Rose KUO has worked both in film festival programming as well as film production for over 20 years. Kuo, 48, began her journey as a professional fest-hopper in the mid-'80s as a volunteer at Berlin. She has since been a prominent figure on the California circuit. A programming consultant specialising in Asian film, Kuo served as a consultant to the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, LACMA Film Screening and the Mill Valley Film Festival. She has an intensive background as a filmmaker, working as an assistant to Oscar-winning editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, and as a camera assistant to the famed cinematographer, Haskel Wexler. Kuo has also worked with such top directors as Michael Mann's 1986 TV series Crime Story, Paul Schrader's Light of Day, Ed Zwick and Martin Scorsese's The Colour of Money. Well versed in both international and American cinema, Kuo has worked on several independent films, as post-production supervisor on Maggie Greenwald's The Kill off and as executive producer on Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland' s The Fluffer and Categories of AIDS Ride'94 - a documentary, which she wrote, produced and directed. After the Fluffer in 2001, Kuo worked as a consultant for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, programming retrospectives for Hou and Abbas Kiarostami and developing an intimate knowledge of the city's arthouse venues. It was at this time that she first crossed paths with American Film Institute, AFI's Fest, interviewing for a programming post - a gig she ultimately declined, along with any other full-time film work, to devote her full attention to her family. Six years later, including one spent abroad with her family in Shanghai, Kuo returned to Los Angeles in time to hear that AFI was looking for an artistic director. Having continued to steep herself in world cinema and the festival scene even during her sabbatical, and eager to start working full-time again, she saw the opportunity as a no-brainer.