James Lee

Short Biography

James Lee was born in 1973, Ipoh, Malaysia. Trained as a graphic designer. A self-taught filmmaker, he began acting & directing theatre plays before venturing into video filmmaking.His stage acting credits include experimental performances in the avant garde Chicken Parts series, Expat Comes to Town, Box Of Delights and Chekov's Marriage Proposal. He also appeared in Amir Muhammad's Lips to Lips. His experience in on-stage directing includes Love Poems, The Dumb Waiter, under the Director's Workshop by Five Arts Centre and Actors Studio Theatre, and Changi (2003).In 2001 he directed his first feature film, Snipers, followed by Ah Beng Returns, a highly stylized experimental film, the same year. In 2002 James made Room To Let, a Mandarin drama. The Beautiful Washing Machine is his fourth DV-feature, which won the Best Asean Feature Award and FIPRESCI Prize in the 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival. The movie also received rave reviews from The Village Voice and Variety.com. Besides his feature-length films and numerous shorts, James founded Doghouse73 Pictures, an independent DV-filmmaking outfit. He also produced Amir Muhammad's award winning documentary The Big Durian and Ho Yuhang's Sanctuary. He also works as a director of photography for independent shorts and features. Which includes two award winning works, Tan Chui Mui's "Love Conquers All" and Azharr Rudin's "Majidee".