S. Leo Chiang – Producer/Director
Born and raised in Taiwan, Leo immigrated to the US as a teenager and received a MFA in film production from University of Southern California before beginning his filmmaking career. In 1998, the Directors Guild of America commissioned Leo, then a film student, to direct and edit Directing: How to Get There, for which he documented early careers of several well-known directors including Robert Wise, Norman Jewison, and Steven Spielberg. His other films include To You Sweetheart, Aloha, about the 94-year-old ‘ukulele master Bill Tapia (PBS broadcast ’06, Audience Award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival ‘05), One + One, a documentary about mixed HIV-status couples (CINE Golden Eagle Award ’02, Cable Positive Award ‘01), and Safe Journey, a short fiction film. He recently completed A Village Called Versailles, a documentary about the rebuilding and transformation of the Vietnamese American community in post-Katrina New Orleans. A Village Called Versailles will have its national PBS broadcast on the Independent Lens series in May of 2010. Leo also collaborates with other documentarians as an editor (True-Hearted Vixen, POV ’01; Recalling Orange County, PBS/VOCES ‘06) and as a cameraman (It’s STILL Elementary, ’09; Ask Not, Independent Lens ’09). Leo is an active member of New Day Films, the social-issue documentary distribution co-operative.

Mercedes Coats – Producer/Director

MERCEDES COATS has directed and produced the award-winning documentaries Little Stars, about the unpredictable and challenging world of child actors, and Seoul II Soul, about a Korean/African-American family in post-riot Los Angeles (National PBS premiere presented by CAAM, Feb 2002). Her work has been seen on PBS, in educational video series for the California Science Center and others, and in family films and television seen on Showtime and distributed theatrically by Sony Pictures. She is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the Alfred P. Sloan Award, an Entertainment Weekly production grant, and the Women in Film/Paramount Pictures Crystal Award.

Mercedes collaborated with producing partner, S. Leo Chiang, on To You Sweetheart, Aloha which premiered at the Hawaii International Film Festival, won the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in 2005, and aired on PBS in 2006.

She earned her MFA in Film Production from the USC School of Cinema-Television in 1998, and holds a BA in Theater from Occidental College.

Brittney Shepherd – Associate Producer

BRITTNEY SHEPHERD loves the idea of media as a means of connection. With a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, Brittney was a founding member of the student run production team MothaBase Productions whose short film entitled Hurricane Katrina: Ya’ll Know Where the Vietnamese Were? is used as a discussion tool for community groups, policy makers, and educators around the country concerning the issues of language access and disaster preparedness for immigrant communities. She has gone on help produce many independent documentaries including Ask Not, A Village Called Versailles, and Straightlaced.

Eva Moss – Associate Producer

EVA MOSS has been involved in documentary filmmaking since graduating from Smith College in 2003. She has worked as both an editor and producer on many films whose topics range from alleviating water shortages in Kenya and Mali, Aboriginal artists and the intersection of storytelling and painting, the transition of a transsexual woman as seen through the eyes of her 3 young nieces (No Dumb Questions, Melissa Regan), a family working to understand their child’s learning disabilities, a sequel to The Celluloid Closet (Here’s Looking At You Boy, Michael Ehrenzweig), a gay couple’s experience trying to conceive a child through insemination, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and those working to overturn it (Ask Not, Johnny Symons), a 90 year old successful actress who started her career at 70, and the first documentary made by gay filmmakers depicting gay people (Word Is Out, Veronica Selver, Janet Cole). She uses filmmaking as a means to promote social change and introspection and works to facilitate the telling of others’ stories, giving voice to those without a voice and sharing with the world that which is rarely seen.

Contact info

Walking Iris Films
2263 15^th St.
San Francisco, CA 94114
info@walking-iris.com