Madeleine Lim

Madeleine Lim (born 11 May 1964) is a filmmaker, producer, director, cinematographer and LGBTQ activist. She is the founding executive director of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP), Lim is also a co-founder of SAMBAL (Singaporean & Malaysian Bisexual Women and Lesbians) and the US Asian Lesbian Network in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Early life and education Madeleine Lim was born in Singapore on 11 May 1964. Her mother was born in China and adopted by Singaporean parents when she was 6, and her father was born in Malacca, and is of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Portuguese descent. At the age of nine, Lim's parents separated. Her mother later remarried to Lim's half-German and half-Spanish stepfather. She lived with her parents until she was 23 years old.

Lim studied at the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus for her primary and secondary school education. She then went to Catholic Junior College and finished her diploma in the College of Physical Education.

At the age of 23, she moved to San Francisco to escape persecution by the Singaporean government for her work as a young lesbian artist-activist. She holds a B.A. in Cinema from San Francisco State University, where she was awarded Outstanding Cinema Student of the Year. were arrested and detained without trial under Singapore's Internal Security Act (ISA) for their alleged involvement in a Marxist conspiracy. Fearing persecution for her work, Lim left Singapore for New York City, USA in 1987 and eventually made her way to San Francisco, California.

In 1996, Lim made Sambal Belacan in San Francisco. In 1998, Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) invited Lim to screen Sambal Belacan in San Francisco during the festival.

Lim is also a co-founder of SAMBAL (Singaporean & Malaysian Bisexual Women and Lesbians) and the US Asian Lesbian Network in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA.

Her films, which have a large focus on the adversity faced by the LGBTQ and Asian Pacific Islander community, have screened at sold-out theaters at international film festivals around the world, including the Vancouver International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, and Amnesty International Film Festival. Her work has also been featured at museums and universities, and broadcast on PBS to over 2.5 million viewers. 1998 National Educational Media Network Bronze Apple Award Shades of Grey (1996) Youth Organizing: Power Through Art (1996) Dragon Desire (2004) The Worlds of Bernice Bing (2013)