VANESSA HOPE

director of the film “Invisible Nation”

Vanessa Hope is an award-winning producer and director who has produced multiple acclaimed films in China including Berlin International Film Festival selection, Wang Quanan's The Story Of Ermei and Cannes Film Festival selection, Chantal Akerman's Tombee De Nuit Sur Shanghai, part of an omnibus of films, The State Of The World. She has also directed and produced short films, including China In Three Words, an official selection at DOC NYC.  Hope’s additional producing credits include Sundance Film Festival selections, Zeina Durra’s The Imperialists Are Still Alive! and Sarah and Emily Kunstler's Academy award shortlisted feature documentary, William Kunstler: Disturbing The Universe and the award-winning SXSW film, Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America. She served as Executive Producer of Paula James-Martinez’s Born Free.  Vanessa and her husband, Ted Hope, share a company, Double Hope Films, with many independent fiction and documentary features and series in development.

Vanessa is on the advisory board of the Equal Rights Amendment Coalition and the Fund for Women’s Equality. Prior to her film career, Vanessa worked on foreign policy issues at the Council on Foreign Relations with Senior Fellow and Director of Asia Studies Elizabeth Economy. She received her B.A. from the University of Chicago in Anthropology and East Asian Studies and completed the coursework for a PhD at Columbia University before going into film.