Open Ethnicity: Pilot Behind-The-Scenes

Sunny Shanni Chen 陈珊妮 (they/she/them) is a queer, nonbinary first-generation Chinese Canadian settler immigrant on unceded Katzie, Kwantlen, Matsqui, and Semiahmoo lands. Sunny makes music and movies while dreaming about the early 2000s.

Holly Mai-Kin Kaplan 美娟 (she/her) is a second-generation Chinese-American filmmaker, born and raised in New York City. With a penchant for writing at a young age, she was awarded a Silver Key from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for her short story when she was 16. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Film & Media Arts at American University and was awarded the Ron Sutton Award for Visual Literacy. While studying abroad at FAMU International in Prague, Czech Republic, she wrote, shot, and co-directed her first short, “The Lesson (Lekce)", on 16mm. Following the reception of her short film in 2016, Holly became an apprentice to late independent director-producer Ben Barenholtz on his feature film "Alina" (2017). Currently, Holly is a Director's Assistant on HBO Max’s “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin".  As an up-and-coming filmmaker, Holly's ultimate goals are to convey interesting and untold stories on screen from a diverse perspective. Inspired and driven by ties to her Cantonese heritage, Holly is invested in bringing narratives about the Asian diaspora to the forefront.