Of Chinese descent and born in the culturally diverse Kuala Lumpur, little Brian immigrated to Sydney in 1987 with his family to escape the volatile political climate of Malaysia at the time, eventually settling in Brisbane in 1990 where he developed a keen but introverted interest in the piano. A player at the age of six and encouraged by teachers, parents and friends to pursue his talent, Brian found that he preferred to play for his own sanity than for the pleasure of others. At 16, invited by his music teacher to play for several musical theatre productions, Brian then mixed it with the bohos of the theatre world, charmed the eccentrics and soon made the title of ‘musical director’ for several productions including The Boyfriend, Something’s Afoot and The Wiz. In contrast, Brian never treated film as seriously, regarding the medium as a low form of populist art. To challenge his perceptions, he decided to pursue a degree in Media and Communications (to the disgust of those who thought he should have gone to the Conservatorium), and spent much of this period in darkened lecture theatres watching European, Australian, Asian and Latin American films. He graduated a little more cultured in 2000 and, discarding any previous aspirations of grandness, decided to join the public service and settle down with his boyfriend. Brian has a humanist, multiculturalist and sometimes brusque approach to film, but his favourite flicks are Woody Allen films, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Big Business, Basquiat, I Heart Huckabees, The Mirror Has Two Faces and Little Voice.