Auckland where he produced his first short film, PEEK, and served as co-president for Stage Two Productions, the university theatre company, producing Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Caustic, an original work by Thomas Sainsbury. He is now pursuing his Masters of Arts in Arts Administration at the Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design as well as professional qualifications from the Chartered Secretaries New Zealand whilst working as a Company Secretary.

Yee Yang’s aspiration is to create opportunities and encourage potential arts enterprises, balancing creative expression with real-life necessities of producing art in the modern commercial environment.