LARISSA LAM – Director, Writer and Producer
Larissa Lam made her feature film directorial debut with the documentary Far East Deep South. The film made its broadcast premiere on the World Channel (PBS) series, “America ReFramed” and has won awards at numerous film festivals including CAAMFest, Cinequest, Oxford Film Festival and Seattle Asian American Film Festival. Lam also won the 2021 Mary Pickford award for Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking at the Coronado Island Film Festival. Lam previously directed the acclaimed short documentary Finding Cleveland, which is the basis for Far East Deep South. She has produced TV shows such as “Top 3” for JCTV, music videos and other short form videos such as “A Day in the Life of an Engineer” for Intel’s Stay With It campaign. She was part of a distinguished group of filmmakers at the Smithsonian’s History Film Forum Emerging Filmmakers Lab.
In addition to directing Far East Deep South, Lam is an award-winning singer and songwriter who has released four critically acclaimed solo albums, including her most recent, Love and Discovery. Her song, “I Feel Alive” won the Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Dance Song and was the theme song for a national suicide prevention campaign. Lam began her career as the Chief Financial Officer of NSOUL Records and has written & produced music for TV (The Oprah Winfrey Show), film (Zulu, Gone) and video games (Konami, Square Enix).
A dynamic speaker, she has spoken on diversity and inclusion, the Asian American experience among other topics at TEDx, numerous universities and Fortune 500 companies. For nine years, Lam hosted a talk show on JCTV interviewing prominent authors, humanitarians and celebrities. Currently, she hosts the podcast, “Love, Discovery and Dim Sum“, which she co-hosts with her husband, Baldwin Chiu. Lam has also been contributing author to the L.A. Times and the Asian American anthologies, “Miso for Life” and “Pho for Life”. She is a native of Diamond Bar, CA and graduated UCLA with a degree in Business Economics.
Twitter: @larissalam ~ Instagram: @larissalammusic ~ Facebook
BALDWIN CHIU – Producer
Baldwin Chiu and his family are the subjects of Far East Deep South and he teamed up with his wife, Larissa Lam, to produce the film. The film made its national broadcast debut on “America Reframed” on World Channel (PBS) in May 2021. His family’s story has previously been featured on NBC News and NPR among other media outlets. He is a graduate of the ACT One film producing program, and he previously produced the award-winning documentary short, Finding Cleveland. He was born in San Francisco and raised in Sacramento, where he later graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a degree in mechanical engineering.
Chiu is also a motivational speaker and rapper known by his stage name, Only Won. His clever and witty videos like “Cantonese Boy,” “12 Days of Dim Sum” & “I Wanna Be an Engineer” have gone viral with over one million views on YouTube. He was previously a spokesperson for the Intel/White House campaign, “Stay With It,” and produced digital content promoting careers in science and engineering under the Obama administration. Chiu’s songs were featured in the video game “Sleeping Dogs” and the film Dead Man Down. Chiu is also an actor who has appeared in films such as The Pursuit of Happyness, The Hulk and The Matrix.
In 2018, Baldwin was named an Honoree for Mandarin Leader Magazine recognizing excellence amongst Chinese in North America, and he is also the recipient of Sacramento State’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award. Additionally, Chiu has been a speaker on numerous panels addressing race, immigration, and Asian American representation in the media. He has spoken at major companies such as Apple, Google and Bank of America as well as conferences like RootsTech.
Twitter: @onlywon ~ Instagram: @onlywonmc ~ Facebook
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