BRIEF BIO

Karen Chan (Asian Film Archive) is the Executive Director of the Asian Film Archive (AFA). Under her watch, the AFA has grown from two-persons to a team of eleven as a subsidiary of the National Library Board. Karen teaches film literacy classes, contributes to film related publications, and presents at international archiving conferences. She has written articles for FOCAL International, CROSSCUT ASIA, a publication by Tokyo International Film Festival, and Frames Cinema Journal by University of St Andrews, UK, amongst others. As part of her belief in continually reaching wider audiences through AFA’s work, Karen participates in discussions of lesser-known areas of Asian cinema, most recently sharing with filmmakers in a talk organised by the UNESCO Cluster Office in Almaty on “Cinema Heritage of Central Asia: Conservation and Promotion Challenges”. She helmed AFA’s successful inscription of the Cathay-Keris Malay Classics to the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Register that remains as Singapore’s only moving image documentary heritage in the Register. Karen has been featured in various broadcasted documentaries such as Singapore on Film and has been interviewed by many print and online media outlets. She is the current President of the Southeast Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archives Association (SEAPAVAA) and is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Singapore Film Commission.