0506HK

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 06:15:33 GMT

Yeah... I'm still alive. In fact, I just finished my documentary feature 0506HK which will world premiere this Friday July 6 @ 7:30PM in Vancouver, check it out:
http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/vifc/filmguide/event.php?EventNumber=1338
I guess I do have a low attention span. It's been over a year since I wrote an entry.

HOW TO INSTALL A BOOKWORM

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:09:35 GMT

It took 2 people & 2 days to install this bookworm shelf from Kartell (http://www.kartell.com). I really love it... it's designed by Ron Arad.

SADDEST GHOST LAMP WITH HOMELESS TABLE

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 04:39:00 GMT

POSERS

Tue, 02 May 2006 21:49:31 GMT

Don't be fooled... They're not as friendly to each other as they appear in the photos. They bicker a lot. They're just natural posers at five months old.

I've been using my Ricoh GX-8 camera and really loving it. I had two Nikon Coolpixs before. They were flimsy and amateurish, and I didn't get around to using them that much. I love my GX-8 though.

MY CHINESE RADIO INTERVIEW IN AMSTERDAM

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 14:49:00 GMT

As I've been on the road for my films for the past 10 years, I've found out that the best interviews often come from unexpected places. I was interviewed by these two cool Chinese girls, Duan Yang and Sun Jung, in Amsterdam. It was a really fun and intimate interview.

A lot of times, the smaller festivals and interviews are the most rewarding ones. The interview is done in English and Cantonese but the radio program is in Madarin. Check it out:

http://www.chineseradio.nl/audio_archive_mandarin.htm

Direct link to the audio file:

http://www.chineseradio.nl/audioArchive/2006/ChineseRadio_10042006.wma

MY LIFE AS A BIRD

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:29:27 GMT

JUSTI ALMOST OUT OF THE CAGE

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 04:55:04 GMT

MY LIFE WITH BIRDIES

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 02:56:53 GMT

It took me forever to get Quinti out of the cage. They are such lazy birds.

Justi & Quinti.

AMSTERDAM/CINEMASIA DIARY

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 01:59:05 GMT

DAY 1: BOAT PEOPLE

Arriving at the Amsterdam airport, I felt panic as I didn’t see anyone from the Cinemasia festival. I thought they had forgotten to come pick me up. I immediately bought a sim card from a mobile phone booth and called Petra. Thank God she was already at the airport. A minute later, I saw her walking toward me smiling. She told me I just missed Bai Ling. Petra said that she made Bai Ling cry because she was upset at her for going to Germany and not staying at the festival for the weekend. Petra stopped responding to Bai Ling’s calls and requests for a couple of days… Bai Ling was really upset. But at the end, they made up.

Such a cautionary tale made me realize how guests of a small festival in a foreign land were very dependent on the hosts, so you wouldn’t want to piss them off.

Petra drove me to the Amistad hotel, a gay boutique hotel, in downtown Amsterdam. I couldn’t think it would be more appropriate for gay filmmakers to be put up at a gay hotel. At first, I was put in a room without a private bathroom. The idea felt so uncomfortable that I had to say something, so they promised to change me to a room with a private bathroom tomorrow.

Petra and I went to the screening of Ann Hui’s “Boat People” at the Film Museum where Doris, the founder of the festival, introduced the film.

I was ashamed to say that it was my first time seeing the critically acclaimed “Boat People” in its entirety and on the big screen, Such a rare treat! I should have seen the movie as a kid in 1982. When it was first released, my parents didn’t take me to see it.

“Boat People” is a landmark Hong Kong movie about why Vietnamese in the 70s and 80s would rather abandon their country and test their faith to travel across the “angry ocean” to another country. Illegal Vietnamese immigrants had been an issue for Hong Kong during that time. Hong Kong was not particularly sympathetic and rounded them up in camps until they could be transferred to a bigger country like America who would take them in.

The literal translation of the Chinese title of the movie is “Running into the Angry Ocean.” It poses the essential question, “Why would anyone (in the right mind) would (want to) do that?” Shot entirely in China with a Hong Kong cast, “Boat People” began with the Japanese reporter arriving in Vietnam to photograph the newly developed Communist Vietnam and eventually finding out what an unlivable and horrifying place it was for the citizens.

“Boat People” was a humanist project in its time of release. As Hong Kong was not tolerant to Vietnamese illegal immigrants, the movie provided to the least an explanation and a reference point to Hong Kong people why Vietnamese must leave their country. Was it a choice? Yes. But if you had to live an unlivable existence and face possible death every day, would you leave?

To me, Ann’s cautionary tale is horror film. There are some really gory and disturbing scenes. War is horror. The Vietnam portrayed in the film is really scary… and I am glad that I was not there at that time. Watching the movie was definitely enough of a catharsis.

DAY 2: DEN HAAG

I was jetlagged and couldn’t sleep. The room was so noisy. They moved me to a Harry Potter-like room on the first floor right underneath the stairs. At least it had a bathroom.

Michael Frank, a filmmaker from Australia now living in Slovenia, hung out with me in the afternoon. It was a pity that I missed Michael’s film, “Rat Choi” (which means “coming out to play” in Vietnamese), that screened on Sunday night.

Mary Anne picked us up at the hotel and we headed to Den Haag, a city about an hour from Amsterdam, for the first screening of “Ethan Mao.” We had a tour of the public transportation. We took the tram to the Central Station and then we took a train to go to Den Haag. When we got out of the train station in Den Haag, the cab driver refused to take us to Chinatown because he said it was too close. We scrambled to make our way to the restaurant after getting on the wrong tram.

Siyiu greeted us at the tram stop and took us to a nice Chinese seafood dinner organized by the Jonc Filmforum. At the restaurant, I met a group of young Dutch Chinese who were organizing the screening with Cinemasia. There were the fabulous Chow Yiu Fai (a famous Hong Kong songwriter), actor Wen, and scholar Remy Cristini who were going to be speaking on the panel after the screening. I also met the enthusiastic Hiuying Lau, Siyiu and other energetic members of the Jonc Filmforum.

It was an honor that Jonc Filmfourm picked “Ethan Mao” to support, and they worked really hard to promote the screening. The result was nonetheless an enthusiastic reception. Almost everyone from the audience stayed for the discussion, which somehow drifted to about being Asian and gay, and whether one should be out or not. The audience was a +30 art house film Dutch crowd with some younger Asians.

After the discussion, Michael said, “It’s time for a drink.” We hung out at the bar and had a few glasses of wine.

Returning from Den Haag, Michael and I met up with Doris, Petra, Kit Hung (a young Hong Kong indie filmmaker) and his partner Hanz. Kit and Hanz had just arrived from Switzerland for drinks at Doris’.

DAY 3: BINGER INSTITUTE

Michael, Kit and I were at the Binger Institute, a Dutch Sundance of sorts, where three young filmmakers premiered their shorts funded by Cinemasia. There were Jimmy Tai’s “Ping,” Susan Au’s “Verzameling,” and Mayura Subhedar’s “Her Patch of Sky.” While all the three shorts were technically very well-made considering that each filmmaker was only offered a Euro$1,000 budget. The themes of the shorts were identity-driven. They reminded me of what the Asian North American filmmakers did 20 years ago. But it was a start, I supposed.

Steven Pranoto, the composer for the festival’s trailer’s music arrived with his partner Jaffe. We all got a little too drunk at the Binger Institute and then all of us went out to dinner. Hong Kong starlet Josie Ho also arrived today.

DAY 4: AMSTERDAM PREMIERE + CLOSING PARTY

The “Ethan Mao” screening was packed. Paul Rigter, an actor/filmmaker in Amsterdam, did the introduction and Q&A with me. I almost missed the introduction because I got a little lost on the trams.

“Never put the filmmaker on public transportation on the night of his premiere,” I said at the introduction and people laughed. It was totally true.

The crowd for the screening had been an older Dutch art house audience, so they were definitely not the party crowd. There were only eight of us on the bus to the party, and we knew that it would be a smaller closing party than expected.

Manny Lehman arrived at the Powerhouse to spin while Kit Hung did the VJing. It was a pity that more people didn’t come. Josie made an appearance and left. The party wrapped around 4:30AM and we all went back to chill at Doris’ place. Another gay filmmaker and I went to the closing “after party” at a gay sauna in Amsterdam. Could you believe it? An film festival after party at a gay sauna?

I was intrigued, so I stopped by. There was a DJ spinning and it was a four-leveled sauna. But really, it was not my scene.

DAY 5 CLOSING FILM

The closing film was an Indonesian film called “Detik Terakhir” based on a popular novel about an Indonesian’s girl descent into lesbian love and heroin addiction. The film started out promising enough, but everything was way over the top as the girls got into heroin rehab. Toward the end, the filmmaker was cramming in so much action and melodrama that the film was laughable.

The highest point of the film was when the girl’s mother found out that his daughter was doing heroin and she swore in English with an Indonesian accent, “Shit! Holy Shit!”

After the movie, we were treated to an upscale Chinese restaurant called Oceana with Josie. Petra came back with the audience votes and said “Ethan Mao” was the fifth best voted film and Josie’s “Butterfly” came on top.

DAY 6

They moved me back to a room without a private bathroom. How depressing. Call me fussy, but it was just uncomfortable having to walk out of your room and go into a tiny shower room where you could hardly turn around, especially knowing that two VIP guests of the festival were staying in a five-star hotel.

If I go to another film festival, I must demand that I require a private room with a private bathroom and shower. I’ve truly learned my lesson this time.

DAY 7: TIME TO GO HOME

I woke up and ate something. I was really looking forward to going back to L.A. Petra picked me up from the hotel.

“I really don’t like this Dutch art house audience. They’re too old and conservative.” She said while navigating her Fiat through the Amsterdam streets. “We have to find a way to get the young Asians out.”

I nodded in agreement.

REMEMBERING JULIAN BOYD

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 18:20:54 GMT

Coming back from the Cinemasia Film Festival in Amsterdam, I opened my stuffed mailbox and found a newsletter from the Berkeley English Department. As I opened it, I was saddened and shocked to find my favorite English professor Julian Boyd had passed away about the same time last year.

Professor Boyd was a fabulous, amazing and caring professor. I took his "Philosophy and Grammar" class twice as an undergraduate and he had left the deepest impression in me as an English student. Going to his lectures had always been an anticipation of fun. I truly deeply enjoyed his classes so much that I looked forward to going to his class every time. He was so much fun to listen to as a lecturer. Every class of his was a stand-up comedy.

But behind all the jokes, I learned so many neat things about English grammar that I still talked about. I loved him and his teaching. In fact, I was just explaining the American subjunctive and the concept of the coloinal lag during my screening in Den Haag last week. And that was all from Julian Boyd.

I remember when I left Berkeley, he told me, "Don't call me when you're rich and famous. Call me only when you're in the gutter." I had often taken that kind offer to my heart.

Once I came back to Cal, he took me out to lunch at the faculty's club house. I had always been touched by that meal because no professors had ever done that.

Julian was truly cool, and I miss him dearly.

He'd often say at the end of class, "If you don't get it, boys and girls, fuck you!"

Thank you, Julian =)

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