ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7191-0824
Scopus Author ID: 15069916400

Metrics for Academic and Research Impact

With a Ph.D. in Film Studies from University of Alberta (Canada) and an MA in Comparative Literature from Carleton University (Canada), Dr. S. Louisa Wei joined the School of Creative Media in 2001 and has taught over 4000 students. Her courses are related to (documentary) film production, film history, visual storytelling, and topics in media/popular culture; while she also advises many student studio/thesis projects in fiction/script writing, documentary, narrative film, and projects with gender-related themes.

As an independent documentary director, her four feature films—Storm under the Sun (2009, co-directed with Xiaolian Peng), Golden Gate Girls (2013-14), Havana Divas (2018-19), and A Life in Six Chapters (2022)—have gained international recognition from academia and film festivals, as well as reported by BBC, Hollywood’s trade magazines including The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, China Central TV, South China Morning Post, and so on. Her TV documentaries include Cui Jian: Rocking China (2006), Wang Shiwei: The Buried Writer (2016), and Xiao Hong: Writing 1000 Miles (2019).

As a scholar, her books have won two major awards. Wang Shiwei: A Reform in Thinking (2016) received the Best Publishing Award at The First Biennial Publishing Prize in 2017, while another book titled The Legend of Esther Eng: Cross-ocean Filmmakers and Women Pioneers (2016, co-authored with Law Kar) received Hong Kong Book Award in 2017. The latter book was imported into China and published as Bright as Esther Eng: First-Generation Transnational Filmmakers and Modern China (2018) in Beijing. Her other recent book Hu Feng: Poetic Ideals, Political Storms (2017) also received positive reviews. Her textbook Cinema East and West was first published in 2014 and re-published as an expanded edition in 2016. Her earlier books include PreAnimate: A Guide for Independent Animators (2010, co-authored with Karen McCann), and Women’s Film: Dialogues with Chinese and Japanese Female Directors (2009, co-authored with Yang Yuanying).

As an experienced teacher and advisor, Wei has advised many award-winning graduation projects, including Chan Hau Chun’s short documentary 32+4 (2014, Gold Award of IFVA – Open Category; Principal Prize of the 61st International Short Film Festival Oberhausen), Andrew Lone’s feature documentary My Chinese Acquaintances (2012, Gold Remi Award at Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival), Wong Yee Mei’s short documentary This Pair (2011, Gold Award of IFVA – Open Category), Chan Tsz-wai Wallis’ narrative short Daylily (2010, Silver Award of IFVA – Open Category), and Sheetal Agarwal's documentary Ordinary Lives (Michael Moore Award for Best Documentary in the 44th Ann Arbor Film Festival 2006; Best Documentary Kodak Award in the 20th Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival Student Competition 2005). The most recent documentary she co-produced, Habitat (2023) by Ip Sze Sze, extended from a graduation piece she advised in 2014.

• Cine Feminism
• Female Directors
• Historical Documentary
• Independent Documentary
• Narrative Techniques
• Visual Studies
• Women’s Cinema
• Women’s History
• Memory Studies
• Oral History

• Documentary Works
• The Flower Girl of Havana (in production, feature documentary)
• Golden Gate Girls (2014, feature documentary)
• Storm under the Sun (2009, feature documentary)