Ryun Yu makes his directorial feature debut with The Last Tour, which has its world premiere screening during the 2016 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on Sunday, April 24 at 6:00 PM at Downtown Independent, 251 S Main St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 , and Tuesday, April 26 at 4:30 PM CGV Cinemas 2, Theater 2, 621 S. Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90005 .
Yu stars as Jun, a burned-out Gulf War veteran, who is kidnapped from his L.A. neighborhood, flown to North Korea, and pressed into service for one last, secret mission: to watch over a hostage and insure that no harm comes to him while Jun’s employers extract an unspecified confession out of the prisoner. A crisis of conscience, a daring escape, and suddenly, this international prisoner drama literally shifts scenes from a North Korean gulag into… well, somewhere else?!? And what exactly WAS that “confession” that was being extracted, anyway?
The cast also features Ron Balicki, Francois Chau, Mimi Cozzens, Anthony De Longis, Franz Elizondo Schmelkes, Elizabeth Ho, James Huang, Diana Lee Inosanto, Charles Kim, Chil Kong, Jeff Liu and Kim Miyori.
Ryun Yu
Yu, who is also the co-screenwriter, shares, “The Last Tour was inspired by a friend who is a combat controller with the Air Force (they’re like the Special Forces). I was struck by his sincere desire to be the person standing between danger and those he loved, and was concerned that he would end up like other friends of mine who had returned from their tours of duty embittered. I felt then, as I do now, that a single act of courage can literally change the tone of your life. It can change what was a dark drama into a comedy, or even into an adventure. I felt there was something about that generosity of spirit that was not only transformative, but lasting. That no matter how it might seem to disappear, it would survive under the surface, waiting to be resurrected. That was a character I wanted to write and play. Also, I wanted to see him share an adventure with a Mexican cook who had gone to MIT. That part was developed with great affection for my dear friend Franz, whom I’ve known since we were eighteen, attending MIT. I don’t think he ever worked as a cook though.”
Ryun Yu co-executive produced, produced, directed, wrote the screenplay, shares writing credit with Jeff Liu, edited and stars in The Last Tour. Other crew credits include Franz Elizondo Schmelkes (executive producer and producer) and Jeff Liu (producer).
Ryun Yu is the first Korean-American to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He also has the first theatre degree ever awarded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He just finished playing Mark in the film adaptation of David Henry Hwang’s Bondage. This is Yu’s second film collaboration with Hwang—he played a fictional version of the writer in Yellow Face, which was the first adaptation of a major play for YouTube. His other film credits include the upcoming Only the Brave, The Brothers Solomon and The Mikado Project. His television appearances include “The Whole Truth,” “Bones,” “Good Luck Charlie” and “The Unit.” He played George in the Los Angeles premiere of Julia Cho’s The Language Archive and David in the world premiere of Lloyd Suh’s American Hwangap at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. In Los Angeles theatre, he has played Ivan in Art at East West Players, Gene in Sea Change at the Gay and Lesbian Center (Maddy Award, Ovation Award nomination), and all of the characters in Hold These Truths (formerly Dawn’s Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi) at East West Players and ACT in Seattle. He also performed in the West Coast premiere of Richard Greenberg’s Tony Award-winning Take Me Out at the Geffen Playhouse and in Kimber Lee’s tokyo fish story at South Coast Rep. Yu is on twitter @realryunyu.
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
Lia Chang. Photo by Garth Kravits
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. 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. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations. Lia is also an internationally published and exhibited photographer, a multi-platform journalist, and a publicist. Lia has appeared in the filmsWolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman and Hide and Seek. She is profiled in Examiner.com, Jade Magazine and Playbill.com.
My Bev’s Girl Films partner Garth Kravits and I are delighted to have our short film, Hide and Seek as an official selection of the 11th Annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival in Eugene, OR., which screens in the Sunday Shorts Program: Conflict, on May 1, 2016 at Bijou Art Cinemas, 492 E 13th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401.
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM Click To Get Your FREE Pass
Hide and Seek is a short film that speaks to the societal challenge that women, and especially women of color, endure every day. To look in the mirror and to hope to see a face other than your own. One that is closer to what magazines, television and movies define as beautiful or even normal. What face do you see when you look in the mirror?
In addition to Hide and Seek, the Sunday Shorts Program: Conflict Lineup includes Distance Between, Christmas in America, Fishbone, Frank and Kass, I Hate the Color Red, Too Fast, Carnal Orient, Spaceship and The Waltz.
DisOrient, a social justice film festival committed to the honest portrayals of the diversity of Asian and Pacific Islander American experiences, will screen a curated collection of 14 feature films, 17 short films, and 2 music videos at Bijou Art Cinemas and Bijou Metro, Eugene, OR, from April 29-May 1, 2016. Over 25 filmmakers and actors will be in attendance for post-screening Q&A’s.
Check out the complete schedule below.
FRIDAY, April 29, 2016
BIJOU ART CINEMAS
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Bijou Art Cinemas
6:00 – 6:15 PM
Closing Night Reception – FREE
10:00 PM – 11:30 PM
Check www.disorientfilm.org for updates and schedule TBA. Purchase All Access VIP Passes for $75 in advance on www.brownpapertickets.com, or $80 at the door. The Opening Night Reception is at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art with a live musical performance by Portland band- The Slants, that is included with tickets to “TYRUS” or VIP Passes. Front man Simon Tam will also speak on “How Being Asian Got Me Into Trouble.” General tickets ($15) to the Opening Night show will be sold at the door at 8:45 pm. Admission to the Sunday Night Awards Gala at LZ Chinese Dish will be included with VIP Passes or ticket stub for “Comfort. Individual film tickets will be sold on-line starting in April or at the door until sold out. There is a Free Sunday Shorts program.
Director Lily Mariye and Hayden Panettiere as Juliette Barnes on ABC’s “Nashville”. Photo courtesy of Lily Mariye
Lily Mariye, an award-winning film director, award-winning screenwriter and actor, made her episodic television directorial debut with this week’s episode of ABC’s “Nashville,” titled “What I Cannot Change, ” written by Taylor Hamra, which features the return of Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere).
On the set of “Nashville” (from left): Mark Collie, who plays Frankie Gray and is a country hitmaker in real life; Taylor Hamra, writer and co-executive producer; Charles Esten, who plays Deacon Claybourne; and director Lily Mariye. (Photo courtesy Lily Mariye)
Kyle Fowle notes in the “Nashville” recap on EW.com,
“I don’t know if it’s just the presence of a healthy Juliette Barnes on the screen, but “What I Cannot Change” is perhaps the best episode of this season of Nashville so far — and by quite a long shot. There’s nothing overly dramatic or depressing or out of character. Just good ol’ fashioned drama and country music, which is exactly what Nashville is supposed to be.”
Click here to read the entire recap and here to watch the episode.
Lily Mariye’s Model Minority (photo courtesy of Nice Girl Films)
I met Mariye in 2012, when her debut feature, Model Minority, starring Helen Slater, Nichole Bloom (Shameless, Superstore), Marc Anthony Samuel (“General Hospital”), Robert Bailey Jr. (“The Night Shift”), Chris Tashima and “ER” alum Laura Innes, was screening at the Asian American International Film Festival.
A Model Minority team: Three-time Grammy nominee, saxophonist Boney James shows off his wife’s Audience Choice Award for Narrative Feature for Model Minority, at the 35th Asian American International Film Festival, at the Clearview Chelsea Cinemas in New York on August 5, 2012. Mariye, wrote, directed and shares producing credits with James, whose music is featured on the soundtrack. Photo by Lia Chang
She received The Audience Choice Award for Narrative Feature that night and Model Minority has won 10 other Film Festival Awards including Best Film (Sacramento, London Independent, Asians on Film); Best Director (London Independent, L.A. Asian Pacific, Las Vegas, DC Asian Pacific American, Asians on Film), Best New Actress and Best Cinematography (LA Asian Pacific). Since its July 2013 debut on Hulu, Amazon.com, IndieReign, Mgo and SnagFilms, it has had over 750,000 views.
Delon De Metz, Nichole Bloom, Lily Mariye and Chris Tashima at the 35th Asian American International Film Festival screening of Model Minority, at the Clearview Chelsea Cinemas in New York on August 4, 2012. Photo by Lia Chang
The film stars Nichole Bloom as Kayla, an underprivileged Japanese American girl with a drug addict mom (Jessica Tuck) and an alcoholic dad (Chris Tashima), who endangers her promising future as an artist when she becomes involved with a drug dealer (Delon De Metz).
Lily Mariye
Mariye’s opportunity to direct her first episode of television for ABC’s “Nashville,” comes after her participation in the 2012-2014 ABC/Disney/DGA Creative Development Program as a director.
Mariye is also an actor, best known for her role as nurse Lily Jarvik on the award-winning TV series “ER” for 15 seasons, for which she won the SAG Award for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series four times.
Born in Las Vegas, Nevada, she graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Theatre Arts. She has appeared in many films such as Extraordinary Measures, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Mighty Joe Young, The Shadow, The New Age, and The Doctor. Lily is recurring on MTV’s “Teen Wolf” and has guest-starred in over 30 TV shows including Criminal Minds, “NCIS: LA,” “Shameless”. She is an award-winning theatre actress, performing in New York, Los Angeles and other regional theatres around the country.
“The Shangri-la Cafe”
Her award-winning short film, The Shangri-la Café, has shown in over 25 film festivals around the world, including the BBC British Short, Seattle International and Palm Springs Short, winning Best Short Film at Moondance and Best Screenplay at Brussels Independent. Her short film was based on her feature screenplay The Shangri-la Café, which won Best Screenplay from the Cynosure Screenwriting Awards, the Page international Screenwriting Awards, GAFFERS Film Festival and the Ohio International Independent Film Festival and was also a top 15% finalist for both the Nicholl Fellowship and the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. Mariye was named one of PBS’ Up and Coming Filmmakers of Color and received the Filmmaker of the Year Award from the National Organization for Women.
A resident of Los Angeles, Mariye lives with husband, 4-time Grammy-nominated Concord recording artist/saxophonist Boney James, who also contributed to the soundtracks for The Shangri-la Café and Model Minority.
Lily Mariye on the set of “Nashville” with Jonathan Jackson, who plays aspiring musician Avery Barkley. (Photo by Mark Levine)
Lia: What was your path to directing your first episode of “Nashville”? Lily: The showrunner is a Filipina American woman named Dee Johnson whom I know from “ER.” She was a writer/producer on “ER” and we’ve stayed in touch. Getting hired to direct “Nashville” was a real confluence of events; it really took a village for me to get my very first episode of directing television. I was in the ABC Creative Talent Development program from 2012-2014. When I got in the program, Janine Jones, the program executive said, “Do you know anyone who works on any of our shows, here at ABC?” They were trying to get us shadowing assignments, so the production and producers would like us, look at our work, and hire us to direct an episode.
So I said, “I know Dee.” ABC set it up so I could go shadow. Then I stayed in touch with Dee and let her know how passionate I was about the show, and what I had observed. I guess I showed her that I was mature, professional, capable and intuitive enough to understand how the show works and she hired me to direct one.
Honestly, although I am a fan of country music, you don’t have to be an expert on Country music to direct an episode of “Nashville.” Directing anything is really just telling the story, looking at the words on the paper and making the story come alive on screen. Directing “Nashville” required me to know the show inside and out, to understand the characters, and to understand how the music business works. My husband is a musician. Everything that the characters go through on “Nashville,” I’ve watched my husband go through, from dealing with his record companies, touring, working his way up from playing 50 bucks a night playing in a window of a restaurant, to headlining at Hollywood Bowl. There’s a long myriad of events that get you there and I understood the process.
Lily Mariye and Sherry Stringfield on “ER”.
Having been an actor on a television show for 15 seasons gave me an understanding of how television works as well as a really deep understanding of what television actors want from their directors. The directors come and go and the actors have to stay there. It’s a crapshoot for the actors. From one week to the next, you don’t know what you’re going to get, you don’t know if your director is competent or can talk to actors. I had to assure them that I understood what they went through and being an actor myself, what actors want from their directors. They don’t want instruction, they want direction. They want a mirror. They want to know that you see what they’re doing, and that what they are trying to do is translating on-screen. So it was a lot about my gaining their trust. And gaining the trust of the crew.
Lily Mariye on the set of “Nashville” with Chris Carmack, who plays rising country star Will Lexington. (Photo courtesy of Lily Mariye)
I understand that showing up on the set, at this point in time, it’s unusual to see an Asian American woman sitting in the director’s chair. I’m sure that the crew was a little wary and nervous. I just did my job, focused on what I needed to do. I got the crew out early or on time. We progressed along really well together. I was able to communicate with everybody. A few days in, I got the crew out an hour and 45 minutes early. One of the grips came over to me and said, “Ma’am, I just want to say thank you for getting us out early on a Friday night. I can go home and have supper with my family.” That just meant so much to me, that one of the teamsters came over and said something to me. On the very last day, one of the electricians confided in me with a little tear in his eye, “Lily, we took a vote and you can’t go. You have to stay and direct the rest of the episodes for the rest of the season.” I’ll carry that with me to my grave. That just made me feel like, “Wow, this Tennessee teamster, I won him over.” It’s just going to take women, especially Asian American women directing one episode at a time to get people used to us. Hopefully, I can do a good job so it’s easier for the next person who comes along.
Aubrey Peeples as Layla Grant in “Nashville”.
Lia: When did you start the program and who was in your village? Lily: I started the program in 2012. I shadowed on “Nashville” in end of 2013, and I got hired to direct my episode at the end of 2015.
As part of the program, I had an executive mentor at ABC Studios, a woman by the name of Sydnee Rimes. She really pushed for me to get hired. She really believed in me. She introduced me to the ABC network executive, Jo DiSante and the Lionsgate executive at the time, Cara Dellaverson. Between the three of them, Dee Johnson, and the men and women at the ABC Creative Talent Development program, Janine Jones, Emerlynn Lampitoc and Tim McNeal, it took all of them to really push for me to get hired. It wasn’t any one person who made this happen. It really took a village.
Lia: Was directing a television show always something that you wanted to do? Lily: It was certainly one of the things that I wanted to do. I learned how to direct from shadowing on television. When I was on “ER,” a few years into the show I noticed one of the actors sitting in video village in street clothes with headphones on. I asked, “What are you doing?” He said, “I’m shadowing.” I said, “What’s shadowing?” He said, “I’m watching the director, I’m learning how to direct.” I said, “Well, I’m sitting here 16 hours a day, I want to do that too.” So I talked to John Wells and he introduced me to Lesli Linka Glatter and said, “You can shadow Lesli if she says okay.” I shadowed Leslie and Jonathan Kaplan on 11 episodes of “ER,” 6 episodes of “West Wing,” 3 episodes of “Gilmore Girls.” I shadowed Leslie and Clark Johnson on “Homeland.” I continued to learn how to direct from what I call the “ER” College.
We were all there for so long, that I was able to do something that was so invaluable:
I was able to go to each department and ask, “How does this crane work? What does the property department do? How does the sound mixing board work?” I really learned how to direct from my friends on “ER.” Directing television was always on my radar to do, but it’s a tough nut to crack. Finally the stars aligned and I was able to do it. I’m really grateful that it happened on the show that it did.
Jeananne Goossen plays Vita Martin on ABC’s “Nashville”. Mark Levine/ABC
Jeananne Goossen is half Chinese, from Canada originally. I shadowed on a show called “The Night Shift” and she was a regular on that for a while and we really hit it off. When I learned that I was going to direct “Nashville,” I was really excited.
Charles Esten as Deacon and Christina Chang as Megan on ABC’s “Nashville”. Photo: Mark Levine/ABC
There was one other Hapa woman, Christina Chang, she’s half Chinese-Filipino. She played an attorney and Charles Esten’s love interest before his character got back together with Connie Britton.
Lia: In November, you were included a New York Times Magazine“The Women of Hollywood Speak Out”. What was it like to part of that group of women and addressing those issues? Lily: It was amazing! I couldn’t believe it. My friend Lesli is an executive producer on “Homeland” and was interviewed for this piece. Maureen asked her, “Is there anybody that you help? Do you help other women?” Lesli said, “As a matter of fact, I mentor several women and one of them is Lily Mariye. She’s about to direct her first episode of “Nashville.” So Maureen said, “Do you think she’d be willing to talk to me?”
New York Times Magazine feature “The Women of Hollywood Speak Out”. Photos by Art Shreiber
It was exhilarating to be part of this group and to talk to Maureen. At this photo shoot, in line in front of me was Kathleen Kennedy and Jill Soloway. I was like, “Oh my God, I’m in the same group as these women!” We’re all going to make-up together, talking and getting ready to take our photos. It was amazing, really amazing.
Lily Mariye. Photo by Art Streiber for The New York Times.
Lia: What did you take away from it? Did it inspire you to go forward in a different way than the path you are already on? Lily: What was empowering was that Vanity Fair retweeted the article, and said, “Hollywood only needs to look at these 63 women if they really want to change Hollywood.” I thought, “Wow, I’m part of this group? That’s incredible.” I did feel empowered, I did feel that if Maureen and the New York Times felt that I was worth being included as part of this, that I need to live up to their confidence in me. It still reverberates in my life. People still talk to me about it; it’s put me in a different light in terms of trying to move forward, to work more in television, direct more films. Being on the cover of the New York Times Magazine certainly didn’t hurt! I’m still the same person that I was before Art Streiber took my picture, but I think that sometimes perception is everything.
When I first started shadowing, I didn’t know anything about directing. It was the way that I learned how to direct. I still feel like I learn something new everyday, but once I felt that I had learned enough so that I could actually direct something, then shadowing became about learning how each show operates. It’s like being invited to someone’s house and understanding the dynamics of their family. What time they eat dinner, what they like to do at night? Do they like to sit around and watch TV, do they like to go out? So you have to figure out the dynamics of each family and how it works. That’s been really valuable it terms of preparing myself to be in all of these different situations. It’s really not much different than what I’ve been doing for the last 30 years as an actor. You walk into a new television show or a film and there’s a whole new group of people. You have to figure out who you are going to sit with at lunch! It’s all the same thing. I think my experience as an actor has really helped me a lot in terms of understanding the dynamics of each new show. When I’m directing my own scripts, I try not to set up a too dysfunctional “family” of my own.
On the set of “Nashville”. Photo credit: Lily Mariye
Lia: What other projects are you interested in working on? Lily: When I finished on “Nashville,” I turned to the producer and said, “I never want to direct another show except for “Nashville!” I honestly felt like that. I fell in love with the cast and the crew. I really enjoyed it so much. Everybody was so talented. The show was such a pleasure to direct. I thought, “Oh no, I don’t want this to end, I just want to keep directing THIS show.”
In terms of what I’d like to direct-I’ve been a huge fan of Vince Gilligan since “Breaking Bad.” So my wish list includes “Better Call Saul.” “Homeland.” “Man in the High Castle.” “The Night Shift.” “NCIS:LA.”
I would love to do more indie films. One of the “Nashville” writers, Sibyl Gardner, just had a script optioned and asked me to come aboard as the director. The producers are going to start fundraising soon. It’s called Dumplings, and it’s about a group of families that go to China to adopt babies. It’s based on her own experience and it’s really a wonderful script. I’m still working on my own scripts, the feature version of The Shangri-La Café and I have another script called Loyalty. It’s about a Japanese man that moves to the United States right before WWII. His whole family is killed in Hiroshima. It’s about his inner battle of “Do I stay in a country that just destroyed my whole family? Do I stay in the country that I have learned to love with my new family? Where do my loyalties lie?” It’s a little intense. It’s kind of what’s happening in our country now.
As an actor, I would love to do a play. I haven’t done a play for a while. When I’m directing, I like not having to worry about my wardrobe or my hair and just focusing on what’s happening on the set. When I am acting, I like that I just have to focus on my role and not worry about anything else. It’s two separate mindsets.
It is about the successful women, like Dee Johnson, affecting change. This year on “Nashville,” in addition to hiring me to direct my first episode of television. she hired a woman named Jet Wilkinson, who is Chinese Australian and has directed a lot of Australian TV, but has never broken that barrier of American television. Dee gave her her first shot to direct an episode of “Nashville.” She also gave another Chinese American woman, Valerie Chu, her first shot at writing an episode on “Nashville.” This all happened this year. She’s very quietly doing her job and doing the right thing. Sometimes I think the real heroes don’t get the flashy credit because sometimes the positive stories aren’t perceived as interesting as the negative ones.
Lia: Anything new going on with Model Minority? Lily: SAG sponsored a screening and a Q&A, which was really lovely. I’m working on a pilot for it, at the suggestion of a friend of mine who when I told her that Model Minority had almost a million hits, on Hulu and Amazon and these other online venues, said wow, maybe there’s a TV audience for that.
Lia: Are you someone who likes to binge watch? Lily: I only binge watch if I come in late to a show that I start watching and I think, “Oh I really like this show.”
I did that with “Breaking Bad.” I started watching it in its second season, so I had to binge watch the first season. Right now, I’m watching “The Good Wife,” “Secrets and Lies,” “Mercy Street,” “Man in the High Castle,” “NCIS:LA,” “The Night Shift,” “Homeland,” “Better Call Saul,” “Game of Thrones” and “Nashville.”
Normally, I wait for each episode to come out. I think the waiting is one of the most exciting aspects of television that you miss when you watch 12 hours at once. When you watch a show for a half an hour at a time, or an hour at a time, that episode stays with you all week and you get to experience the anticipation of the next episode. I think that is the fun part of the art form, the waiting.
(L to R) Keean Johnson, who plays Colt on Nashville) with director Lily Mariye. Photo courtesy of Lily Mariye.
Lia: From when you were on “ER” to let’s say the last five years, how do you think the color landscape of television has changed? Do you feel it’s changed enough? Lily: “ER” ended in 2009, it started in 1994. I think even during the run of “ER,” the only Asian American Show was Margaret Cho’s show. And it was a shame that didn’t last. It’s sort of like what I hear on television shows when they say, “Oh, we had a woman director once, it didn’t work out.” I think that’s what happened with “All American Girl.” Oh yeah, we had an Asian American television show once, it didn’t work out.” But then since then, there have been more Asian American television shows that are doing well and getting an audience. I think it’s because they’ve gotten a chance to thrive. I think the networks and studios have worked hard and given them a chance to get it right. I think there is a lot more diversity on dramas and comedies, than during the 15 years that “ER” was on. I’d like to think that “ER” was one of those shows that helped break the mold. We had a lot of diversity on the show. I’d like to think because of that; these other shows had a leg up.
On Women in directing. Lily: The successful women directors that I’ve met, they quietly go about their jobs and nobody asks them about how hard it is to be a director in Hollywood because they’re doing really well. Yes, I think the statistics are low, but I also think that it’s really hard to be a film director and especially a television director, in terms of getting hired. And yes, it might be a little harder for us. I’ve been trying to do this for a long time. My goal is to be one of those women who keeps persevering, does the work and continues to do what I can to get hired. It’s like acting. I remember when I first started acting, people would say, “ Oh you’re an Asian American woman, there aren’t going to be a lot of roles for you, you’re not going to be able to work much.” If I’d listened to other people, I would have just stopped. It was up to me to keep going, I certainly know enough blond hair blue eyed women who tried and gave up. It’s hard for everybody. All I can do is to keep forging ahead.
My Bev’s Girl Films partner Garth Kravits and I are delighted to have our short film, Hide and Seek as an official selection of the 11th Annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival in Eugene, OR.
DisOrient, a social justice film festival committed to the honest portrayals of the diversity of Asian and Pacific Islander American experiences, will screen a curated collection of 14 feature films, 17 short films, and 2 music videos at Bijou Art Cinemas and Bijou Metro, Eugene, OR, from April 29-May 1, 2016. Over 25 filmmakers and actors will be in attendance for post-screening Q&A’s.
Tyrus Wong
The festival starts on Friday, April 29th at 6:00 pm with the Opening Night Film, Pamela Tom’s TYRUS, which presents the life and career of 105+ year old Chinese American artist, Tyrus Wong, from his immigration to the U.S. as a child to his artistic contributions to animation and classic American cinema, preceded by Ed Moy’s award-winning animated short, Up in the Clouds.
DisOrient’s Centerpiece Film, the epic and spectacular feature narrative Persona Non Grata – The Chiune Sugihara Story, produced by Cine Bazar will screen on Saturday, April 30th. Director Cellin Gluck is planning to attend for a highly anticipated Q&A after the film, which is based on the true historical accounts about a Japanese diplomat who, during World War II, faced a moral dilemma that affected the lives of thousands of European Jews in Lithuania.
Harvey leads his team in the haka, a traditional warrior dance.
A must see is the documentary In Football We Trust, which made its world premiere at Sundance and permits a rare and intimate access to the families of 4 Pacific Islander football players who have hopes of making it into the NFL.
DisOrient closes with Comfort, accompanied by Director William Lu and lead actor, Julie Zahn. Lu’s feature film debut brings Cameron (Chris Dinh) and Jasmine (Julie Zahn) together as they explore the after-hours food scene in LA while Cameron hides his dreams away in the darkness of the night.
Below is the complete lineup of films:
Up In The Clouds
TYRUS
Sakura Sakura
An American Hero:Shiro Kashino
Drone
Resilient
Moment
Meet Me At A Funeral
Goodbye
Right Footed
Someone Else
In Football We Trust
Persona Non Grata –The Chiune Sugihara Story
Cantonese Rice
To Climb A Gold Mountain
Painted Nails
Pali Road
Live From UB
Distance Between
Christmas In America
Frank and Kass
Too Fast
Fishbone
The Waltz
I Hate the Color Red
Carnal Orient
Hide and Seek
Spaceship
It Runs In the Family
Pamanhikan
9-Man
Breathin’: The Eddy Zheng Story
Comfort
Check www.disorientfilm.org for updates and schedule TBA. Purchase All Access VIP Passes for $75 in advance on www.brownpapertickets.com, or $80 at the door. The Opening Night Reception is at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art with a live musical performance by Portland band- The Slants, that is included with tickets to “TYRUS” or VIP Passes. Front man Simon Tam will also speak on “How Being Asian Got Me Into Trouble.” General tickets ($15) to the Opening Night show will be sold at the door at 8:45 pm. Admission to the Sunday Night Awards Gala at LZ Chinese Dish will be included with VIP Passes or ticket stub for “Comfort. Individual film tickets will be sold on-line starting in April or at the door until sold out. There is a Free Sunday Shorts program.
Inaugural 2016 Van Lier Fellowships for Acting and Directing
PROGRAM GUIDELINES AND APPLICATION
The Asian American Arts Alliance is pleased to administer, with support from the New York Community Trust, the 2016 Van Lier Fellowships in different disciplines over the next three years. This year, the Alliance will be recognizing theater artists in the categories of Acting and Directing.
The Alliance will grant two eight-month fellowships to one early-career Asian American actor and one early-career Asian American director, age 30 or younger, whose work shows outstanding promise, who may benefit from further professional artistic development, and who is of limited financial means.
The fellowship recipients will each receive an unrestricted cash stipend of $12,000 and an eight-month fellowshiptailored to respond to the unique needs of each Fellow, which includes artistic mentorship with an established mid-career theater professional, leadership coaching, and a range of technical support.
The Alliance’s mission is to strengthen Asian American arts and cultural groups through resource sharing, promotion, and community building. In line with these efforts, it is the aim of the Alliance’s Van Lier Fellowships to develop early-career, individual Asian American artists living in New York City.
Created by the will of Sally Van Lier, the Trust carries out Edward and Sally Van Liers’ legacy of arts appreciation by supporting arts groups and training programs to provide education, training, or other support.
The Alliance will be administering an open application process for this year’s fellowships.
Submissions are due by11:59 PM EST Sunday, April 10th, 2016.
Asian American Arts Alliance Van Lier Fellowships will include:
* Unrestricted cash grant of $12,000 per Fellow during the fellowship cycle
* Eight-month fellowship (July 2016–February 2017) with the Alliance, which will include a leadership coaching series, artistic mentorship with a mid-career theater professional, and professional technical resources
* Fellows will have their individual profiles featured on the Alliance Web site
TIMETABLE FOR FELLOWSHIP PROCESS
April 10 Submissions close by 11:59pm EST
April–May Artistic review period
June Fellows announced
WHO IS ELIGIBLE
The applicant MUST:
Be of Asian descent. Ethnic origins include Central Asian, East Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Middle Eastern and Multi-regional
Be 30 years of age or younger (born June 15, 1985 or later)
Not be currently enrolled as a full-time or part-time student in any degree program or matriculating in any degree program by June 30th, 2016
Be a resident of New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, or Staten Island)
Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident
Be available to participate in the fellowship orientation and leadership coaching sessions in July 2016 (exact dates TBD)
WHO IS INELIGIBLE
*Previous or current recipients of any Van Lier fellowships
*Undergraduate or graduate students who are currently enrolled in any degree program or who plan to matriculate in any degree program from the year 2016 through 2017
*Alliance board members and staff
CRITERIA BY WHICH APPLICATIONS WILL BE REVIEWED
Artistic Merit: Clarity, imaginativeness, and uniqueness based upon body of work and work samples submitted.
Community Impact: Articulation of interest or hopes to make a significant impact on the Asian American arts community based on narrative responses in the application.
Potential for Growth: Extent to which the fellowship will advance the applicant’s goals and career.
Financial Need: Demonstrated need for financial support based upon applicant’s explanation of annual income and expenses. Finalists may be asked to provide further financial documentation.
VAN LIER FELLOWSHIP INFO SESSION
Applicants are encouraged to attend the Alliance ACCESS: Master Class for 2016 Van Lier Fellowship Applicants on Monday, March 28 from 6:30-8:00pm.
Facilitated by Asian American Arts Alliance Van Lier Fellowship Manager Mr. Soriya Chum and Director of Public Programs Ms. Cate Yu, this year’s Master Class will be geared towards Asian American actors and directors interested in applying for the 2016 Van Lier Fellowships in the categories of Acting and Directing.
The Alliance hopes that this workshop will not only serve applicants the nuts and bolts of a strong Van Lier Fellowship application, but also provide enriching suggestions for other fellowship opportunities. Part info session and part workshop, this 1.5-hour session will include the background and logistics of the awards process and pointers on preparing a strong application.
Space is limited, so we encourage early RSVPs. You can RSVP HERE.
Please contact Fellowships Manager Mr. Soriya Chum at schum@aaartsalliance.org if you have any questions relating to the Van Lier Fellowships.
The Van Lier Fellowships are made possible through a grant from the Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of the New York CommunityTrust.
Dax Phelan’s JASMINE starring Jason Tobin, Eugenia Yuan and Byron Mann, will screen as part of the third annual Pasadena International Film Festival on Tuesday, March 8th (Laemmle Playhouse 7, 7:50 p.m.). Tickets are $12.00 each and now on sale at LAEMMLE.com, or at the Laemmle Theatre Box Office. (Please note: The Safari Browser on MACs may not work with the Laemmle website. If experiencing difficulty, use another browser such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.) Cast and crew will hold a Q&A afterwards. Laemmle Playhouse 7 is located at 673 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91101.
Leonard To (Jason Tobin) is a man who is struggling to come to terms with the unsolved murder of his beloved wife, Jasmine. After more than a year, he decides to come back to Hong Kong and move on with his life. He searches for a new job, attends group grief support meetings, and reconnects with Grace, a woman from his past. While he still calls the police, hoping Jasmine’s murder case will be resolved, Leonard does seem to start life anew.
A scene from Dax Phelan’s JASMINE
On the first anniversary of Jasmine’s death, Leonard visits her burial site and crosses paths with a mysterious man, who Leonard becomes convinced is a prime suspect for his beloved wife’s death. Leonard decides to investigate and follow this man, in hopes of finding connections to his wife’s murder, and reports the man to the police. However, when the police fail to arrest the man, Leonard realizes that the only way for him to stop his own fiery downward spiral and move on with his life once and for all is to take matters into his own hands. The result: a shocking and unforgettable final revelation.
Dax Phelan. Photo by Lia Chang
In his directorial debut, Dax Phelan keeps us on an edge of our seats and takes us on a roller-coaster ride with his star-studded cast and crew. With a strong character-driven narrative and constant suspense all set in the bustling city of Hong Kong, Dax Phelan creates a story that is bold, riveting, and shocking with a theme that is universally relatable to anyone who has ever loved and anyone who has ever suffered. Jasmine is dedicated to Dax Phelan’s mother.
Jason Tobin. Photo by Lia Chang
Jason Tobin is a Hong Kong actor and producer who co-wrote, co-produced and stars in Jasmine. He is best known for his role as Virgil Hu in Justin Lin’s critically acclaimed 2002 film Better Luck Tomorrow (BLT), The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, #1 Serial Killer and Chris Chan Lee’s Yellow. In our interview over Skype, Tobin talks about the making of Jasmine, the challenges of low budget filmmaking in Hong Kong, and being a part of the Independent Asian American cinema scene including Better Luck Tomorrow.
Below is my interview with Jason Tobin.
Chang: How did you get into acting? Tobin: I was 18. I had finished high school and was supposed to go to University in the UK. At that point, I didn’t know you could become an actor. I literally thought being an actor was a lark. I didn’t realize you could study to be an actor and try to get the job. I just didn’t understand. In high school, you are studying to go to law school or become a doctor, that ‘s your job. When I was 18, my father recognized that I loved movies and liked acting. He showed me an advertisement for an acting class in Hong Kong and I went to it. I was done for. Six months later, instead of going to university in the UK, I packed my bags up and moved to LA.
Chang: What have been your favorite projects? Tobin: The Asian American features that I’ve done- Yellow with Chris Chan Lee, followed by Better Luck Tomorrow, #1 Serial Killer,Finishing the Game and now Jasmine. When I look at my body of work, I am really proud to have done these Asian American features.In my whole life I always wanted to be part of something important. I feel that having worked in these Asian American films that not only did it satisfy my creative urges as a performer and as an actor, they also satisfied me because I felt like I was part of something important. If I have somehow contributed to Asian American cinema and helped move it forward, you can’t pay for that. That’s a deep sense of satisfaction that you can’t get anywhere else.
Chang: You said, ‘Asian American cinema is where I belong; it is where I want to be.’ Tobin: Obviously I lived in America, so I have a lot of friends who are Asian American actors or filmmakers. We frequently talk about how we want to be part of the mainstream. Why can’t they cast more Asians where they don’t have to be the Kung Fu fighter, or have to explain their Asianness? There’s all the talk about wanting to get into the mainstream. I’ve caught myself speaking in those terms too. Several years ago, it occurred to me that I don’t even feel comfortable working in that arena. Younger actors can speak with a lot of bravura. I am happy to stay within my community, my culture, making films that are important to us. To me at least. I’m never going to be a Caucasian man; I’m never going to be a black man. I’m never going to be French or Jewish. I am a Chinese, English speaking guy. I am really happy with that. The stories that I am interested in telling, I have always felt like a bird between two trees. Trying to fit in.
Chang: Are you working on something now? Tobin: It’s a story about these two down and out Asian American actors who are completely unemployed and can’t get hired at all. They decide to go on a road trip to visit Bruce Lee’s grave in Seattle. That’s the premise. We’ll be shooting that in 2016.
I am working on a Martial arts film. It is not going to be an action packed martial arts film. It is going to be sparse, when you see it, it will be important. I talk about it like a martial arts film – meets American indie film. It’s another thing that we always talk about in Asian American cinema, why do we always have to be the martial arts guy? I completely understand that sentiment, and even though I have practiced martial arts my whole life, and watch so many martial arts film and am a massive Bruce Lee fan, as an actor I always steered clear of it. I wanted to be taken seriously as an actor. I’m getting older, I love the genre, I better do one now before I get older.
I dipped my toes into martial arts films with Justin Lin’s Finishing the Game, the premise is that it’s a mockumentary and I am not in the film. I was cut out. My character Toby Jackson is not in America. The documentarian is in LA and as originally scripted, they would cut to me in Mexico as an underground street fighter, trying to get back into America. He can’t get back in so he’s becomes part of this underground fight club.I was in the best shape of my life, 4% body fat. After the shoot, Justin Lin came up to me at the end of the day and told me that this was the best acting he had ever seen me do. Several months later he calls me in Hong Kong, and says, “I love the footage It’s some of my favorite stuff we shot but I just can’t make the footage work in the film. It just doesn’t make sense.” It was heartbreaking. He says I’ll give you all the footage.
This is the impetus for this Bruce Lee road trip story. They are huge Bruce Lee fans, and one has just been cut out of the film where he’s playing a Bruce Lee type character. Finishing the Game was an important film for me even though I am not in it. Art director Candy Guitterez designed the poster and used a ghost image of me in the poster. It’s my face on the poster with all of the other Bruce Lees layered on top.
Han (Sung Kang), Virgil (Jason J. Tobin) and Ben (Parry Shen) are overachieving high school honor students in Orange County who live second lives at night as a gang responsible for criminal mischief in Better Luck Tomorrow. Photo: MTV Films
Chang: What was your experience with Better Luck Tomorrow? Tobin: Better Luck Tomorrow was a blessing and an Asian American powerhouse. The gift that keeps on giving. I’ve gotten so much out of that film. When I was in LA at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, I met actors from Revenge of the Green Dragon and Soul Searching. They told me that because of BLT, they were really inspired by me. You can’t pay for that. Every time I go back to America and I hear about the importance of that films in their lives, it validates me for all of the hardships of being an actor. An actor’s life is full of ups and downs.
BLT shook things up. My audition was on a Sunday, I was feeling jaded but luckily I went to it. After one or two scenes, we improved and it was cool and fun. When I read the script I was blown away. This is the kind of role, specifically with my character, an unbelievable role. This is the kind of role that makes careers, that wins Oscars. He’s such a live wire, shows such vulnerability. If this film were cast as a non Asian American film, Virgil would not have been the white guy. I felt incredibly lucky. The third day of shooting, I turned to Roger and said that this movie is a gift. This is a blessing. I am so lucky to be on this film. I have felt that throughout the whole journey.
I am a British citizen and in 2002 we’d gone to Sundance with Better Luck Tomorrow. The film hadn’t been released yet, so I went on vacation to Argentina. On my way back to America I was denied entry. Even though I had been in and out of America many, many times, for some reason, post 9/11 things were computerized and the infraction that I had overstayed my visa by 5 days several years earlier, showed up. They said I had to go back to the UK and reapply for a visa. A lot of people took that to be that I was deported but I wasn’t. It just meant that my Visa application was rejected. It meant that I spent a few years away right when BLT came out. Many people thought that I should have been there to capitalize on the success. I watched BLT’s success from afar.
I wasn’t there for the poster. That actually is not my body. The day of the photo shoot, the cast had a body double for me. They took my head from another picture and stuck it on. It was sad but I have no regrets. I spent a year in Argentina, learning guitar, learning Spanish. After a year of that I thought I better go back to work. Being a British citizen, I went to London, did a couple of movies, and TV shows. As much as I enjoyed working in the UK I was still an Asian man, an Asian person working in a predominantly white country. I’ve done this before; I’ve fought this battle before. I decided it was time for me to go back to Hong Kong and find a different challenge.
Jason Tobin and his wife Michelle. Photo by Lia Chang
Chang: What is your experience of being Eurasian? Tobin: I am from Hong Kong and have always loved Hong Kong, but I also have a love hate relationship with it. I am a real product of Hong Kong. I constantly get asked why my English is so good? They don’t understand the history of Hong Kong, that there is a British colony, with two school systems, Chinese speaking and English speaking, and that I’m Eurasian. My Father is white, a British guy; my mother is Chinese, a Cantonese woman from Hong Kong. I wanted to use as much of myself and even to the extent when we meet Leonard at the beginning of the film, he’s come back from somewhere, he’s been away. If you notice my accent changes quite a bit. In America, me as Jason, I grew up speaking Cantonese, speaking English, I went to a British School so I learned to speak English with an English accent. Subsequently I went to America, and learned to speak with an American accent. I spend time in Australia because my wife is a naturalized Australian, so frequently my accent changes depending on who I am talking too. If I am in America and speaking to American people, I am going to sound more American. When I am home and with family, I sound more British. It’s not phony either way. It’s just comfort. I don’t feel comfortable sounding like an American when I am talking to my dad. It doesn’t feel right. I brought little things like that to the character. Aussie, American, added something to Leonard, where is he from? It adds to the fact that he’s trying to be something that is not.
Chang: Dax said, “I wanted to go on record that I would be the first one to make a movie with Jason as the lead.” What is your response to that? Tobin: I’m unbelievable grateful for Dax’s belief in me because no one else has done that. It really flatters me that he felt that strongly about me as an actor and as a performer.
It is tough to make a film, especially when you have very little money. It’s easy to test your relationship. Our relationship, thank goodness is all the better for it. We’re still friends. It’s something special when someone believes sin you.
Dax Phelan, Jason Tobin and Byron Mann. Photo by Lia Chang
Chang: How did you and Dax first meet? Tobin: I had just got back to Hong Kong. I had just worked with Byron on a film and we really hit it off. We hung out a bit and he told me that he had a friend in town, a screenwriter named Dax Phelan. They were working on a project. We had dinner one night. Dax and I talked a lot about films, the kind of films that we liked, and the kind of actors we liked. A few months later in LA we met for coffee and talked about doing a movie together. Just getting to know him in Hong Kong, spending time with him in Hong Kong, it was very much the kind of relationship that I’ve always wanted to have with a director. As an actor, I’ve always wanted to have the kind of actor/director relationships like Scorsese and DeNiro back in the day, or Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris. In many ways Dax and I did have that relationship. We really got to know each other. We talked about things that I’ve never really spoken to another director before. We spent a long time talking about things, we spoke about things that we were deeply ashamed of, things that we felt truly embarrassed us, moments in our life that we were not proud or happy to speak of. We had that level of trust. That played into the story of Jasmine.
Chang: How did you and Dax develop the story together?
Tobin: Jasmine is not autobiographical. It did not happen to me and Dax. We did, however, try to channel as much of the loneliness and deep seeded shame.
In terms of the process of writing; I really wanted to use as many aspects of myself as possible. I wanted make the kind of a film that was really organic as possible, and to try and act the way it was organic. I wanted to use as much of myself as possible, whether it be pain, death, or loneliness that I felt in my own life. With regards to my character Leonard, my father’s name is Anthony Leonard Tobin, So I used my father’s middle name. To is actually my Cantonese name, even though my surname is Tobin.
I had never played an adult. I’d always played young people, college age. For the most part, I’d always played very young. Jasmine was an opportunity for me to channel certain aspects of my father. I’m not saying my father is Leonard To. There are all these aspects that I wanted to bring truth to the character. Dax already had an idea, about this unreliable investigator, narrator, and protagonist. To me, I had a lot of feelings that I had about Hong Kong, growing up here, certain isolation, even though it is a massive city and population. There is something about him- the clothes don’t fit him; the suit does not fit him. He’s always the outsider. There is a wealth gap, an elitist gap, the very elite Hong Kong, and people that are trying to be that. That is something I can relate to.
Chang: Why was the scene in the hotel room the scariest day of Dax’s life? Tobin: We were shooting at Chungking Mansion. (Chungking Express). I think Wong Kar Wai may have grown up there. It’s a very seedy, rundown building and not the cleanest or safest building in Hong Kong. It’s pretty disgusting and full of life. It’s really, really fascinating. We ended up shooting in a very cheap low budget hostel on the 10th floor.
The scene that day was that Leonard was having a very very tough night. Leonard can get though the days because he is interacting with people, but the nights were problematic because that is when the loneliness would overtake him. This is the scene where he is alone in his room at Chungking Mansion. We did a lot of long takes. Improvisational- a lot of it was about behavior, how he spent his time. We start rolling as the scene progressed and he begins to spiral out of control. I started to do things that weren’t in the script. At one point, I opened the window. I was completely naked. I opened the window and stepped out the window and was on the ledge. And Dax said cut! Dax was terrified that I was going to jump. In that instant I knew I had perhaps gone too far as an actor. That was a very risky thing, not a safe thing to do. It really hit a chord in me. I just started crying and bawling my eyes out uncontrollably for half an hour. I stood in the room. It was just me, Guy and Dax and it was deathly silently. They just filmed me for a good 20-30 minutes, crying. That became a 3 second shot in the movie.
Dax and I had talked about Martin Sheen having a mental breakdown in Apocalypse Now. I’m not trying to compare myself to those kind of actors. We had talked about DeNiro, Marlon Brando, and Martin Sheen, so I wanted to step up. I wanted to push myself as much as I could. In that instant it really hit a chord in me. It made me think that my life did flash before me. It made me extremely, extremely sad. In a sense, that is the essence of Leonard To.
Chang: What character does Hong Kong play in the film?
Tobin: I grew up in Hong Kong. I spent my life living in American, studying to be an actor. I spent a long time as this Asian guy working in a white country and trying to break through that barrier. I felt proud to be part of this Asian American wave of film. I always felt like I fought the good fight. I was glad to be part of Yellow and that whole movement. There was a part of me that wanted to come back to my hometown and make a film here.
In Hong Kong, I’m not local enough, I’m too westernized. Hong Kong movies are always about Hong Kong people. Very rarely are they about people like me who are English speakers. I wanted to make a film in my subculture. I wanted to use that aspect of myself. I wanted to tell this story. I’d always felt this sort of isolation living in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a big city, but it feels small, like a little village because it is such tiny bit of land. There’s something about the extreme wealth and elitist that is here and also this huge working class population. It’s like a microcosm of America. There’s this great wealth divide. Byron’s character represents the rich, powerful, that have everything, beautiful women, there’s Leonard who can’t fit in. he want it so bad and he can’t have it. He’s trying to fit into his suit. He’s trying to be something that he is not. Even though I am not Leonard To, I can relate to that. As an actor, I sometimes feel as if I am just an imposter. It is something that I wanted to explore.
Chang: What are the challenges of low budget filmmaking in Hong Kong? Tobin: Low budget filmmaking is challenging regardless of where you are. If you are trying to shoot a film without permits, and you are trying to use real locations, Hong Kong is such a populated city that wherever you stick your camera, someone will be looking right into it. In LA, you can always find a street that is relatively quiet. You wait until people walk by, and you have it for a few minutes. In Hong Kong, you literally have three seconds before someone else starts looking in the camera. We did many, many takes. The other thing that was particularly difficult about our shoot, at the time, we were using the Red One camera. I believe at the time the native ISO wasn’t particularly fast. It is handheld with a wide lens, an unbelievably short lens with a very shallow depth of field. With the aperture wide open, just keeping me in focus was extremely difficult. The film looks great for it. We could have gone the other way and used longer lens. When you use shorter lenses, you are right in the action. I am glad that the visual style of the film is the way it is. it really helps tell the story. Especially with the 1:235 ratio as well. With other films shot in Hong Kong; you can always see someone looking in the camera.
In Hong Kong they usually use long lenses because there are so many people that it is better to be far away because no one knows you are shooting. Guy liked the look of using short lens. Dax believed using 235 was great for landscapes. He wanted to use that more for our faces, it’s unusual. It is not a style that is used that often in Hong Kong.
Byron Mann. Photo by Lia Chang
Chang: How were Byron and Eugenia cast? Tobin: Byron is a really cool guy. He’s this suave, charming, charismatic kind of guy. He’s like this gentleman/playboy, which is not as an insult. It’s easy to want to be him. I love the guy. It was easy for me as Leonard to want to be Byron. There an ease there, and also he’s a great actor. From the very beginning when we started writing the script, he was always in our mind to play the man. He’s originally from Hong Kong. I think he has a home in LA, in Vancouver; he’s definitely an international jetsetter. He’s actually the kind of guy that I want to be.
Jason Tobin and Eugenia Yuan. Photo by Lia Chang
I had known Eugenia for a long time and always thought that she was a great actress. I had never worked with her but we’ve known each other for a while.
Euguenia Yuan and Jason Tobin in #1 Serial Killer.
She was someone we had always thought of. For me the shoot was incredibly difficult. As you know, the film is mostly on me. It was a tough shoot. I had to do take after take, long takes, and I had to do such emotional, every scene is emotionally draining. Long takes, and multiple takes. I was exhausted. After two or three weeks of filming, Eugenia showed up for a few days to do her scenes. I was so happy that I had someone to act opposite. As an actor she is really easy to work with. She’s very in the moment, responsive. She was always very organic and in the moment. It elevates your acting.
As scripted, the original cut was two hours and 40 minutes. We had gotten to a shorter edit, 90 minutes at one point, and I said to Dax and Chris, “You’ve been editing to the script for a long time, now you need to throw the script away, and edit the film that you have. You need to rewrite it. I told them to go Malick on it.” To their credit, they tore the film to pieces and rebuilt it with that in mind. They came away with a much better film. What that means is that in the process, a lot of performances, actors and scenes got cut out. You use a lot of clay, pottery, and sculpture, pack a lot on and take things out. Even though I am in a lot of the film, to get those scenes we had to do so much more to get that. In film they always talk about shooting ratio, it’s the acting ratio and writing ratio that makes up that backstory, that got cut out.
Euguenia Yuan. Photo by Lia Chang
Chang: Who is Grace and what was the evolution of her character? Tobin: As an artist you want to work on a subconscious level. Is she is real or not real. The story evolved and changed through the making of it. There are a lot more intimate scenes where Grace and my character Leonard are getting to know each other and getting reacquainted. If you notice, in Grace’s scenes, there’s a baby crying in the background. Whose baby is that? Could Leonard be the father? With Grace, to me she always symbolized the life that he could have, and that the audience should want him to have. She’s the path that could lead him to some sort of salvation. Psychologically he is unable to.
Those scenes didn’t make it in the final cut, but we had to go through those scenes in order to have one did make it into the film. Eugenia says more than one look, then a script full of dialogue. I sometimes describe it as acting beyond the frame.
Chang: How did your producer Stratton Leopold get involved in the project? Tobin: Dax and Stratton have known each other for many years. I think he met him when he was working at Mace Neufeld. Stratton mentored him and always believed in him. When Dax approached him about Jasmine, Stratton was on board right away.
The night before the first day of the shoot, one of our investors pulled out. Can you imagine the amount of stress when a major investor pulls out the cash? You’ve hired the people; you’ve booked things out. Then you lose the money at the last minute. It wasn’t all the money, but it was a huge chunk and it would have shut us down. Stratton was literally a guardian angel, not just because he lent his expertise and his name to the project, but also because he literally saved us. Our boat was about to sink. He saved the day.
Chang: How long was the shooting schedule?
Tobin: A good month. A four-week shoot, six days a week. We had a terrible schedule. You could never do this in America. In Hong Kong, and I certainly wouldn’t do it again, we had really short turnarounds. Some days we had 8 hour turn around. That’s ridiculous. I honestly don’t put up with that anymore. The 8-hour turn around was good for my performance. If I was supposed to be tired, I definitely was.
In Hong Kong, there are no unions. As an actor you have to protect yourself. When you are in the states, in the west, there are rules. That being said, I was the producer on this film, so I could have put my foot down. With such a low budget film, with the tight turnarounds, I didn’t enjoy them, but we couldn’t afford not to do it. Fortunately, everyone on board the film, every cast member, every crewmember, really believed in the script and they persevered through it. I would never want to put a crew through that kind of pain and agony again. Dax said that everyone came on board because they wanted to help me, so I am very thankful.
Chang: What challenges did you face in postproduction? Tobin: The biggest challenge we faced in postproduction was that we had zero budget. We had no money whatsoever. We had tried to raise money prior to the shoot, but we could only raise enough to shoot the film.
We did not have enough to complete the whole postproduction part of it. What that meant was that we had to make the film sporadically and then we had to go back to work. We would return to making the film as we made more money.
After the shoot, we didn’t have an editor, but in the back of mind I’d wanted to introduced Chris Chan Lee to Dax. I’d worked with Chris Chan Lee on his first feature Yellow. I have great respect for Chris. He’s the kind of filmmaker that can do everything. He can write, he can DP, he can direct, he can edit. He’s an all around filmmaker. He was working as an editor and knowing that this was Dax’s first time as a filmmaker, and knowing their personalities as well, I had a feeling that they would really hit it off and that both of their experiences would compliment each other. I feel like a genius for introducing them.
Chang: Why did the film take so long to complete? Tobin: Right after the shoot, he suffered a few family losses, his mother and grandmother. That set him back. He needed to drop the film for a while so he could regroup and recover. What that meant was that we had an extremely long postproduction. Several years. It was never because the film wasn’t any good. Life got in the way.
We were not going to make this film in any sort of traditional way. We weren’t trying to make a commercial film. We stayed true to the spirit of it, this organic.
We were always very patient. We never rushed ourselves. We were going to make the best film that we could make. Traditionally when people think your film takes a long time to finish, they think it has problems. That was never the case.
After a while a couple of crewmembers and people that worked on the film got upset. It’s understandable. People work on a film; they want to see where their time and energy went. People were paid a pittance on this film. I totally understood it. We went into this film with a certain philosophy. We’re going to take our time.
Nicole Watson, David Tsuboi, Michelle Tobin, Dax Phelan, Jason Tobin, Eugenia Yuan, Jon Anderson and guest attend the #AAIFF2015 screening of Jasmine at Village East Cinema in New York on July 30, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang
Chang: How did you raise the completion financing? Tobin: We needed to get sound design and music. Byron knew Nicole Watson, her and her partner Jon Anderson saw the film and loved it. They came in and paid for the postproduction. We could see the finish line. DPS in Hollywood. It would have been cheaper in Hong Kong.
2015 LOS ANGELES ASIAN PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL GRAND JURY PRIZE FOR BEST FEATURE GOES TO JASMINE, DIRECTED BY DAX PHELAN. HERE, THE TEAM FROM JASMINE CELEBRATES ITS FIVE AWARDS. FIFTH FROM LEFT: CHRIS CHAN LEE (WINNER, BEST EDITING); SEVENTH FROM LEFT: JASON TOBIN (WINNER, BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA); THIRD FROM RIGHT: DAX PHELAN (DIRECTOR); SECOND FROM RIGHT: GUY LIVNEH (WINNER, BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY). (PHOTO: STEVEN LAM)
Chang: Being on the Film Festival Circuit… Tobin: We had our US premiere in Dallas, our LA premiere at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. In this day and age, everyone in Hollywood is talking about the West and China co-productions. Everyone is trying to figure it out. Everyone wants to make these films. We did it. Jasmine is a US –Hong Kong co-production. Jasmine is a little indie film that we made. That is the thing that I am most proud of. It’s as much an American film, as it is an Asian American film, as it is a Hong Kong film. For me, I spent my whole career training as an actor in Los Angeles. I spent so many years going to the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival for other films, Better Luck Tomorrow and Yellow. To finally bring my film, a film that I produced, that I co-wrote, that I gave everything to, bled for, to premiere in Hong Kong and in LA, to me that was fabulous.
I grew up in Hong Kong; I went to America to study to become an actor. My whole adult life, my acting life was LA. To me Hong Kong and LA are my hometowns. To make a film in Hong Kong, to premiere in LA, to be so well received. When I won the best actor award at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, I was in tears. I was so moved. Hong Kong is my home, but coming to LA with the film felt like coming home as well.
Lia Chang, Bea Soong, Phil Nee, Elizabeth Sung, Eugenia Yuan, Jason Tobin, Tzi Ma and Vic Huey at the #AAIFF2015 screening of Jasmine at Village East Cinema in New York on July 30, 2015. Photo by Ursula Liang
About PIFF
Founded in 2013 by Jessica Hardin and Marco Neves, industry veterans and Pasadena residents, the Pasadena International Film Festival is the only competitive film festival in Pasadena, California. PIFF aims to bring high-caliber, independent cinema to a city renowned for its love of culture and the arts. Films that have won at PIFF have gone on to win at the American Pavilion Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival.
CAAMFest 2016 kicks off on Thursday, March 10, 2016, at7:00 pm with the Bay Area premiere of Pamela Tom’s TYRUS . The award‐winning documentary, showing at the majestic Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114, paints a beautifully intimate portrait of the 105‐year‐old subject Tyrus Wong, eloquently exploring his childhood, career, artistic legacy and the formation of what he views to be his greatest achievement, his family.
Tyrus Wong
TYRUS, THE MAN
Wong is a living testament to the American Dream, and his fascinating story is full of relevance, hard work and passion. From his arrival at the Angel Island Immigration Station as a nine‐year‐old and his battle for identity in the workplace, to the evolution of his voice and legacy, Wong’s ups and downs have shaped the previously undiscovered man into the courageous, funny and wise visionary that he is today.
Wong’s presence at Opening Night makes the event all the more meaningful as we celebrate his story and works. Leading up to Opening Night, Wong will sign a recently rediscovered painting that had been unidentified for decades. Immediately after the screening, let inspiration lead you to the incomparable Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94102, for the Opening Night Gala, where the painting will be on display. View the dazzling exhibit, Hidden Gold, as you indulge in sweet and savory creations, sip a signature cocktail and dance to music from Traktivist, experiencing the best of the Bay Area.
BAMBI
TYRUS, THE LEGACY
Tyrus Wong is a pioneering icon whose art has touched millions through films like REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and most famously, Disney’s BAMBI. His concept art provided the DNA for a distinct and unforgettable atmosphere in the Disney classic, and his legacy as an artist has helped pave the way for new media makers.
CAAMFest 2016 partners with Pixar Animation Studios and the Walt Disney Family Museum to present ASIAN AMERICANS IN ANIMATION, a special presentation inspired by the man himself, Tyrus Wong. The legacy of Wong has helped spawn new generations of artists and continues to this day. The ASIANS IN ANIMATION showcase kicks off with TYRUS and continues with BAMBI and THE SUPER STORY BEHIND “SANJAY’S SUPER TEAM.” Director Sanjay Patel and producer Nicole Grindle discuss the magic and inspiration behind Pixar’s first lead character of color in the Oscar®‐nominated short, SANJAY’S SUPER TEAM.
FESTIVAL TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets for TYRUS Opening Night + Gala are $65 for general admission and $55 for Center for Asian American Media members. Pricing for all regular screenings: General admission tickets ‐ $14. Tickets for students, seniors (65+) and disabled adults ‐ $13 (Limit 1 per program with ID only). Tickets for Center for Asian American Media members ‐ $12 (Limit 2 per program per membership ID). Pricing excludes special events and galas. Tickets are available online. Tickets can be purchased in‐person at our CAAMFest box office at Alamo Drafthouse starting Thursday, March 3, 2016.
About CAAMFest:
CAAMFest, formerly the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), takes place March 10‐20, 2016 in the Bay Area. CAAMFest is a celebration of film, music, food and digital media from the world’s most innovative Asian and Asian American artists.
About CAAM:
CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a non‐profit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing and exhibiting works in film, television and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org.
The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) is presenting CAAMFest, March 10‐20, 2016 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Formerly the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), CAAMFest is an 11‐day celebration of film, music, food and digital media from the world’s most innovative Asian and Asian American artists.
This year the Festival welcomes the biggest change since its rebrand with fresh scenery in the Mission district. Joining Castro Theatre, New People Cinema and New Parkway Theater (Oakland), CAAM adds the venerable 106 year‐old Roxie Theater and the newly minted Alamo Drafthouse to its expansive slate of venues and neighborhoods. “Cultural preservation and innovation are core to CAAM’s mission. With both the Roxie and Alamo, we continue to elevate and explore this intersection of old and new, ” says Stephen Gong, CAAM’s Executive Director. “We’re excited to expand to the culturally‐rich Mission district and to continue our dynamic programs in film, music and food.”
CAAMFest showcases the work of new Asian and Asian American artists and pays tribute to the pioneers who have paved the way for Asian Americans in media and entertainment. From the rich cultural legacy of the opening film TYRUS, to the multi‐platform portfolio of local artist H.P. Mendoza, CAAMFest 2016 truly demonstrates the growing breadth of Asian American voices today.
OPENING AND CLOSING NIGHTS: TYRUS AND RIGHT FOOTED
Tyrus Wong
TYRUS: CAAMFest 2016 opens with an unforgettable cinematic experience, the Bay Area premiere of TYRUS. Directed by Pamela Tom, TYRUS is an inspirational documentary about the art, life, and enduring impact of 105 yearold pioneering Chinese American artist Tyrus Wong, best known for the conceptual artwork that gave Walt Disney’s Bambi its distinctive and unforgettable look. TYRUS will be shown at the majestic Castro Theatre, and is part of a special spotlight series, in partnership with Pixar Animation Studios and the Walt Disney Family Museum, ASIAN AMERICANS IN ANIMATION.
Immediately after the screening, let inspiration lead you to the incomparable Asian Art Museum for the Opening Night Gala. View the dazzling exhibit, Hidden Gold, as you indulge in sweet and savory creations, sip a signature cocktail and dance to music from Traktivist, experiencing the best of the Bay Area.
Jessica Cox in RIGHT FOOTED.
RIGHT FOOTED: CAAMFEST 2016 concludes in Oakland and with the Bay Area premiere of RIGHT FOOTED, an inspiring documentary about expert martial artist, disability rights activist and the world’s only armless airplane pilot, Filipina American Jessica Cox. Director Nick Spark explores Cox’s incredible journey as she overcomes adversity, finds romance and awakens hope in others around the world.
The closing night party is at SomaR Bar, just a few blocks from The New Parkway.
CENTERPIECE PRESENTATIONS: A TALE OF THREE CITIES AND DAZE OF JUSTICE
A TALE OF THREE CITIES by Mabel Cheung
NARRATIVE:A TALE OF THREE CITIES:This year’s Centerpiece Narrative presentation comes from CAAMFest Spotlight filmmaker Mabel Cheung. Cheung’s A TALE OF THREE CITIES transports us to Hong Kong during the turbulent times of war in the 1930s and 1940s, focusing on an epic story of romance and tragedy between the real‐life parents of Jackie Chan. Starring Lau Ching‐wan (MAD DETECTIVE) and Tang Wei (LUST, CAUTION).
DAZE OF JUSTICE by Michael Siv
DOCUMENTARY: DAZE OF JUSTICE:The Centerpiece Documentary presentation brings a premiere from San Francisco’s own Michael Siv, DAZE OF JUSTICE. Siv, once a documentary subject himself (REFUGEE, SFIAAFF ‘03), follows Khmer Rouge survivors on a journey from the US to tribunals in Cambodia. The unraveling of unspeakable wounds breaks a decades‐long silence in this messy, and ultimately moving, process.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
BAMBI
ASIAN AMERICANS IN ANIMATION:CAAMFest 2016 partners with Pixar Animation Studios and the Walt Disney Family Museum to present ASIAN AMERICANS IN ANIMATION, a special presentation inspired by the subject of Opening Night film TYRUS, Tyrus Wong. The legacy of Wong has helped inspire new generations of media makers and continues to this day. The ASIANS IN ANIMATION showcase kicks off with TYRUS and continues with BAMBI, which owes its visual DNA to Wong, and THE SUPER STORY BEHIND “SANJAY’S SUPER TEAM.” Director Sanjay Patel and producer Nicole Grindle discuss the magic and inspiration behind Pixar’s first lead character of color in the Oscar®‐nominated short, SANJAY’S SUPER TEAM.
Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung and Vivian Wu in THE SOONG SISTERS by Mabel Cheung
SPOTLIGHT: MABEL CHEUNG: Mabel Cheung is one of Hong Kong’s most prominent directors. Her international acclaim reflects over 30 years of award‐winning works, beginning with her “Migration Trilogy.” CAAMFest presents two of Cheung’s influential films: her newest feature and CAAMFest’s Centerpiece Narrative A TALE OF THREE CITIES, chronicling the epic love story of Jackie Chan’s parents and THE SOONG SISTERS, originally released in 1997 and considered one of the highlights of Cheung’s career. The true story, starring Maggie Cheung (HERO), Michelle Yeoh (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) and Vivian Wu (THE LAST EMPEROR), explores the three fascinating sisters whose high‐profile marriages, celebrity status and family ties elevated them to positions of wealth and power, profoundly shaping Chinese history in the early 20th century.
COLMA: THE MUSICAL
SPOTLIGHT: H.P. MENDOZA:Director, writer, actor, producer, musician and CAAMFest alum H.P. Mendoza is a local treasure. Born and raised in San Francisco and currently living in the Mission District, Mendoza’s diverse portfolio includes the FRUIT FLY (SFIAAFF ‘09) and I AM A GHOST (SFIAAFF ‘12), as well as a highlight, COLMA: THE MUSICAL. To celebrate the 10‐year anniversary of COLMA: THE MUSICAL, CAAMFest will be reuniting many of the cast for an unforgettable, profanity‐laced sing‐along. Mendoza will also kick off the Asian Art Museum’s new series, TAKEOVER, where he will host a one‐night event and party at the museum, mashing up his preoccupations with musicals, horror films, 8‐bit games and virtual reality.
PACIFIC ISLANDERS IN COMMUNICATIONS PRESENTS: PACIFIC SHOWCASE
MELE MURALS by Tadashi Nakamura
MELE MURALS:Tadashi Nakamura’s world premiere of MELE MURALS looks beyond the obvious beauty of the Hawaiian Islands to the deep connections among the local community. Local artist Estria Miyashiro and with fellow artist John Hina travel to the rural town of Waimea, HI, where they attempt to connect ancient Hawaiian traditions and graffiti with the youth of tomorrow. MELE MURALS will be part of CAAMFest’s return to the great Oakland Museum of California, which will capture the intersection of Pacific Island and Bay Area culture.
FAMILY INGREDIENTS by Ty Sanga
FAMILY INGREDIENTS:Continuing the theme of Hawaiian culture is a celebration of food and family with Ty Sanga’s FAMILY INGREDIENTS. Chef Ed Kenney takes us on a culinary adventure, exploring traditional Hawaiian foods poi (a paste‐like dish made from taro) and pipikaula (salted dried beef) and how they have influenced culture in the Aloha State.
SONS OF HALAWA by Matt Yamashita
SONS OF HALAWA:Filmmaker Matt Yamashita’s new film, SONS OF HALAWA, follows subject Pilipo Solatorio, the last native Hawaiian from Halawa, on a search for someone to learn and pass ancient traditions to future generations before they vanish with him. (Preceded by short, ROOTS OF ‘ULU)
MACHINE WITH WISHBONE by Randall Lloyd Okita
IN CONVERSATION WITH RANDALL OKITA
Canadian artist Randall Okita’s diverse portfolio blends sculpture, cinematography, technology and even stunt work. CAAM welcomes Okita to present many of his short films and to share his experiences and influences with attendees. Shorts in the program include: MACHINE WITH WISHBONE, FISH IN BARREL, NO CONTRACT, PORTRAIT AS A RANDOM ACT OF VIOLENCE and THE WEATHERMAN AND THE SHADOWBOXER.
ADDITIONAL SPECIAL EVENTS
THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT by Justin Lin
THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (10Year Anniversary):Justin Lin’s entry to THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS franchise has been considered the biggest thematic departure in the series. In partnership with Wild 94.9 and You Offend Me, You Offend My Family (YOMYOMF), CAAMFest welcomes back THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT to the big screen for its 10‐year anniversary. Revisit the high‐octane ride set in the underground world of Tokyo’s street racing scene. With special guests in attendance!
BE ABOUT IT by Christopher C.C. Wong
COMMUNITY SCREENINGS, YOUTH WORKSHOPS, AND A SNEAK PEEK:Two Community Screenings capture and address impactful subjects and ideas this year. The world premiere of Christopher C.C. Wong’s poignant documentary, BE ABOUT IT, examines life‐altering and day‐to‐day moments of two Bay Area men, reporter Alan Wang and athlete AJ Jabonero, both living with hepatitis B, and the reach and cost of the infection in the Asian American community.
EVERYTHING WILL BE by Julia Kwan
EVERYTHING WILL BE, directed by award‐winning Julia Kwan, follows the fading light of Vancouver’s Chinatown, exploring the loss of history at the expense of modern trends. Youth Workshops continue at CAAMFest with familiar ideas in existing and fresh settings.
MUSLIM YOUTH VOICES by Musa Syeed
In its 2nd year as a signature CAAM program, MUSLIM YOUTH VOICES follows acclaimed filmmaker Musa Syeed as he helps young people craft their unique stories disintegrating the borders built on stereotypes.
1990 INSTITUTE: YOUTH VOICES ON CHINA is the culmination of an ongoing online video contest that cultivates global awareness within young American communities.
Frank Wong’s Chinatown (working title) by James Q. Chan
Catch a sneak peek of local artist and CAAM alum James Q. Chan’s work‐in‐progress, CAAM‐funded documentary, FRANK WONG’S CHINATOWN (Working Title), which highlights the fascinating story of 81‐year‐old Frank Wong, a self‐taught artist who has created extraordinarily detailed miniature models of San Francisco’s Chinatown from his fading memories.
MEMORIES TO LIGHT: CHINESE AMERICAN HOME MOVIES: For the fourth CAAMFest iteration of our innovative home movie initiative, we are excited to present a compilation of Chinese American home movies from the 1930s through the 1970s, with live musical accompaniment by acclaimed jazz musician Francis Wong. Memories to Light is a project that collects and digitizes home movies — and the stories they tell — to share with the broad public.
PANELS
An interactive highlight of each CAAMFest is our series of Panels, and 2016 is no exception with discussions on the ever‐changing world of media and how Asian Americans are increasing visibility and opportunity in the broadcast and streaming universe.
MASTER OF NONE:Golden Globe‐nominated Netflix series MASTER OF NONE has had critics and viewers binge‐watching every episode and thirsting for more. Series co‐creator Alan Yang and cast member Kelvin Yu will be stopping by CAAMFest for a panel on the award‐winning show. Yang and Yu will divulge juicy details on the show’s inspiration and production as well as their own experiences in an industry full of both opportunity and obstacle.
CHANGING THE CHANNEL ON GENDER ROLES:CAAMFest will explore the bane of existence for many Asian American actors: typecasting. For Asian American women and men looking for work, roles can be severely limited and stereotyped, especially when it comes to appearing as a character intended (or specifically not intended) for romance. Featuring actress Vella Lovell and Bay Area native, Filipino‐American actor Vincent Rodriguez III from the hit series CRAZY EX‐GIRLFRIEND. Rodriguez and Lovell join other actors and filmmakers (TBA) to discuss the gradually changing landscape for gender roles and what they hope the future holds.
A BRAVE NEW DIGITAL WORLD:As online platforms like Netflix and Amazon continue to grow mainstream media, 2016 will see a record number of new digital services looking to fund and distribute content from and for diverse communities. Pradeepa Jeeva and Philip W. Chung of You Offend Me, You Offend My Family (YOMYOMF) will speak with key industry players to explore the shift to digital for many artists seeking opportunity.
DIRECTIONS IN SOUND: MUSIC AND FILM
For over 11 years, Directions in Sound has been the Festival’s premier Asian and Asian American music gathering of emerging and cutting‐edge artists. Highlighting leading Asian American musicians, Directions in Sound exposes the Bay Area to innovative artists from the underground music scene. This year’s program brings back Directions in Sound: Korean Showcase, featuring international groups dripping with rhythmic and vocal talents: Big Phony, HEO, WYM and Love X Stereo.
Once again, CAAMFest follows the live beats to the silver screen to find music‐centric films that add a visual layer to the sounds that accompany them. Making its West Coast premiere, Jonathan Yi’s & Michael Haertlein’s MAD TIGER chronicles the relationship between two Japanese bandmates, Peelander‐Yellow and Peelander‐Red, as their friendship is tested and both seek greater meaning in their lives through their art and relationship with each other. In NO LAND’S SONG, Iranian director Ayat Najafi chronicles his sister Sara’s grim outlook on the fading presence of women in music, and her journey in reviving the female voice in music and culture.
San Francisco’s very own Kollaboration joins forces with CAAMFest for the yearly Social Club event at Slate Bar in the heart of the Mission District. Join filmmakers, artists and fellow attendees to hang out, celebrate and unwind in good company. Featuring R&B soul group The Delivery, vocal soloist Jayne Rio, Korean‐American R&B singer Lawrence Park and ambient soul duo AstraLogik.
NARRATIVE AND DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
JASMINE by Dax Phelan
A visual feast of themes and stories await in this year’s Narrative Competition, including GOOD OL’ BOY (dir. Frank Lotito), a charming, nostalgia‐filled story of a young Indian boy’s cultural journey in small town America; CRUSH THE SKULL (dir. Viet Nguyen) the campy horror story of a robbery‐gone‐wrong when the thieves make the worst choice in houses to steal from; and GRASS (dir. Tanuj Chopra), a smoke‐filled stoner comedy following a dynamic duo of friends on their adventures in the park over one day. Other competition films include PALI ROAD (dir. Jonathan Lim), equal parts drama, thriller and mystery, a woman tries to uncover the truth when she awakens from an accident with memories of a life that no one else believes to be real; JASMINE (dir. Dax Phelan) the psychological thriller exploring one man’s obsession with a stranger whom he believes murdered his late wife; and TWO LUNES (dir. Hui‐Eun Park), two tales of experiences that immigrant women encounter during their new lives in Los Angeles and Vietnam.
Unique perspectives communicate through six films in this year’s Documentary Competition. Films include BREATHIN’: THE EDDY ZHENG STORY (dir. Ben Wang), the local story of prisoner, immigrant, son and activist Eddy Zheng, and his journey to redemption; PAINTED NAILS (dir. Dianne Griffin & Erica Jordan) a film about a San Francisco‐based nail salon owner whose work‐related health issues helped fuel a movement for safer salons in general; and MELE MURALS (dir. Tadashi Nakamura), a Hawaiian story following artists’ attempts to combine graffiti and ancient traditions in an effort to carry them to future generations. Also included: DRAWING THE TIGER (dir. Amy Benson, Scott Squire & Ramyata Limbu) an observation of a Nepalese family’s actions and hopes to send their daughter away for a better education turning into their own tragedy; NINTH FLOOR (dir. Mina Shum), the story of the 1969 Sir George Williams riot in Canada that put racial tensions in the spotlight (preceded by short, RACIAL FACIAL); and OPERATION POPCORN (dir. David Grabias), a film following a Hmong man’s rise in his community and the results of his efforts to help other Hmong people fight off attacks from the communist Lao government.
BREATHIN’: THE EDDY ZHENG STORY by Ben Wang
CINEMASIA
A collection of some of the best international Asian films, CinemAsia explores a vibrant scope of themes and ideas that cross all borders. This year showcases films from Singapore, Iran, Vietnam, India and many more destinations. Highlights include: YELLOW FLOWERS ON GREEN GRASS (dir. Victor Vu) a box office hit exploring the tests on bonds between two Vietnamese brothers against a beautifully pastoral backdrop; 3688 (dir. Royston Tan) a Singaporean musical dramedy following a woman honoring her dementia‐ridden father by competing in a singing competition; KAMPAI: FOR THE LOVE OF SAKE (dir. Mirai Konishi) a documentary following sake connoisseurs on their quest to learn more about the industry behind the rich and complex cultural staple in Japan and across the world; and UMRIKA (dir. Prashant Nair) a mix of drama, warmth, and bittersweetness as a small town in India lives vicariously through postcards written to them from one of their own, and then shifts focus as the postcards stop and the traveller’s brother leaves to find him. Also in the program: FRANCE IS OUR MOTHER COUNTRY (dir. Rithy Panh) a piece that examines the French occupation of Cambodia, touching on the tragedy brought on by brute force during colonialism; ATOMIC HEART (dir. Ali Ahmadzadeh) an surreal Iranian film that follows two friends on a night of drinking, political commentary and mystery when the friends are visited by an otherworldly figure; IN THE ROOM (dir. Eric Khoo) Singapore’s first erotic film visits the same dilapidated hotel room through several decades of encounters; KID KULAFU (dir. Paul Soriano) the story behind real‐life champion boxer Manny Pacquiao as he overcame obstacles as a child in the Philippines and found his fighting spirit; THE KIDS (dir. Sunny Yu) a Taiwanese tale of one man’s undoing that follows how love and sacrifice are intertwined; THE NAME OF THE WHALE (dir. Fumito Fujikawa) an angst‐filled story about a Japanese boy who grows into himself while dealing with family, friends and school‐assigned whale fossil‐hunting; PLEASE REMEMBER ME (dir. Zhao Qing) a poignant documentary about a Chinese man tending his Alzheimer’s‐stricken wife with compassionate loyalty; THE ROYAL TAILOR (dir. Lee‐Won Suk) a South Korean period piece where rivals battle in the realm of fashion and skill to be the king’s tailor; THANATOS, DRUNK (dir. Tso‐Chi Chang) an exploration of love and loss in Taiwan, set around a dysfunctional family; and YEU(LOVE) (dir. Viet Max) the first mainstream LGBTQ Vietnamese film, witnessing the change from friendship to love between two women.
CAAMFEST IN OAKLAND
CAAM is thrilled to continue a third year of programs in Oakland, kicking off with the Festival’s return to the great Oakland Museum of California with a program capturing the intersection of Pacific Island and Bay Area culture including the world premiere of Tad Nakamura’s documentary, MELE MURALS. The CAAMFest concludes with a full weekend of programming at the New Parkway Theater.
WORLD PREMIERES
BE ABOUT IT, Christopher C.C. Wong, USA, 2015
THE BOARDWALK, Ougie Park, USA 2015
BREATHIN’: THE EDDY ZHENG STORY, Ben Wang, USA, 2015 CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA, King Lu, USA, 2015
DAZE OF JUSTICE, Michael Siv, USA, 2015
DONUT SHOP, Robert Riutta, USA, 2015
GOOD Ol’ BOY, Frank Lotito, USA, 2015
GRASS, Tanuj Chopra, USA, 2015
PARACHUTE GIRLS, Alex Rubens, USA, 2015
RACIAL FACIAL, Jeff Adachi, USA, 2016
SPONSORS
CAAMFest is supported in part by the following: Xfinity, Asian Art Museum, AT&T DIRECTV, Western Union, AARP, Cooper White & Cooper LLP, Fitness SF, Pacific Islanders in Communications, Pacific Standard Print, Remy Martin, San Francisco Symphony, Umpqua Bank, 1990 Institute, Girl Friday Events, SAG‐AFTRA, University of San Francisco, Consulate General of Canada, Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco, Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco, Japan Foundation, Los Angeles, National Endowment for the Arts, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, Hotel Tax Fund, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
GENERAL FESTIVAL INFORMATION
CAAMFest is a presentation of the Center for Asian American Media. CAAMFest, formerly the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is a celebration of film, music, food and digital media from the world’s most innovative Asian and Asian American artists. CAAMFest takes place March 10‐20, 2016 in the Bay Area. San Francisco venues include: Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street; New People Cinema, 1746 Post Street; Alamo Drafthouse, 2550 Mission Street; Roxie Theater, 3117 16th Street; Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, 2665 Mission Street; Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street; Slate Bar, 2925 16Street; City College of San Francisco ‐ Chinatown/North Beach Campus, 808 Kearny Street; Chinese Historical Society of America, 965 Clay Street. Oakland venues include: The New Parkway Theater, 474 24th Street; Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak Street; SomaR Bar, 1727 Telegraph Avenue.
FESTIVAL TICKET INFORMATION
Pricing for all regular screenings: General admission tickets ‐ $14. Tickets for students, seniors (65+) and disabled adults ‐ $13 (Limit 1 per program with ID only). Tickets for Center for Asian American Media members ‐ $12 (Limit 2 per program per membership ID). Pricing excludes special events and galas. Tickets can be purchased online now and in‐person at our CAAMFest box office at Alamo Drafthouse starting Thursday, March 3, 2016.
About CAAMFest:
CAAMFest, formerly the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), takes place March 10‐20, 2016 in the Bay Area. CAAMFest is a celebration of film, music, food and digital media from the world’s most innovative Asian and Asian American artists.
About CAAM:
CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a non‐profit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing and exhibiting works in film, television and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org.
Elizabeth Sung, James Hong and Tzi Ma at the SIXTY Lower East Side Hotel in New York on December 11, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang
Veteran actors James Hong, Tzi Ma and Elizabeth Sung were in New York in December to shoot the Season 4, episode 14 of “Elementary,” entitled, “Who Is That Masked Man?”, which stars Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller, with Larry Teng at the helm. The episode aired on Thursday, February 25, 2016 on the CBS Television Network. For more information, click here.
Director Larry Teng, James Hong and Lucy Liu on the set of “Elementary”. Photo courtesy of James Hong’s Facebook Page
When three gang members are murdered, Holmes and Watson are amazed when an elderly woman emerges as their prime suspect.
Lucy Liu and Elizabeth Sung in “Elementary”.
The fact that they were working on the same set in the same city is a rare occasion. Their relationship is quite familial. They were gracious enough to sit down with me on their day off from shooting to talk about their collective histories in the business.
James Hong. Photo by Lia Chang
James Hong’s career as an actor, writer and producer spans seven decades. Hong has acquired credits of 500 roles in feature films and television, probably the most of any actor. His credits include Big Trouble in Little China, Blade Runner, Chinatown, Wayne’s World 2, and “Seinfeld”. He also recently starred in “Agents of Shield” with Ming-Na Wen, Kung-Fu Panda 1, 2 & 3, Balls of Fury, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Lost Medallion and RIPD starring Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon and Jeff Bridges.
Hong is one of the founders of the East-West Players, the oldest and largest Asian American theater in Los Angeles. He served as president and charter member of the Association of Asian Pacific American Artists and was a former member of the SAG Board of Directors under Charleton Heston as president.
Elizabeth Sung was raised in Hong Kong and is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin. Her first TV role was with Hong in 1988, on the set of “The Equalizer” with Russell Wong as her love interest. From 1994-96, she was a series regular in the 1st Asian American storyline on the “Young and the Restless” as Luan Volien Abbott and is memorable as the second wife in TheJoy Luck Club.
Elizabeth Sung as Second Wife in “The Joy Luck Club”Classic Soap Opera Digest Cover Date: January 31, 1995- Elizabeth Sung, Peter Bergman and Phillip Moon
Other roles on film include Memoirs of a Geisha, Lethal Weapon 4, Falling for Grace, Ping Pong Playa, Finding Madison, The People I’ve Slept With, House Under Siege, Go for Sisters, Tango and Cash, China Cry, Death Ring and Yes And.Her television credits include “China Beach,” “Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes,” “Kojak: Flowers for Matty,” “Knots Landing,” “Charmed,” “Border Line,” “ER,” “Touched by an Angel,” “Passions,” “NYPD Blue,” “For the People,” “Crossing Jordan,” “House M.D.,” “E-Ring,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “The Sopranos,” “Ni Hao, Kai-Lan,” “The Suite Life on Deck,” “The Forgotten,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Flashforward,” “Bones,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Awake,” “Mike & Molly,” “Shameless,” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. She has appeared in the short filmsGodlike, Woman in Fragments, Nuptials of the Dead, The Boxer, and the webisodes Who’s in Charge, Miss Guidance and Meet the Kayak.
Elizabeth Sung and Joan Cusack in Showtime’s “Shameless”
Sung was in the Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute where she made her first award winning film, Requiem (1995). Her graduate thesis film, The Water Ghost(1998), earned Sung an MFA in directing from the AFI. She garnered the 2013 Golden Angel Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 9th Annual Chinese American Film Festival, and the 2013 Asians on Film Best Supporting Actress Award for her role of the mother in Steve Myung’s Anita Ho, one of her favorite projects to date. She holds a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School and was a member of The Alvin Ailey Repertory Dance Company. Her current projects include the pilot “Lees of LA,” and she can be seen in the films Front Cover, Pali Road, Fallen Stars and The Unbidden at film festivals around the country.
Tzi Ma as Cheng Zhi in 24: Live Another Day Photo: FOX
Tzi Ma has worked in film, television, and on stage for four decades creating such memorable characters as the recurring role of Cheng Zhi, nemesis to Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer on the hit series 24 and 24: Live Another Day, and playing opposite Tom Hanks in Joel and Ethan Coen’s remake of The Ladykillers. Ma worked with Hong on the the film Red Corner (1997), and two TV series,” The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.” (1994) and “Millennium” (1999).
Ma’s distinguished body of work, also includes roles in such films as Million Dollar Arm, Rush Hour, Rush Hour 3, The Quiet American, Akeelah and the Bee, Dante’s Peak, Chain Reaction, Golden Gate, Diablo and Rapid Fire. His television credits include “Satisfaction,” “Commander-in-Chief,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Fringe,”” The Practice,” “Law & Order,” “ER,” “NYPD Blue,” “Boomtown” and “Chicago Hope”. I caught up with Ma last summer when he was in New York for a screening of AMC’s “Hell on Wheels” at the Asian American International Film Festival.
Byron Mann, Tzi Ma, Angela Zhou attend the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Village East Cinema in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang
Since then, Ma has worked on Denis Villeneuve‘s sci-fi film Story of Your Life in Montreal and on The Jade Pendant directed by Po-Chih Leong, a wonderful Chinese/English director, in Salt Lake City. He finished the second season of “Satisfaction” in his recurring role as the Zen Master in Atlanta; worked on Lorne Michael’s “Man Seeking Woman,” with Simon Rich in Toronto; guest starred on the ABC procedural drama “Stitchers” and on the TNT sitcom “Angie Tribeca” with Rashida Jones. Ma is the youngest of seven children born in Hong Kong and was reared in New York City.
Grace Truman (Stephanie Szostak) and the Zen Master (Tzi Ma) in Satisfaction. (c) USA Network
Elizabeth Sung and Tzi Ma on location Hawaii for “Pali Road”.
Sung and Ma are featured as husband and wife in the independent film Pali Road which is set for theatrical release on April 29, 2016, and is currently screening on the film festival circuit.
Elizabeth Sung, James Hong and Tzi Ma at the SIXTY Lower East Side Hotel in New York on December 11, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang
Lia: What was your first project together? Tzi: Elizabeth and I started out as lovers on a film called Half Ass by Vic Huey in 1986. We played lovers. We sang this Cantonese opera song. (they sing) For Pali Road, we were in Hawaii for 3 ½ weeks. We had a great time. I fed her everyday. (laugh) Elizabeth: Fresh fish from the ocean that he caught with his bare hands. I first worked with James on an episode of “The Equalizer” in 1988. I was a poor dancer/maybe prostitute. James played my father. Mako was the gangster lord. Russell Wong played my love interest. James: Kim Chan and Mako were in it. Mako was a very memorable person, actor. You can never forget him. He had that style of silence, when he goes hmm- it means yes and it means no. Wonderful guy.
Lia: Last April, the Japanese American National Museum in LA had a sold out screening of Big Trouble in Little China, and we enjoyed a reunion of our fellow cast members Peter Kwong, Gerald Okamura, Al Leong, George Cheung, James Lew, Jeff Imada, and screenwriter Gary Goldman. Please share your experience with Big Trouble in Little China. James: There’s many more films on the horizon for me, but there will never be another Big Trouble in Little China. I’ll tell you why. I started East West Players, 51 years ago. We paid for the theaters ourselves, out of our own pocket to perform, now they are on a sizable budget. I hope they keep going with new leadership, now that Tim Dang has stepped down. It means a lot to the Asian American actors to have an organization like East West Players, someplace to go to. And look at how many actors and actresses got their chance, coming out of East West Players. They perform such good plays. It’s getting a lot of recognition, nationwide. We need that to augment the actors that we have now, and the ones that are coming. I see so many faces on the television of people that have sort of graduated from East West. It’s a wonderful place for training.
A Big Trouble in Little China reunion with Peter Kwong, screenwriter Gary Goldman, James Lew, George Cheung, James Hong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, Jeff Imada, Joycelyn Lew, Al Leong and Eric Lee at JANM’s Tateuchi Democracy Forum in LA on April 8, 2015. Photo by Tami Chang.James Hong. Photo by Lia Chang
Big Trouble in Little China was the kind of movie for us, martial artists, the greatest of all, actors, writers, that movie, John gave us all a chance. In fact, Jim Lau, James Lew and Jeff Imada were stunt coordinators, choreographers, and were promoted to associate producers by the end, that’s how hard they worked. So that was the kind of atmosphere that existed on the set. I slept outside the stage, overnight in a little small trailer, got up and put on the makeup. In those days, we couldn’t afford much. It was a tough shoot but it was the best we could do at that time and everybody had high hopes. Believe it or not, that whole film was made for 25 million dollars. Now it would cost you close to 150. Everybody here put 150% of effort into that movie, way beyond what they were paid. But for some reason, the studio did not put the publicity behind it. They put it into Alien, which became a huge hit, so Big Trouble lagged behind. It’s found it’s own cult audience.
BTILC stars Peter Kwong (Rain), James Hong (David Lo Pan), and James Pax (Lightning) at HorrorHound Weekend Indianapolis, September 2015.
Lia: David Lo Pan is such an iconic character. What is the reaction that you get from fans? James: It’s amazing, when you do a film, you don’t know which one is going to become popular. Blade Runner also was a great film, and you could see that coming. But Big Trouble, you didn’t know because it was so new for its time. John Carpenter got the idea from Raymond Chow of Hong Kong to do a film as such. But he put his own trademark on it. For some reason, the hidden values and gimmicks that Carpenter put in have become alive nowadays. When I do go to the conventions, that is the most popular role I have ever done, among the 100’s that I have done. They remember that one. I have no idea why. That’s the way films are, you don’t know which one will grow.
Photo of Leelee Sobieski from The Idol (2002) with James Hong
Lia: What are your three top favorite projects? James:Big Trouble is my top favorite because I did do three roles rolled into one. Blade Runner, Chinatown. One of the movies that has never been shown here in America is L’Idole, a French film, which stars Leelee Sobieski. I went to Paris for two months and made it in 2002. It was all in French. I didn’t speak a word of it, but I learned approximately 400 words in French. I was about 80 or so. It was a taxing situation, but I loved it. The French people are so great. There is something about them that is very different from the American people. I wish them luck in the future. I play an older man, but a main character, as a human being, rather than being a cliché.
Lia: With the long career that you’ve had, is there some role that you’d like to play, or a director that you would like to work with? James: I’d like to work for myself. I’ve produced and directed some films before. Now I’d like to get back into it and do a couple more films before I retire, travel a little and enjoy life. I look at these wonderful actors next to me and say yeah, I knew them before.
James: All of you listeners and readers, please let us know, we seldom get a reaction from an Asian American audience as to what is happening. Do they like our work, do they not like it? Please write in and we will answer your questions.
James Hong (Center) in “Elementary”.
James: Something about Tzi Ma, he is so busy these days, he reminds me a little bit of what I used to do. He’s hopping from one film to another. He was late getting here because he was on another set in another city. Congratulations on that.
Tzi: Thank you James. If I could follow in your steps, I’m good.
Tzi Ma in “Elementary”.
Lia: What did you mean when you said that you are currently being accessed for your funny? Tzi: It’s kind of weird, I don’t know where it came from. My last sitcom before “Man Seeking Woman” was “Head of the Class,” which was 1000 years ago, with that kid, Jonathan Ke Quan. I’ve always turned those things down, because we are the butt of the joke. I don’t want to be the butt of the joke. There are a lot of great sitcoms that ask for our participation, like “Seinfeld” or even“Friends”. And every time I look at those scripts, I can’t do them. We’re always the butt of the joke. Not really the participant of the joke. Whereas “Man Seeking Woman” and “Angie Tribeca,” we are the motivators of the joke. So it is a big difference. I’ve often had a problem with sitcoms, but all of a sudden, two sitcoms back to back. I don’t know what generated that interest. I don’t know why they asked me to do it, because these are all straight offers.
Lucy Liu, Jonny Lee Miller and Tzi Ma in “Elementary”.
Lia: What is your character in “Elementary”? Tzi: I haven’t had time to read the script. I will read the script over the weekend. The only thing that we are clear about it since these characters are Triad characters is that they need to speak Cantonese as opposed to Mandarin. The script was written in Mandarin. Liz and I had a discussion about it, so we brought it up to the director and he agrees. The director of this episode, Larry Teng, is Asian American. It goes to show you the advantage of having a director who knows the background. He knows that Triads do not speak Mandarin, they speak Cantonese. That is the advantage of working with someone who is Asian American or Chinese American because you don’t have to reinvent the wheel or recite the encyclopedia for them to understand what your motivations are, what you are doing, what your relationships are. It’s something that we do, practically on a per project base. We practically have to explain ourselves on a daily basis because they don’t know. It is a lot easier to work on a project when you have three actors who know what they are doing, who knows where they are, and a director that knows everything about us. That’s kind of cool.
Lia: Pali Road is currently on the Film Festival circuit. Can you tell me more about it? Tzi:Pali Road is a new experience. It is the first time for me working with a Chinese director who cut his teeth making films in China. He was educated in Australia and Vancouver. His directorial debut was a Chinese film. The film was financed and already had distribution in China. The lead actress is from Taiwan. She has done some films in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.
Lia: Did you like working in Hawaii? Tzi: Yes. We were in the North Shore. The North Shore is not Waikiki. The North Shore is serene, spiritual, and it rains more on the North Shore. You really get all the benefits of all the native ions coming from the ocean. We were staying at Turtle Bay resort, and we were at the apex of the island. Every morning, I just opened the lanai doors and absorbed all that good energy. It was relaxing for us. It was something that I think given the circumstances on a low budget film, everybody is under the gun, and a lot of pressure on everybody to make the film within 18 shooting days, so I think that if we were in another location, it might have been very taxing for us. The fact that we were on the North Shore, it really gave us the opportunity to at least take a breather. We don’t feel like we’re constantly on edge, given the schedule and all the work that we had to do with the script, rehearsals, locations. I think as a location, it served us, served the project in a very meaningful and positive way.
Elizabeth Sung and Tzi Ma play husband and wife in the upcoming film Pali Road. Photo by Lia Chang
Lia: Can you speak to your relationship? Elizabeth: I’ve known Tzi for more than two decades. When I heard of Tzi then, we were both dancers, coming from the dance world. When I saw his face at The Public Theater, Dance and the Railroad, I thought, “Who is this guy?” Then, I got to know him through friends. At that time, we’d not had the chance to work together until our friend created the film short Half-Ass in 1986. By then, we knew each other a lot better.
John Lone and Tzi Ma in a poster of The Dance and The Railroad. Courtesy of Tzi Ma
He’s always been an inspiration, like spearheading a lot of things. He never just takes a script at face value. He always digs and finds other angles. That’s very inspirational. If you have a mediocre script, or not so very good script, Tzi is going to make it live. He’s always been my challenge. To work with him, that’s what I love. You have a good sparring partner.
Elizabeth Sung and Tzi Ma in “Pali Road”.
One of the things that I treasure, with Pali Road, how do we make the characters that we play, husband and wife, the parents of this girl- how do we make this relationship with her, the parents, live? We were from China, and yet we’re concerned for her. How do we make that intriguing, exciting, familiar, with depth to provoke thoughts within the audience’s mind? Or have them look at themselves to be reflective.
Lia: What was your favorite project that you worked on? Elizabeth: For me, never the big budget projects. It has always been the independent project, where the script comes to you and it’s not quite there. And the filmmaker, the ones that I choose to work with are open-minded, you can have discussions and they will take input. You see the script evolve. My romantic comedy project, Anita Ho, the character, the mother’s character was not quite present. Through discussions and working at it, that became a major counterpart to the two leads.
“Anita Ho” 2013 Chinese American Film Festival Golden Angel Award for – Best Comedy – director, writer, actor / Steve Myung, producer, writer, actress / Lina So Golden Angel Award – Best Actress in a Supporting Role / Elizabeth Sung.
Lia: And your favorite project with Elizabeth? Tzi: I would have to say, Half-Ass. The first one. That scene was supposed to be the genesis of a script. It was like a sizzle reel. It was the beginning, a germination of a project that he wanted to do, which we participated in. Sometimes, you don’t see things at the moment. Sometime later, you realize that those things are the most valuable things that you could do. We got to know one another better. We formed a relationship. We know who we are. It just so happened that somehow the universe put us in the same city, because I went out to LA. Next thing you know, she was in LA. Before that, we were in New York together. Once we parted ways in terms of where we are going, and then to see each other, the bond became stronger. Through the years, these things lead to other things. Without Half-Ass, I may not even know Elizabeth. So really, hindsight is always quite rewarding when you look back and say, wow, if that didn’t happen, some of these things may not have happened.
Lia Chang, Bea Soong, Phil Nee, Elizabeth Sung, Eugenia Yuan, Jason Tobin, Tzi Ma and Vic Huey at the #AAIFF2015 screening of Jasmine at Village East Cinema in New York on July 30, 2015. Photo by Ursula Liang
Lia: How has it been navigating as an Asian American actress in the industry and directing? Elizabeth: Not easy. As an Asian American actress, from my time in the industry, because what was available then, and what is more available now, it was either prostitutes or waitresses. Sometimes you may have some social worker roles, or reporter. But now, it’s a lot more professional women, not just fresh off the boat. It’s still an uphill battle. Not easy. That’s why I said, for the independent projects that I participate in or that I can lend my support, I really do enjoy them. Especially to Asian American directors who write a story that is compelling and that has something to say.
In terms of my directing, it all came from realizing after the Miss Saigon protest, where the role of the Engineer role was supposed to be half Asian and went to a Caucasian who put prosthetics on his eyelids. Tzi was a very vocal representative of all of us. We sweat and we fought for, after the show opened, that this part needed to go to an Asian American actors. In that big movement, what I did learn is somebody who put the project together, with the money, as long as you talk about it, they are the ones that initiate it. If you don’t have the story, and you don’t have the money to give life to a project. The voice many not be as powerful. I went to the director workshop at AFI first. I went back to school to get my degree in directing from the American Film Institute. I realized from my dance background that one short project does not make me a director. Coming from Hong Kong, I need structure. I’m not that self-motivated, like Tzi. I need to be in an environment where there are classrooms so that everything is there for me to do a few more projects. I have put my directing on hold for a little bit, strictly for financial reasons (student loans are high).
With the whole digital revolution, I want to reconsider. It is a very different time. Especially with the possibility of doing co-productions, with like-minded people with East and West. The chance of getting film projects off the ground is a lot easier, if one can find like-minded people.
Tzi Ma in “Elementary”.
Lia: Have you ever considered directing? Tzi: I have. I’ve directed theater. I enjoy the directing process. I think I can make some contribution as a director. I feel my strength would come from working with the actors. I do understand their journey, I understand their experience. It’s really a welcoming sight when you see a Chinese American director. With this particular episode, we don’t have to recite the Bible for this guy. At least you don’t have to worry about these little things like, I remember working on two or three projects back to back, when I go to the set, I see the same Qing Dynasty painting on three different shows. You run into these kinds of generalities of who we are. They don’t know it.
I think our contributions as directors, is that we have the innate understanding of the culture; we have experienced their experiences, so that they don’t have to go home and struggle and say how do I present the right picture for this director? Which is what we do all the time. We go home, beat our head against the wall. Ok, what are we going to say to this guy? How are we going to say it? In what context do we present it? I just want my actors to go home, do their work, do their preparation, come to the set and I will be there to protect them. I think that’s key, for our presence behind the camera.
Because the struggles that we went through, such as what Liz said about Miss Saigon, is that there’s also a genesis to that too. That character was not Eurasian. At first, the character was Asian. Then after Jonathan Pryce took the role as the Asian with prosthetics, and we saw the cast album, there were pictures of him in yellow face. That’s when we did the complaint. After we complained, that’s when the character became Eurasian. They said, “well why not, because it is a Eurasian character, we can cast Jonathan Pryce. Now the character is Eurasian, and it is okay to cast a white actor. So we know that again, we need to empower ourselves, in every aspect. That’s why I approach scripts the way that I do as an actor. I want to empower me as an actor. I don’t want to walk in a room and relinquish the creative process to someone else’s hand. I know it is untrustworthy. Now, if he is Asian American, then I feel a little better, because then I don’t have to worry about not trusting him.
It’s a process. My advice to young actors is never shy away from saying what you need to say. Eventually, you’ll get better at it. In the beginning, it was terrible. The stuff that came out of my mouth was offensive and abrasive. I couldn’t get anywhere. I didn’t know how. Eventually, I learned how to say it. That comes from experience. Every opportunity you get, speak your mind. Because the more you practice on how to present that, you’ll get better at doing it. You’ll become more articulate. Your points will become more precise. You have to be very specific about what those points are, because time is precious. Usually when a project gets going, once the actors get involved, it’s off. It’s a bullet train that’s left the station already. You’ve got to go in there with your guns loaded, everything laid out on the table. ‘These are my concerns. What do you think?’ So there is a point of departure.
Lucy Liu and Elizabeth Sung in “Elementary”.
The beauty of working with somebody you know, like working with Liz, since we know each other, we can get together before hand. Like this project. We called each other over the phone, talked about what was important. How do we present it to the director? It’s about being specific. Where are we and at what time are we talking about? We are in New York Chinatown, current time. This organization, if you are a Triad or a Tong, they are a very specific organization. It’s not like they are one. The writers don’t know there is a difference. For us, as professional actors, ultimately, we hold the responsibility. You’re not going to see the director on the screen. You’re not going to see the writer on the screen. You’re going to see us on the screen. It’s like self-survival. I don’t want to look bad. I don’t want Liz to look bad. We really have to do our due diligence. That’s made our working easier because we know each other. We’re familiar with each other’s work. We have the respect and the admiration of each other’s work. We can sit down and speak openly about what are concerns are, how do we handle it, how do we deal with it. Some things are not just about reality. Not about the truth itself.
Lucy Liu and Elizabeth Sung in “Elementary”.
For instance, Pali Road is a film for China. There are some things you cannot do because it is going to be shown in China. So now we have to figure out a way to help the director get over that hump. He doesn’t even know. This is an important part of the script and an important part of the scene. But it may not get past the censor. We need to think about strategies on how to say the same thing, get the same results and pass the censors too. That’s an added responsibility.
Elizabeth Sung in “Elementary”.
Elizabeth: I have to give a shot out to the director Larry Teng. I worked with him on “Hawaii Five-O”. He told me that it was his first freelance project as a director. This time, after Tzi and I had a discussion about the dialect, we contacted Larry and he was open. He was raised in Queens. He had a conversation with each of us, so he said, “I agree.” So after the two voices, plus his initial instinct, it’s a triple reinforcement that he approached the writers to say that this language dialect needs to be authentically Cantonese. So, this way sometimes a director, an Asian American, needs support from the cast. Not just one person holding the banner. It’s not enough. We come in knowing the culture. Tzi grew up in Chinatown. I lived in New York from the 70’s to 80’s, 16 years. I have knowledge, watching TV and reading newspapers that Mandarin will not do. Another thing that I do appreciate Larry, when they were working on my first day, he said, “It is important to me to not perpetuate stereotypes. I want to go for the humanity of this character. Because he said it is too easy to do the other thing. This is one thing that I don’t want to perpetuate as a director.” He had this little sidebar conversation. I said I respect you and I support you 100%. I am there.
Aidan Quinn and Tzi Ma in “Elementary”.
Tzi: Most productions that hire one of us or both of us are very lucky because we know, at least to a point where the characters are properly written. For example, if we were shooting “Hell on Wheels,” it wouldn’t have simplified characters, and we’re able to catch it. This didn’t exist in 1870. It has to be the traditional characters. As far as the experience in Chinatown is concerned, we know that experience. I lived it; I lived at 34 Henry Street. IN that sense, we’re an asset.
Actor Tzi Ma attends the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Village East Cinema in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang
Elizabeth: And the director appreciates that because he has back up. A lot of time, you pick your battles. As a director, there are many of them. If you are able to support him in presenting his case, then he has one less battle to fight. If we can do that for him, that’s great.
Lia: What’s next for you? Elizabeth: I am working with an Asian American indie director, who has written a story for Asian characters, two sets of families- how they converge in LA, and how each of them affected each other. They went through a journey. It is an ensemble story. It will be an interesting story to tell and my character is a mother who has done all the wrong things with the best of intentions, and yet learned at the end of the day.
Tzi: I’m working on an independent film called Mediation Park by Mina Shum, who is a wonderful Canadian director. Sandy’s (Sandra Oh) in all her films. I think Sandy is like her alter ego. Sandy is also in this film. This film is really quite poignant. It’s about a woman, who all her life is dependent on the husband to do everything-to provide, to take care of the daily chores, bank account, insurance, and he dies. Now what is she going to do? She’s on her own now, completely. How does this woman learn to not only be self-reliant, but who she is. When you are with this husband who has done everything and has had full control of you, you’ve lost you. You’re only part of him. How does this woman find her? This is a woman’s story.
Here’s the funny part-when I was in Vancouver for a meeting with Mina, I was in a bank to get some money. There was a long line, and I saw that woman online, gorgeously dressed, quite elderly, she walks to the counter and she pulled out about 10 cards. She had no idea what any of those cards were. She said, “These are all my husband’s cards. These are all the accounts that I have. I’ve never even seen them. I don’t know what to do. If I need money, I don’t know how to take it out.” Good thing the staff was so nice to her. I’m standing there. Life is stranger than fiction. I was just mesmerized by this woman, because I just read the script. And there she is right in front of me.
Elizabeth Sung, Tzi Ma and Lia ChangLia Chang. Photo by Garth Kravits
Elizabeth Sung, James Hong and Tzi Ma at the SIXTY Lower East Side Hotel in New York on December 11, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang
Elizabeth Sung, Tzi Ma and James Hong are guest starring in the Season 4, episode 14 of “Elementary,” entitled, “Who Is That Masked Man?” which airs on Thursday, February 25, 2016, at 10:00PM ET/PT on the CBS Television Network. For more information, click here.
Click below for my in-depth interview with the trio.
Synopsis:
When Holmes’ investigation into the attempt on Morland’s life pushes their strained relationship to the breaking point, the identity of Sherlock’s mother is revealed. Also, when three gang members are murdered, Holmes and Watson are amazed when an elderly woman emerges as their prime suspect. The episode is written by Jason Tacey and directed by Larry Teng.
Lucy Liu and Elizabeth Sung in “Elementary”.
“Elementary” stars Lucy Liu as Joan Watson, Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Homes, Aidan Quinn as Captain Tommy Gregson, Jon Michael Hill as Detective Marcus Bell and John Noble as Mr. Morland Holmes.
Lucy Liu, Jonny Lee Miller and Tzi Ma in “Elementary”.Tzi Ma in “Elementary”.Aidan Quinn and Tzi Ma in “Elementary”.James Hong in “Elementary”.Lia Chang. Photo by Garth Kravits
Ryun Yu makes his directorial feature debut with The Last Tour, which has its world premiere screening during the 2016 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on Sunday, April 24 at 6:00 PM at Downtown Independent, 251 S Main St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 
, and Tuesday, April 26 at 4:30 PM CGV Cinemas 2, Theater 2, 621 S. Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90005 
Bev's Girl Films 