Film director Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow, Fast & Furious) and YouOffendMeYouOffendMyFamily.com have launched a new film initiative entitled INTERPRETATIONS to support aspiring filmmakers. In a nutshell, you make a short film of no more than 3 minutes using the same script we provide (get all the info here). We’re encouraging all you aspiring Asian American filmmakers out there to enter for a chance to win a cash prize and get your work seen by industry professions. To help us do this, we’re bringing our FREE INTERPRETATIONS filmmaking panel to New York on July 17 as part of the Asian American Int’l Film Festival.
Join us as we screen our commissioned shorts on the big screen and engage in a lively discussion about INTERPRETATIONS and the general state of Asian American film with our distinguished panel (see below). We’ve also commissioned a brand-new INTERPRETATIONS short film from actor Ken Leung (Lost) specifically for our NY event so come out and be the first to see that. Ken will also be in attendance.
The event will be on Saturday, July 17, 5 PM at the Clearview Chelsea Cinema. Tickets are FREE and available now along with all the other info you need here.
The panel will consist of:
Jennifer 8 Lee (Moderator)
Jennifer 8. Lee was a reporter at The New York Times for nine years. She harbors a deep obsession for Chinese food, the product of which is the best-selling book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles (Twelve, 2008), which explores how Chinese food is all-American. At the Times, she wrote about poverty, the environment, crime, politics, and technology. She has been called, by NPR, a “conceptual scoop artist.” One of her better known articles is on the Man Dates, and also on the fastest growing baby name in the history of America. Jennifer is a former member of the Poynter Institute National Advisory Board, a board member of the Asian American Writers Workshop, and has been featured in the Esquire Women We Love issue.
Elaine Chin
Elaine Chin is an independent producer based in L.A. and one of the founding bloggers at YouOffendMeYouOffendMyFamily.com which is launching INTERPRETATIONS. Currently, Elaine is based in Los Angeles, developing and consulting on film projects with writers and directors as Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow, Fast & Furious), Stephen Chin (Gummo, Another Day in Paradise), and Eric Lahey (Century Plaza, Spoons – Sundance Lab 2007) and serves as an adjunct professor at UCLA Extension’s Entertainment Studies Certificate Program and National University’s M.F.A. Program at the School of Media and Communication. She was previously a Director of Development and Production at HBO and 20th Century Fox where she worked on such films as Angels in America, The Notorious Bettie Page and Mongol.
Evan Jackson Leong
Evan Jackson Leong is a 6th generation Chinese American native of San Francisco, California. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor’s Degree in Asian American studies. As a short form filmmaker he has directed numerous music videos, commercials, shorts that have played on MTV in the domestic and international markets. As a long form documentary filmmaker, he has directed two half hour nationally broadcast projects: Him Mark Lai: The People’s Historian and Forging a Feature: The Journey of Better Luck Tomorrow. In his growth as a young filmmaker he has been mentored by Justin Lin with various credits in Better Luck Tomorrow, Fast And Furious 3 and as a co-producer on Finishing The Game. He recently completed a feature length documentary, 1040, which explores the happenings of Christianity in Asia. Evan also directed the boys from Far East Movement in the INTERPRETATIONS commissioned short, Far East Futura.
Ken Leung
Ken Leung is an actor. His film and television work include HBO’s Sopranos, ABC’s Lost, and Showtime’s Sucker Free City directed by Spike Lee. Rumble (Ken’s INTERPRETATIONS short) is his first film as director.
