About Pete Lee
Pete Lee grew up in Taiwan during the golden era of Asian cinema. But, due to his strict religious upbringing, secular culture was banished from his house. Instead, Lee spent his childhood making up stories in his head while watching his preacher father politely exorcise demons.
After moving to the US in his teens, Lee graduated from Emerson College's film program. To pursue his dream of making kung-fu films, Lee moved to San Francisco with a group of aspiring stunt performers - where he ran an art therapy program for low-income and homeless kids in Chinatown by day, and choreographed fights for low-budget films with his free time.
In 2018, Lee's short film "Don't Be a Hero" - about a middle-aged bank robber exploring her sexuality through heists, premiered at Sundance. In 2019, he received support from the Rainin Foundation for his screenplay High Priestess of Souls - a semi-autobiographical film about a hapless Chinatown aunty named Sandy who has to safely escort a dead teenager to her cremation as vigilante priests, superstitious landlords, and ICE all close in on them. In 2021, his photography work for the book “Mister Jiu’s in Chinatown” - a documentary project two years in the making - was published via Random House.
Around town, Lee is known for his elaborate dumpling parties, his kung-fu movie screenings, and trying to cover Whitney Houston on the piano.
