Jessica Kingdon is a Chinese-American director/producer named one of “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine and selected for the 2020 DOC NYC “40 Under 40” list. She directed ASCENSION登楼叹 (2021), which was nominated for 94th Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature category. It won three Cinema Eye Honors, Best Documentary at the Tribeca Festival and Hamptons International Film Festival, and Best Editing at DOC NYC. The film was nominated for six Critics’ Choice awards, the DGA Awards, Spirit Awards, the Gotham and the International Documentary Association. Her award-winning short COMMODITY CITY (2017) is an observational documentary about the world’s largest wholesale mall in Yiwu, China and played at over 50 film festivals. She co-directed the short IT'S COMING! (2020), and ROUTINE ISLAND (2019). Her work has been supported by organizations including SFFILM, Chicken & Egg, Cinereach, Sundance, Field of Vision, and Firelight Media. She co-produced “In The Cards

Kira is the co-founder & director of China Residencies, a multifaceted arts nonprofit that has supported international creative exchanges since its inception in 2013. She has been fellow and mentor at NEW INC, the New Museum’s incubator for art, design & technology, as well as the IFP Made in NY Media Center, creating Rivet, a platform to connect artists with opportunities worldwide. She also produces documentaries about music, culture, and the shifting shape of labor in China. Before the pandemic, she split her time between China, France and the US. Now, she now lives mostly online.