Discovery Channel’s China First Time Filmmakers’ initiative marked a turning point in my career as an executive producer.

I scored many personal firsts with this series. For the first time, I
got to work closely with Chinese documentary filmmakers on the creative
and editorial front. It was also the first time I seriously
contemplated issues of film making across cultural boundaries. I had
to confront head-on the differences between Eastern and Western
story-telling paradigms.

Although the Chinese directors were making international documentaries for the first time, some of them were veterans in the Chinese film and TV industry. At the end of each 9 month development and production cycle, I often learnt more from them than they ever did from me.

Over the years, the China First Time Filmmaker series has garnered multiple awards and nominations at the Asian TV Awards.