A Village Called Versailles

Born and raised in Taiwan, Leo Chiang immigrated to the United States 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 him, 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 2006 Audience Award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2005); One + One, a documentary about mixed HIV-status couples (CINE Golden Eagle Award 2002); and Safe Journey, a short fiction film. Chiang is currently working on Parachute Kids, a feature documentary about teenagers from Taiwan and Hong Kong sent to live in the U.S. without their parents. He also collaborates with other documentarians as an editor (True-Hearted Vixen, Recalling Orange County) and as a cameraman (It’s STILL Elementary, Ask Not). Chiang is an active member of New Day Films, the social-issue documentary distribution co-operative.