Team APUC 

Made up of seasoned & young film festival personnel, Team APUC is the incredible driving force behind the successful planning and implementation of our annual film festival. We are indebted to their love, enthusiasm and strong desire of making Asian Pop-Up Cinema relevant while maintaining its vital link in the chain of global film culture.

  • Sophia Wong Boccio is the Founder & Executive Director of Sophia’s Choice. She is also the curator of the bi-annual film festivals.

  • Ray Hui is a documentary filmmaker and creative collaborator based in Chicago. Blending his backgrounds in journalism and theater, he enjoys telling stories through film that explore the human condition. Previous work: AOL News, Vox Media’s MMA Fighting. As a performer, he is a Second City/NBCUniversal Bob Curry Fellow and has performed all around Chicago.

  • A former video store clerk based in Montreal, Canada, Alyssia Duval-Nguon is a passionate cinephile who has been active on the scene since 2014 as a film critic, social media manager, content creator, communications advisor, and film festival programmer. She currently works at the National Film Board of Canada, and has collaborated with Cannes' Marché du Film, the Fantasia International Film Festival, Anime Ottawa, Making Waves Montreal, and more.

  • Led by Morgan Harris and Tom Elliott, Acacia Consulting Group brings more than 30 years experience in communications, public relations, and marketing expertise to bear for a diverse portfolio of clients including film and theatre, museums, nonprofits, politics and social impact, and small businesses. For more information: www.teamacacia.com

  • Ron Falzone is an award-winning screenwriter and Emeritus professor at Columbia College Chicago and an Instructor at Harold Ramis Film School at Second City. Films he has co-produced and written have been screened internationally at numerous film festivals including Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner and Chicago International Film Festival. Prior to moving into film, Ron spent 20 years in the theater where, among other positions, he served as Artistic Coordinator of the Organic Theater, Producing Director for City Lit Theater, and Artistic Director for both The Chamber and Open Circle Theater Company. He holds an MFA in Directing from the School of Speech at Northwestern University and a BA in Film from Columbia College Chicago. His most recent feature, the animated Coriander and a Penny’s Worth of Lonesome entered distribution in November 2020.

  • Patrick McDonald has been a film critic, entertainment writer, and broadcaster for 15 years, and his take on film appears on HollywoodChicago.com (Film Critic, Writer, Editor), on-air WBGR-FM (Monroe, WI), and a two-station broadcast WSSR-FM/WZSR-FM in Chicagoland. He has been a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association for 14 years, is Rotten Tomatoes Certified film critic and has made TV appearances covering the film scene on Fox32 News, WGN-TV Morning News, and “190 North” on ABC7 in Chicago. He has covered the Tribeca Film Festival. the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW Austin and the Chicago International Film Festival, among others. He has served as a moderator for Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema (APUC) series and curated APUC’s Funniest Stay-At-Home Short Film Competition in 2020. He has served on the Awards Jury for the Chicago International Film Festival and the Midwest Film Festival.

  • Commercially Helen Smith is a print production technician and graphic artist. Her open and fluid artistic applications take in printmaking and photography. Recently, she has expanded her practice to align with the maker movement, applying lasers, CNC routers and 3D printers to achieve high-level effects to develop engraving, one-of-kind objects and wearables.

  • Bosnian born and raised, Maja is Chicago based filmmaker with variety project under her belt. Recently she served as Co Producer on a feature, movie American Warrior ( Danny Trejo, Veronica Falcon), directed by Gustavo Martín Benites Gálvez.

    While studying law in Sarajevo, Maja was an active member of local film and music industries, which inspired her to pursue a creative-arts paths. She collaborates with talented filmmakers /musicians from USA, Canada, Peru, Brazil, France, Mexico, passionately seeking to understand herself, and the world around her, through film and music.

    Maja contributes her talents and skills to the ever-growing Chicago film industry (production/location) on feature films, television, reality shows and commercials for well-known networks as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Fox, NBC, Disney, Hulu, HBO, etc.

    Maja strives to meet diverse people and visit different places, because it challenges and inspires her to support and create new projects, which in return helps her grow as an artist and a human being.

  • Born and raised in Indonesia and a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, Hugo has been extremely passionate about film since he was 4 years old and particularly Asian cinema in the more recent years. He has worked and directed in several short films as well as taken photography on the side, while at the same time, building up his experience and skills in giving a hand to the Chicago arts scene and film community through working in a number of different film festivals and events on campus and throughout the city. While he is not working, Hugo loves to travel and write reviews on Letterboxd. He also admires his weekly trips to movie theaters with hope that more people will still want to go to the movies instead of just browsing streaming services at home. 

  • Taylor Nettnin is an internationally published editorial photographer from Chicago, IL. She specializes in capturing live music, dance performances, red carpets, and much more. In addition to her work behind the lens, she is also a skilled retoucher and helps assist other photographers with their needs.

    Taylor is excited to join Team APUC and hopes to help garner more interest in viewing the wonderful lineup of international films that are picked each season.

SHORTS Program Screening Committee:

Alyssia Duval-Nguon, Elizabeth Jia and Hugo Nugraha