Lia Chang, co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, has launched her latest venture, BACKSTAGE PASS with Lia Chang, an Arts and Entertainment program produced weekly at the studios of MNN.org.
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer, an award-winning filmmaker, and a photo activist and documentarian, who lifts up and amplifies BIPOC communities and artists and the institutions that support them. Bev’s Girl Films collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations.
The sixteenth episode of BACKSTAGE PASS with Lia Chang, executive produced and hosted by Lia, aired on December 25 at 6:30 pm (EST) on FIOS 34, RCN 83, and Spectrum 56/1996, and streamed on MNN2. If you missed the episode, it is archived on my youtube channel or you can watch below.
This edition of Backstage Pass with Lia Chang feature a short story reading with Crime Novelist Henry Chang at Yu & Me Books; A Child’s Christmas in Wales‘ Featuring Ali Ewoldt and Kylie Kuioka; Latest Awards Tally for A Father’s Son; and Christmas with You Production Designer Wing Lee.
Updated 12/25/22 Watch the show below.
It was a dark and stormy night on the 1st Tuesday of December when I joined my friend, Crime Fiction Novelist Henry Chang at my favorite bookstore, Yu & Me Books located at 44 Mulberry St. in Manhattan’s Chinatown to read excerpts from his latest short story “A-LI-EN”.
Henry’s short story is part of an anthology called The Perfect Crime. From Lagos to Mexico City, Australia to the Caribbean, Toronto to Los Angeles, Darjeeling to rural New Zealand, London to New York – twenty-two bestselling crime writers from diverse cultures come together from across the world in a razor sharp and deliciously sinister collection of crime stories. Published by HarperCollins and edited by Vaseem Khan and Maxim Jakubowski.
Featuring Oyinkan Braithwaite, Abir Mukherjee, S.A. Cosby, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, J.P. Pomare, Sheena Kamal, Vaseem Khan, Sulari Gentill, Nelson George, Rachel Howzell Hall, John Vercher, Sanjida Kay, Amer Anwar, Henry Chang, Nadine Matheson, Mike Phillips, Ausma Zehanat Khan, Felicia Yap, Thomas King, Imran Mahmood, David Heska Wanbli Weiden and Walter Mosley.
Click here to order the book.
I have been a fan of Henry’s crime fiction- the Detective Jack Yu Investigative Series – for years. The Series has been adapted to an award-winning short film – Patrick’s Chen’s A Father’s Son – starring Tzi Ma, Ronny Chieng, Perry Yung and Kathleen Kwan, and is dedicated to the Chinatown community where Chang still resides.
His debut novel Chinatown Beat garnered high praise from the New York Times Book Review, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Mystery Newsand January Magazine among others. Additional stories have appeared in Murdaland, Asian Pulp, The NuYorAsian Anthology, On a Bed of Rice, The Usual Santas, and The Perfect Crime.
He has appeared in Chinatown “tours” via Henry Chang SinoVision (2017), Chinatown Beat New Yorker video (2021), and continues to advocate for the Community. Visit Henry Chang at “Detective Jack Yu Investigative Series”.
The latest awards tally for A Father’s Son include the 2022 Canada China International Film Festival Best Supporting Actor Award for A Father’s Son’s star Tzi Ma, a 2022 New York Shorts International Film Festival Special Mention Honors, A 2022 Silicon Valley Asian Pacific Filmfest Best Adaptation from a Book Award and a 2022 KAFFNY Infinite Cinema Short Film Audience Award.
Also a special shoutout to Wing Lee, our Production Designer for A Father’s Son and one of the co-producers , for his special mention in Variety for this work on the Netflix Holiday Movie, Christmas with You starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Aimee Garcia.
Yu and Me books is the first female owned Asian-American bookstore in New York City located in historical Manhattan Chinatown at 44 Mulberry St.
Lucy Yu, the owner of Yu & Me Books, says that her dream was always to create a home that she never found in a bookstore growing up. Yu and Me Books is a bookstore / café / bar that focuses on the strong, diverse voices of our community, with a focus on immigrant stories. The initials of the bookstore, YM, are actually her mother’s initials to showcase the stories and love in different languages that have been passed down for generations.
Lucy’s dream was to create a space where we can dream together, share our passion, strive for change, and push systems closer to justice. There is a huge lack of representation within the literary space, and she has created a space where everyone feels welcomed and heard. It’s something special to read a story that you relate to and see yourself represented after a lifetime of not being able to.
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer, activist, documentarian and an Award winning filmmaker and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Lia is also the host and Executive Producer of BACKSTAGE PASS WITH LIA CHANG, an Arts and Entertainment and Lifestyle program that airs on Sundays at 6:30pm on FIOS 34, RCN 83, Spectrum 56/1996, and streams at MNN2.
Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and she received a Best Actress nomination. Her short film, When the World Was Young garnered a 2021 DisOrient Film Audience Choice Award for Best Short Narrative. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman. She stars in and served as Executive Producer for the short independent films Hide and Seek, Balancing Act, Rom-Com Gone Wrong, Belongingness and When the World was Young. She is also the Executive Producer for The Cactus, The Language Lesson, The Writer and Cream and 2 Shugahs. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations.
Lia is the recipient of the 2022 Prospect Muse Award, 2000 OCA Chinese American Journalist Award, the 2001 AAJA National Award for New Media. Lia is an AAJA Executive Leadership Graduate (2000), a Western Knight Fellow at USC’s Annenberg College of Communications for Specialized Journalism on Entertainment Journalism in the Digital Age (2000), a National Press Photographers Association Visual Edge/Visual Journalism Fellow at the Poynter Institute for New Media (2001), a Scripps Howard New Media Fellow at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism (2002), and a National Tropical Botanical Garden Environmental Journalism Fellow (2003).
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2022 Lia Chang Multimedia, unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang, unless otherwise indicated. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at backstagepasswithliachang@gmail.com.
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