Quen Wong (writer, director & producer)

Quen Wong is a Singaporean filmmaker whose documentary films have been screened internationally in theatres and on TV.

Quen’s debut theatrical feature documentary, ‘Some Women’ (2021), is both a deeply personal autobiography and a sumptuous historical account of Singapore’s transgender community. A landmark film made by Singapore’s first openly trans feature documentary maker, it premiered at the 32nd Singapore International Film Festival where it won the Audience Award. Selected to compete for the International First Feature Competition at Sheffield DocFest 2022, ‘Some Women’ went on to win the Impact Award at the 18th Vancouver International Women in Film Festival and Best Documentary Feature at the 2024 Budapest Independent Film Festival. During its development, ‘Some Women’ was a recipient of the 2019 Tan Ean Kiam Foundation – SGIFF Southeast Asian Documentary Grant (SEADOC) and the IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) Project Award at Docs by the Sea in 2020.

Quen’s work for TV includes ‘Undercover Asia: Treatment or Torture’ (2014), an investigative documentary about human rights abuses taking place in Cambodian drug rehabilitation centres, as well as ‘Power and Piety: The Hellfire Nation’ (2017), an essay film about Christian evangelicalism in American politics, hosted by BAFTA-winner, Mobeen Azhar. Made for CNA, these documentaries have been syndicated on National Geographic Australia, BBC Arabic and AETN Asia. Quen has also worked on episodes in the TV series On the Red Dot, Deciphering The Philippines and Into The Vault (2018).

Online, Quen has directed the campaign video, ‘Building Bridges’ (2018). It was made for Pink Dot SG, an annual protest and Pride parade which supported the decriminalisation of sex between men until the law was struck down in 2023. In the same year, Quen made ‘Hour of Truth’ which captures one of many protests by university faculty and students in the Czech Republic demanding for fairer wages for teaching staff.

Before documentaries, Quen was an award-winning content, branding and trailer creator with Mediacorp and National Geographic Channel Asia. She also served as an executive producer at Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific overseeing the rebranding of TLC. For her work in short-form videos, Quen has won Promax/BDA (World) Silver Award for Best Promotional Animation Campaign (2007), and Promax/BDA (Asia) Gold Awards for Best Script: Preserve our Planet (2008) and Best Interstitial: Nat Geo’s Top 30 Winner (2009), among others.

Currently, Quen is based in Czechia. She is working on a short narrative film set in Taipei as part of a Master’s degree thesis project aimed at rehabilitating the portrayal of trans people in Sinophone cinema. In her free time, Quen enjoys performing stand-up and improv comedy, playing pickle ball and cultivating indoor garden-to-table vegetables.

Read more about the reception of ‘Some Women’ on the Press page.

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Filmography

Feature Documentary

• Some Women (2021) — writer and director

Documentaries made for TV (selected)

• This Land Is My Land (CNA, 2019), in the series Deciphering the Philippines (S1E4) — writer, post-producer
• Crossroads of Faith (CNA, 2019), in the series Deciphering the Philippines (S1E3) — writer, post-producer
• Wonderkids 3: The 10-Year-Old Star Gymnast (CNA, 2018), in the series On The Red Dot — writer, director, producer
• In Search of Grandpa’s Royal Past (CNA, 2018), in the series Into the Vault (S1E2) — writer, director, producer
• The Hellfire Nation (CNA, 2017), in the series Power and Piety (S1E3), syndicated on National Geographic Australia and BBC Arabic
• Lesster Leow: Beekeeper of East Africa (CNA, 2016) in the series A Singaporean Abroad (S3E8) — writer, director, producer
• A Matter of Life and Death (CNA, 2016) in the series Being A Nurse (S1E2) — writer, director, producer
• Of Dance and Duty (CNA, 2016) in the series Being A Nurse (S1E5) — writer, director, producer
• Home is where the Heart is (CNA, 2016) in the series Being A Nurse (S1E1) — writer, director, producer
• Treatment or Torture (CNA, 2014), in the series Undercover Asia, syndicated on AETN Asia — writer, director, producer

Advocacy

• Building Bridges (2018) — for Pink Dot, Singapore’s Pride rally — writer, director

Earlier Commercial Work

• Trailers, branding interstitials & ad sales vignettes for National Geographic Channel Asia — writer, director, producer