Q&A at the CAAMFest 2017 screening of The People's Hospital with Co-Director Jim Choi, Former SF Mayor Willie Brown, SF Supervisor Aaron Peskin, and CAAM Producer Don Young.
Documentary Short
Gathering at the river, Liminal (photo Chihiro Wimbush)
LIMINAL/RELEASE
Director/Producer/Editor
Broadcast: Valley PBS
Selected as one of ten finalists of the Big Tell by the Central Valley Community Foundation, Liminal focuses on a day in the life of former lifer Arnold Trevino, as he helps recent parolees navigate life after prison, during pandemic, and reconnect to nature. It had it’s broadcast premiere on Valley PBS and is currently streaming on the PBS platform. From the seed planted by Liminal, a new half-hour documentary and multimedia project is growing. Currently in research & development as Release, the film was invited to the IF/Then Shorts & Redford Center’s Nature Connection Pitch at the 2023 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.
REQUIEM
Editor & Music Supervisor
TRT: 42 mins
Premiere: Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco
An film tracking the journey of artist Summer Lee back to China retracing her family journey back to her roots and then her subsequent art installation back in San Francisco exploring the fascinating history of bone repatriation in China. The video below was an experimental "trailer" of sorts used to accompany the exhibition in the gallery.
Filming the opening of the new Chinese Hospital for The People's Hospital
THE PEOPLE'S HOSPITAL
Co-Director (with jim Choi), Co-Editor, Music Supervisor
TRT: 27 mins
World Premiere: CAAMFest 2017
Broadcast Premiere: San Francisco Public Television (KQED)
The People's Hospital documents the opening of the new Chinese Hospital in San Francisco's Chinatown, built on the grounds of the original 1925 hospital. It tells the tale of how a people who were once denied access to healthcare, empowered themselves to provide for their own community. The film features interviews with hospital staff and patients then and now, as well as former SF Mayor Willie Brown and the last recorded interview with San Francisco political powerhouse and community activist, Rose Pak.
THE RIDE
Micheal Smith on the morning drive to his trial in THE RIDE.
Editor, Music Supervisor
Awards: Spirit of Bernal Award 2017, Best Short Documentary International Black Film Festival of Nashville
Festivals: CAAMFest, Doclands, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema, International Black Film Festival of Nashville
The Ride focuses on the intersection of three rides: the one taken by Michael Smith and his pregnant girlfriend on BART that ends with them thrown on the ground by BART police officers with guns drawn, the early morning drive where his lawyer, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi picks Michael up in East Oakland to bring him to trial, and the ride Michael is taken on by an unjust justice system.
SF Public Defender Jeff Adachi in The Ride.
LIMINAL SPACE/CROSSINGS
Filming preparation for the LIMINAL SPACE/CROSSINGS installation
Co-Director (with Jim Choi), Editor
TRT: 16 mins
Liminal Space/Crossings documents the artist Summer Mei-Ling Lee's installation of the same name, situated in San Francisco Chinatown's Ross Alley, commissioned by the Chinese Culture Center. Featuring both a projection of the ocean onto urban concrete as well as a performance piece, Summer's creation both crosses and transcends issues of identity and immigration. This short documentary is in development to become a longer half hour documentary that will expand to include more on Summer's background and her journey back to China.
TOUCHING THE UNTOUCHABLE
Filming monks and nuns blessing the Untouchable farm workers, Tamil Nadu, India, Touching The Untouchable
Producer/Director (with Meena Srinivasan), Cinematographer, Editor
TRT: 8 mins
Awards: Spirit of Bernal Award, 2nd Place Dan Eldon Activist Award
Screenings: My Hero Film Festival, Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema Festival, East Bay Meditation Center, San Quentin Prison
Streaming: Featured on Karmatube
A short film about the iconoclastic African-American Buddhist nun Pannavati and her journey to Tamil Nadu, India, after being asked for assistance by Gauthama Prabhu, leader of the Dalits, or “Untouchable” people there. The Dalits have reached out to her because as an African-American woman who grew up in the Civil Rights era, she would understand what it means to be disenfranchised as a people, and what it takes to assist and empower them. Together, they travel through Dalit colonies, trying to bring in desperately needed resources like water, food and education, and working to transform the Dalits own self-image, imposed from thousands of years of caste system oppression.
We also produced a discussion guide and curriculum to accompany the video with the idea of continuing the conversation beyond the film viewing and getting this into classrooms for teachers to share with their students. All ways to increase empathy and engagement and deepen impact for positive change. Find the link here: bit.ly/1akSqKg
DON'T LOSE YOUR SOUL
Director (with Jim Choi), Editor, Additional Camera
TRT: 27 mins
Festivals: Kansas City Film Festival CineJazz Showcase, LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival Jazz Cinema Showcase
Broadcast: KQED May 2013, PBS May 2014 (as part of the series Japanese American Lives hosted by Kristi Yamaguchi), Rebroadcast PBS May 2015
DONT LOSE YOUR SOUL is a half-hour documentary about Anthony Brown and Mark Izu, two of the founders of Asian American Jazz, fusing traditional Asian instrumentation with the freedom of jazz. Tracking their story from their family origins to the roots of their musical collaboration, the film culminates in a live performance celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Asian American Jazz Festival, featuring a special appearance by George Yoshida, who brought the spirit of jazz inside the barbed wire fences of the internment camps back in the day. Music as an expression of freedom.
DLYS premiered at the Kansas City Film Festival’s CineJazz showcase and was broadcast locally in the Bay Area on KQED Public Television, then Comcast on Demand, before broadcasting nationally on PBS as part of the Japanese American Lives series hosted by Kristi Yamaguchi.
DON'T LOSE YOUR SOUL trailer (excerpt from film)
MARTIN YAN: A Simple Life
Director (with Jim Choi), Editor
TRT: 10 mins
CAAMFeast 2014, Asian Art Museum
Broadcast: PBS Online
A short profile of celebrity chef Martin Yan of “Yan Can Cook” fame. How do you get behind the image for a person who’s always on camera? We discovered the secret was to show Martin, not simply as he’s known on set, but as a cook at home in his kitchen, making his morning breakfast. As a result we got to see a different, more introspective side of the Martin Yan that normally fills the television screen.
THE TIME THAT LAND FORGOT
Producer/Director (with Jim Choi), Editor, Additional Camera
TRT: 9 mins
This short film was created to profile the artist Peter Tobey and his unique artistic work. From inside an abandoned warehouse, deep in the misty wonderland of the Oregon wild, Tobey creates original art pieces from the children’s toy K’nex: floating pyramids and soaring, ticking grandfather clocks, mechanical works of genius from multi-colored plastic pieces. The piece is an ode to both the wild exterior and interior spaces of Tobey’s creative world.
O-Viewpoint
Director/Camera/Editor (with Jim Choi)
TRT: 19 mins
Chinese Culture Center
Broadcast: KTSF
A short documentary commissioned by the Chinese Culture Center as a sequel of sorts to RED THREAD (see below), part of a continuing series on Chinese artists living and working in America and their art work. 0-VIEWPOINT documents the making of Stella Zhang’s art installation of the same name, following Stella from home to studio to gallery as she creates her most challenging and provocative work to date while the curator Abby Chen, struggles to make sense of the art. The ensuing tug-of-war spotlights the fraught process of collaboration, business and art.
RED THREAD
Director/Camera/Editor (with Jim Choi)
TRT: 18 mins
Chinese Culture Center
Broadcast: KTSF
This short documentary was the first in a series of pieces, produced by Chinese Culture Center highlighting the work of Chinese artists living in America. The film tracks the work of Beili Liu as she painstakingly creates her installation piece, LURE, composed of hundreds of hanging discs of red thread. This was the first documentary film I worked on, in the first of many collaborations with Jim Choi, and where I fell in love with the documentary film process. Unlike the narrative film sets on which I sat around for hours, here things were unfolding every moment, and I jumped right in with filming and editing the film, learning as I went along. I had so much fun, I’ve never looked back.