About
Una is a graduating Master's in Arts and Cultural Leadership student from Macau, with a prior background in broadcasting and television production.
Her professional experiences include internships with International Channel Shanghai, Shanghai International Arts Festival, and the e-commerce department of Sands China Ltd. These experiences have shaped her interest in the intersection of media production, arts programming and cultural management.
Her research interests centre around Macau's indigenous film industry, with particular attention to film policy, local film events and festivals, and the distribution and exhibition landscape. She is concerned with how policy frameworks shape creative production, how grassroots film activities cultivate cultural participation, and how structural challenges in screening infrastructure affect the visibility of local independent cinema. These inquiries are motivated by a commitment to understanding how Macau's unique cultural identity can be articulated through a sustainable screen sector.
Looking ahead, she plans to pursue further studies in film management, and remains committed to advancing Macau's cultural sector and fostering cross-regional arts and cultural dialogues. Ultimately, she aspires to bridge creative practice and cultural policy, contributing to a more distinctive and sustainable arts and cultural sector in Macau.
From Production to Audience: Mapping the circulation gap in Macau's film industry
This thesis investigates the structural disconnection between film production and audience reception in Macau's local film industry. Guided by three research questions, the study adopts a dual perspective encompassing both the industry side and the audience side.
Methodologically, it employs a qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews with twelve respondents across three groups—industry practitioners, viewers and non-viewers—supplemented by analysis of twenty-two policy documents. The analysis is framed by gatekeeper theory and uses and gratifications theory.
The findings reveal a systemic breakdown across three interconnected chains: information, product and exhibition.
On the industry side, five structural barriers emerge: the absence of a local distribution sector, the outflow of rights through co-productions, the exclusionary logic of commercial cinemas, the limited reach of alternative venues, and a policy reorientation towards external objectives rather than domestic circulation gaps.
On the audience side, viewers rely on active searching and industry connections, driven by needs that extend beyond the films themselves. Non-viewers exhibit an almost complete absence of awareness, hold vague impressions often mistaken for externally produced films, and reject emotional appeals to "support local works" as coercive. A temporal mismatch between audience habits and abbreviated release schedules further compounds the problem.
The thesis concludes that Macau's "production without a market" predicament is not merely a symptom of small market size, but a structural condition sustained by policy misalignment, market failure and the absence of connective infrastructure.
The study offers four recommendations: introduce incentives for commercial cinemas to screen local works, rebalance funding allocations, develop distribution capacity systematically, and realign creative and promotional strategies with audience interests.
This research contributes empirical evidence for policy formulation, provides industry practitioners with insights into audience needs and industrial constraints, and serves as a comparative case for other small film markets.
Professional practice
Rachel Lee
Nguyen Hong Doan Trang
Loh Wei Zong
Mohika Shankar
