Published on May 17, 2011
San Francisco’s ABC Channel 7 News honored the founder of Astraea grantee partner Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP). Madeline Lim was recognized as part of the channel’s Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Salutes, which named six leaders in the community this year. QWOCMAP has been an Astraea grantee partner since 2003. The organization equips queer women and trans people to use filmmaking for social change. QWOCMAP conducts a free16-week film training program; holds film screenings in collaboration with community-based organizations; and hosts an Annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival.
Executive/Artistic Director, Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (KGO Photo)
At the age of 23, Madeleine Lim escaped persecution by the Singaporean government for her organizing work as a young lesbian artist-activist.
Ten years later, she created Sambal Belacan in San Francisco, a film that is still banned in Singapore for its exploration of race, sexuality and nationality. As one of a small number of queer women of color filmmakers on the international film festival circuit, she saw that only queer women of color would tell their own authentic stories. She created Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP) with the belief that a community of artist-activist leaders could change the face of filmmaking and the social justice movement.
As founding Executive/Artistic Director, Lim directs organizational vision and provides artistic direction for all QWOCMAP programs. She is an award-winning filmmaker with more than 20 years of experience as a producer, director, editor, and cinematographer. Her films have screened at sold-out theaters at international film festivals around the world, including the Vancouver International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, and Amsterdam Amnesty International Film Festival. Her work has also been featured at museums and universities, and broadcast on PBS to over 2.5 million viewers. She holds a B.A. in Cinema from San Francisco State University, where she was awarded Outstanding Cinema Student of the Year.
The Featured Filmmaker at the 2006 APAture Asian American Arts Festival, Lim has twice been awarded the San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Commission for her new film about her mother and other girls adopted from China. She has won the 2007 DreamSpeaker Award from Purple Moon Dance Project, and the 2010 Phoenix Award from Asian Pacific Islander Women & Transgender Community (APIQWTC).
For more information: https://www.qwocmap.org/MadeleineLim.html
