JOANNE SHEN
Director | EP | Writer
JOANNE SHEN
Director | EP | Writer
about
I first picked up a video camera in1997, in the lead up to Hong Kong's transition from British back to Chinese rule. While working as a journalist, I heard about an eighty year old graffiti artist who tagged the streets with a Chinese calligraphy brush, calling himself the "King of Kowloon"— a bold, anti-colonial declaration if there ever was one. I couldn't believe no one had ever tried to make a documentary about him, so I did. To this day, the thrill of discovering and telling amazing stories about real people is what inspires me.
Since then, my work has taken me around the world, from reporting on the impact of climate change on Greenland’s glaciers to uncovering clandestine drug distilleries deep in the Cambodian jungle.
I recently won an Emmy for my role as Co-Executive Producer on the critically acclaimed "City of Ghosts", an animated docu-style series for Netflix. My other credits include work for PBS, National Geographic, Current TV, Gizmodo Media Group, Al Jazeera America, Discovery, Fusion and Hearst.
I graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in English literature and received a master’s degree from Stanford University in Communications. I'm based in California and travel wherever the story takes me.