For some reason I really wanted to find an Asian American director but that was also close to impossible and the only interesting director I found was Debbie Lum- "a San Francisco-based filmmaker and editor. SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE is her feature-length directing debut. For years she worked as a documentary editor; her editing credits include A.K.A DON BONUS (winner, National Emmy), KELLY LOVES TONY (nominee, IDA Best Documentary) which she also co-produced and TO YOU SWEETHEART, ALOHA (winner, Audience Award, VC LA Film Festival). In the editing room, she has worked with notable directors, Spencer Nakasako, Wayne Wang and Philip Kaufman. She has also written and directed several short comedies, CHINESE BEAUTY, A GREAT DEAL! and ONE APRIL MORNING, which have screened at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival among many other festivals, according to http://www.seekingasianfemale.com/
She is working on a documentary called "Seeking Asian Female" about an aging man who has the "yellow fever" and finds a wife in China. The story is about their life back here in United States, in which the man learns the difficulties between the language barrier and the happily ever after was not exactly how he pictured. I thought this story is extremely funny because in many cases this is very common, or at least to the Asian community. Many women in China simply just want to come to America, thinking America is the land of opportunities and life overall is better. Unfortunately, that's not how it turns out to be. Lum as an Asian American woman herself ends up being the translator for the interracial couple, which gives her even more of auteurship because not only is she able to present the story the way she wants, she is a crucial aspect of the documentary. Additionally, the story holds more value and creditability due to the fact that she is Asian and is someone who is particularly familiar with the term "Asian Fever" and understands to a deeper level on the desires of Chinese women wanting to come to America. I feel that this documentary would be very attractive to the Asian American community.
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Another talented and creative director that I came across is Lucy Mulloy, and her film "Una Noche." She won the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award for Emerging Narrative Filmmaker in 2010 and this year's (2012) Best New Narrative Director Award at Tribeca Film Festival. According to TFF, Lucy Mulloy graduated from NYU film school. She is an Oxford alum and has been nominated for a Student Academy Award. Her film Una Noche won the Spike Lee Production Grant, Hollywood Foreign Press Association Grant, TFI Creative Promise Emerging Narrative Award, and more. She is currently developing Una Noche Más.
There are not much information on her, yet, because she is still relatively new to the film industry. She is extremely talented. As a writer for the Hunter Word, I was able to apply to Tribeca Film Festival to cover their screenings this year. Unfortunately, due to conflicting schedules, I was unable to attend the screenings of "Una Noche" but I did attend a Tribeca Talk panel session and Lucy Mulloy was one of the guest speakers. By the mere definition of auteur theory, in which the story reflects the director's personal creative vision, Mulloy is a good example. During the panel, Mulloy talked a lot about the challenges she had while making her film. First and foremost, she lived in Havana, Cuba for years doing her search for the film, which is where she shot the film. Secondly, during the booming digital era, she shot her entire movie in 35mm film! (Shooting in film has decreased drastically because everything is digital and instant playback feds on this constant need to see exactly what you shot right away, so that was a pretty bold move for a new filmmaker). Mulloy goes on and talked about wanting to capture the authenticity of her footage and expressed her love for film, "It would be a dream come true if I can also shoot my next movie on film as well," she said. Although shooting in Havana, cameras were not as accessible to her and there were no labs there, which means we had ship the footage back and forth from Havana to toronto and her crew had to wait weeks to actually see the footage they previously shot, Mulloy said.
Mulloy made sure she was able to tell her story the way she wanted it. Shooting a movie will have many challenges but sticking to core and not make changes due to outside factors will definitely be a winner! Those are just two snapshots I took at the panel. ;]
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On a tangent note:
In one of the readings about the lack of female artists and the enormous gap in the ratio of female and male artists' artwork displayed in museums made me think back to an event I covered at the Museum of Sex a few months ago. Out of the participating artists for the F*CK ART exhibit, there were only 2 or 3 female artists out of 19 in total! And at the actual event, I was only able to find 4 artists to interview, all male of course. I have no idea why none of the female artists came. Hmms.... anyways here's my article if anyone is interested. F*ckBike.
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