Award-winning filmmaker cast in leading HKU role

Eunice Lam

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ruby Yang was appointed director of the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre.

Yang has been the university's interim director since last year.

According to an internal e-mail, Yang's appointment was approved by university president Zhang Xiang.

The e-mail said Yang has been playing a crucial role in leading the center's development and consolidating the center's position in the past year as interim director, and the university believes that the center will achieve continuous success under her leadership.

According to the school's Facebook page, Yang will officially start her two-year tenure on Monday.

"Over the past year, professor Yang has served as the interim director of the center with passion and visionary leadership, which has played a pivotal role in fostering sustainable growth and strengthening the center's position," said dean of social sciences Wen Ming.

Yang, a Hong Kong-born American filmmaker, moved to San Francisco in 1977 and studied filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. After graduating with a Master's degree, she became active as a documentary filmmaker in the late 1990s, exploring Chinese themes.

Her documentary The Blood of Yingzhou District featured the effects of AIDS on orphans in Anhui Province, and won the Oscars' Best Documentary (Short Subject) in 2007.

She has also received other awards, including an Emmy, the DuPont-Columbia Journalism Award, FilmAid Asia's Humanitarian Award, the Global Health Council Media Award and two IDA Pare Lorentz Award nominations for her documentaries.

Yang has taken up a teaching role at HKU since 2013 when she began teaching the master's-level documentary classes.

Students from the HKU journalism school told The Standard that they have high hopes for Yang, who can enrich the resources and courses available to them.

One student described Yang as a nice teacher despite meeting her only once.

"I am actually looking forward to what she would do after officially taking the helm," the student said, adding that she hoped Yang could maintain the variety of courses currently offered.

Another student hopes that as the new director, Yang will provide more opportunities between film industry workers and students who are interested in film production.

"Many of my classmates are more interested in shooting videos compared to writing articles," he said. "I hope there are more alumni talks so that we can get to know more about the industry."

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com