About

Janet Chen (Ma) (she/her) is an award-winning film and multimedia director, producer, and educator. Her work often explores stories of representation, resistance and resilience through a multigenerational lens. Her latest short film ASIAN BITCHES SPEAK was honored with a Special Jury Award for Documentary Short from the 2024 40th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival presented by Visual Communications, and a Best Director Award for Short Film from the 31st QFilms Long Beach LGBTQ+ Film Festival. The film is touring around the U.S. as part of the 2025 Color Congress Elev8Docs Distribution initiative. She has also produced and managed Emmy-nominated and Webby-nominated film and multimedia projects. Janet holds a BA in Film and Media Studies from UCI, and a MFA in Film & Digital Media: Social Documentation from UCSC. She has taught filmmaking at the UCLA Center for EthnoCommunications and is currently teaching at UC Irvine Film and Media Studies. She was the founding manager and steering committee member of the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc), and she is a member of Video Consortium and Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM).