film

Leading Community and Japanese Lifestyle Site to Develop Free Phone Application, Onsite Mobile Scavenger Hunt, Photo Studio and Convention Livecast for AM2 LOS ANGELES, Calif. (March 25, 2011) ­ The summer¹s most anticipated Anime, Japanese music and manga event, AM2 announces a partnership with leading community and Japanese lifestyle site Ani.ME to develop a free phone application for attendees which will have voting capabilities (i.e. film festival and competition, Masquerade, World Cosplay Summit, AMV¹s), instant convention schedule updates and additional convention information on Guests and other activities. 

In addition, the popular fan community will also have a physical convention presence with a Livecast and a onsite photo studio for cosplayers.  More info and attendee registration can be found at www.am2con.org <http://www.am2con.org>

If you live in the New York City tri-state area, you can also catch the film FREE on Channel 13, the local PBS station starting tonight! Air times are:

Sat, Jan 22, 10:40pm
Sun, Jan 23, 2:00am
Wed, Jan 26, 1:00am

We're also screening at the Cornell Cinema in Ithaca, NY on February 9th, and will have a few more have university screenings and Q&As this year, and we're gonna be back on cable VOD soon--so check our screenings page from time to time.  

How do you stand out in the ensemble cast of Predators, which features actors like Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, and Topher Grace? Simple: you bring a big freakin’ samurai sword. As the Yakuza assassin Hanzo, Louis Ozawa Changchien gets what may be the Nimrod Antal-helmed reboot’s most striking scene: a “mano-a-alien” battle royale that draws on Chanchien’s years of Kendo experience. Still, while the swordfighting skill is all his, in real life, Changchien couldn’t be more different: he’s a quick-witted nice guy who’s just as excited about his considerably more down-to-earth roles coming up in Fair Game and Kathryn Bigelow’s new project.

Last week, Changchien called up Movieline to discuss those parts as well as one of his earliest roles: a Jell-O pudding commercial opposite Bill Cosby himself that left him battle-scarred in a way far worse than any swordfight gone awry.

ID Film Fest Survey--What is the best APIA Feature Film of all Time?

The organizers of ID Film Fest at the Japanese American National Museum want to know what your choice is for the most significant/impactful/well-made/best Asian Pacific Islander American feature film of all time.

The #1 film will be screened at ID Film Fest 2011, and the filmmakers and people involved will be invited to attend.

Survey can be found here at this link
http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=HNHENO_1562cef9

ID Film Fest 2010 included Los Angeles and World Premieres; an Asian American Independent Features Conference; Filmmaker's crash courses; and a live screenplay pitch competition.

 
Last month was exciting in terms of entertainment news. Musicians made Asian American history, San Diego hosted its annual Asian Film Festival, Jon M. Chu’s career took off, Yao Ming returned to the basketball court, and Brenda Song received an award. Let’s get started!
Making beautiful music — for the mainstream!

For the week of Oct. 30, members of Far East Movement became the first Asian Americans to hit the top of the Billboard charts. Even more exciting was the fact that the number two spot was held by singer-songwriter Bruno Mars, who is of Filipino and Puerto Rican descent.
Far East Movement is made up of Kevin Nishimura “Kev Nish,” James Roh “Prohgress,” Jae Choung “J-Splif,” and Virman Coquia “DJ Virman.”
In a New York Daily News story, Oliver Wang, an assistant professor of sociology at California State University-Long Beach, said, “Far East Movement and Bruno Mars didn’t come just out of nowhere. There’s been a slow push to make it happen through social media. It’s finally hit that tipping point.”

San Diego’s Asian Film Festival: action-packed!

Far East Movement, the Los Angeles electro/rap group, reached a notable milestone recently. Not only did its third album, "Free Wired," debut at #24 on the Billboard charts, one of the highest charting debuts by any all-Asian American group, but its latest single, “Like a G6,” is the #1 single in the country (having already crowned digital charts for weeks).

By coincidence, on Oct. 12, 2010, the day "Free Wired" dropped, TV’s "Glee" featured Asian American actors Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina) and Harry Shum Jr. (Mike) joyfully singing and dancing their way through “Sing!” from "A Chorus Line." Three nights earlier, "Glee" star Jane Lynch hosted "Saturday Night Live" with musical guest Bruno Mars, the Filipino-Puerto Rican crooner whose iTunes-topping “Just the Way You Are” was just pushed aside by "Like a G6.”

This confluence seemed to be a long time coming. Prior to FM, the last group of Asian Pacific Islander descent to run the dance floor might have been the Jets, the Tongan-German, Minneapolis-based family band that had a string of dance/R&B hits, including “Curiosity” and “Crush on You.” That was back in 1985.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Visual Communications is proud to present a special screening of the 1916 Chinese American film, THE CURSE OF QUON GWON, on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010, 3:00 pm, at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, in Little Tokyo, to celebrate the release of a limited-edition DVD anthology by renown filmmaker Arthur Dong.

The earliest known Chinese American feature film, THE CURSE OF QUON GWON was directed in 1916 by Marion Wong of the Mandarin Film Company in Oakland, Calif. One of the few films directed by a woman at that time, the 36-minute silent film is about the assimilation of Chinese in the United States. It stars the director, her sister-in-law Violet Wong, mother-in-law Chin Shee and Harvey Soo Hoo.

KoreAm -  "In the decade that I’ve been involved with the Asian American community, I’ve learned that there are many reasons people do this type of work. Usually, it’s inspired by an incredible urge to stimulate some sort of change. It supplies a sense of purpose, along with community and friends. Others accidentally fall into it, or do it very well. And some days, even for the most dedicated, it’s simply just a job."

"In this month’s cover story “Mad Man,” Phil and Jeff, arguably two of our community’s most influential cultural critics, have a conversation about the steady rise of what is now a crucial, frequently updated site on everything Asian American. In the interview, which details Phil’s path as a blogger and activist, I am reminded of all the marquee events that have helped define our wired pan-Asian generation: the budding of ethnic studies, the 90s apex for Asian American print, the spoken word and indie film spike, and of course, soon after, the return of the written word with the birth of the blog."

- Kai Ma, Editor-in-Chief KoreaAm

On Sunday, Asian-American actors Daniel Dae Kim (”Hawaii Five-O”), C. S. Lee (”Dexter”), Harry Shum Jr. (”Glee”), Ellen Wong (”Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”), and Aaron Yoo (”Friday the 13th”) talked casting, graduate school and stereotypes at the Asian Americans in Hollywood panel at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.

In particular, each of the actors stressed that their current status as recognizable faces didn’t happen overnight. Lee and Kim both studied acting at graduate school (Lee at Yale and Kim at NYU; the former even asked latter for advice about where he should go), and Shum Jr explained that he first moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to act. After realizing he could “kinda dance,” he built up his skills and his dancing ultimately took over. (For “Glee” fans, he added: No, he doesn’t really sing as badly as Mike Chang does, and yes, there will a continuing storyline for his character this season).

Over the weekend, the San Diego Asian Film Festival invited actors like Lost alumnus Daniel Dae Kim, Glee's Harry Shum Jr., Ellen Wong (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), and Aaron Yoo (Friday the 13th) to a panel entitled "Asian Americans in Hollywood" (we checked to see if the panel was also subtitled "Best-Looking Actors You Can Think Of," but results were inconclusive). While Kim had plenty of success to share with the audience, he said that even now, his race is still an issue on his current show, Hawaii Five-0; in fact, it's affecting who he gets to knock onscreen boots with.

Speakeasy columnist Michelle Kung was on the scene:

THE CURSE OF QUON GWON, A 1916 CHINESE AMERICAN SILENT FILM, WILL HEADLINE NOVEMBER 6 DVD RELEASE SCREENING AND RECEPTION

LOS ANGELES, CA - Visual Communications is proud to present a special screening of the 1916 Chinese American film, THE CURSE OF QUON GWON, on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010, 3:00 pm, at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, in Little Tokyo, to celebrate the release of a limited-edition DVD anthology by renown filmmaker Arthur Dong.

The earliest known Chinese American feature film, THE CURSE OF QUON GWON was directed in 1916 by Marion Wong of the Mandarin Film Company in Oakland, Calif. One of the few films directed by a woman at that time, the 36-minute silent film is about the assimilation of Chinese in the United States. It stars the director, her sister-in-law Violet Wong, mother-in-law Chin Shee and Harvey Soo Hoo.

The Khmer Rouge ran what is regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most brutal regimes. Yet the Killing Fields of Cambodia remain unexplained. Until now.

In ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE the men and women who perpetrated the massacres – from the foot-soldiers who slit throats to the party’s ideological leader, Nuon Chea aka Brother Number Two – break a 30-year silence to give testimony never before heard or seen.

Judges have selected five finalists for the API TV Pilot Shootout.

Writers submitted their TV Pilot pitch idea for an opportunity to pitch their project to a FOX TV executive.

The top five finalists are: 
Amy Anderson “Amy Anderson Project”, Jared Asato “Supreme”, Benjamin Hsu “East Wilshire”, William Lu “Showrunners”, Roy Vongtama “The Zone”

The judges were: Ed Moy, a screenwriter and journalist for LA Asian American Movie on Examiner.com; Kelly Yee, VP of Development @ RipMedia Group, a social media marketing firm specializing in entertainment; and Susan Stark, pop culture follower.

The finalists will work with selected directors to make teasers for their projects.

The most anticipated film of the summer had its big Hollywood premiere at Mann's Chinese Theatre on Tuesday, and fans carrying both English and Japanese-language signs stood patiently behind barricades, waiting (some since 6am) to catch a glimpse of their favorite actors. Photographers crowded each other for shots of Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page. Security guards positioned themselves on either side of Leonardo DiCaprio as he walked along the street to greet his fans and sign autographs. One of the earlier stars to arrive, Ken Watanabe gamely waved at the fans, inciting cheers as he walked down with his wife Kaho Minami.

Film Review by Gary Huang - On the surface, Lt. Watada, is a straightforward film about one man’s efforts in opposing deployment to Iraq on the grounds that the war is unconstitutional. The director, Freida Lee Mock, takes us on a journey from when Lt. Watada was told by his battalion commander to gain as much knowledge about the military as he can, and Watada’s subsequent discovery from endless reading that the Iraq war is “illegal” and “based on lies.” Through the documentary, we see the David vs. Goliath battle of Lt. Watada against the US military system, and the difficulties both he and his family endure. What’s remarkable about the documentary is the way Lee Mock shows us just how difficult Watada’s fight was by taking us behind the scenes to personal interviews of the Lt., his family, and his many supporters.

9500 LIBERTY
Dir. Eric Byler & Annabel Park
USA | 80min

The Media Action Network for Asian Amerians (MANAA) will stage a protest of the new film "The Last Airbender" on Thursday July 1st at the Arclight Cinerama Dome on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood.
Guy Aoki, Founding President of MANAA, which is the only organization solely dedicated to monitoring the media and advocating balanced, sensitive, and positive portrayals and coverage of Asian Americans, has stated that "the film sends the message that Asians can’t be the heroes in their own story."

Bruce Beresford's Mao's Last Dancer to Screen
at 33rd Asian American International Film Festival

NEW YORK (June 28, 2010) -- Oscar-nominated Australian director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, 1989) will showcase his most recent feature Mao's Last Dancer at the 33rd Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF10) in New York City. The AAIFF10 is the longest running festival dedicated to showcasing the latest works created by filmmakers of Asian descent in addition to films that explore new constructs of Asian and Asian-American cinema.

Mavericks of Asian Pacific Islander Descent and Award Winning Actress/Director Elizabeth Sung and Producer Ken Choy Present Access Acting

A 6 week intensive Film acting course facilitating Access to artistic and business essentials Class limited to 10 max.

AAIFF'10 LAUNCH PARTY
Thursday, June 17, 7:30pm - 12:00am
Gaslight Lounge
(400 West 14 St. 9th Ave)

ACV invites you to celebrate the launching of our 33rd Asian American International Film Festival.

Come mingle with the staff and volunteers of AAIFF'10 and hear more exciting news about this year's lineup and special events. Bring friends and families for a night of awesome drinks, music and the best company and be the first to buy tickets to your favorite films!

** $5 Drink specials from 8pm- 9pm **
 

New York (June 14, 2010) --- Asian CineVision (ACV) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York (TECO) have announced a special presentation on New Taiwanese Cinema. The program will be presented during the 33rd Asian American International Film Festival from July 15 through July 24, 2010 throughout various venues in New York City. This unique showcase consists of four feature length films and two short film programs that bring together the works of Taiwan's new generation of filmmakers. TECO continues its commitment to promoting cross-cultural exchanges between Taiwan and the United States by joining ACV in presenting a program that highlights Taiwan's burgeoning independent film community.

Korean singer Park Jae-beom, former leader of popular boy band 2PM, has signed with U.S. online media company Digital Media Wire (DMW) to manage his career.

DMW announced on its official website (www.dmwmedia.com) Friday (U.S. time) that its CEO and entertainment lawyer Ned Sherman will be "representing artist Jay Park with respect to his global entertainment career."

"We are thrilled to be working with Jay," said Mr. Sherman in the post. "He is incredibly talented and has the work ethic, talent, charisma and fan support to have a big career on a global level."

He went onto say that it is "rare that you come across an artist like Jay. He really loves and cares about his fans and it shows. We are working on a number of big projects which we will be announcing soon.”

A brand new official trailer and one-sheet are available for THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD ( http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/the-good-the-bad-the-weird )!
In case there's anyone in the dark, this film is a ridiculously entertaining, beautifully whacky and action-packed riff on the western, with infused with epic wuxia/kung-fu action and relentless kinetic enthusiasm by Korean genre-wizard Kim Jee-Woon (A TALE OF TWO SISTERS).

It is to date the most expensive Korean film ever made, with a production budget of over $17 Million. Kang-ho Song, the star of THE HOST and THIRST will be a familiar face to audiences, and fans of TWO SISTERS' impeccable style and originality haven't seen anything yet.

Announcing the Asian Pacific Islander TV Pilot Shootout
Mavericks of Asian Pacific Islander Descent announces the 1st Asian Pacific Islander TV Pilot Shootout sponsored by FOX Diversity. The winner will receive the opportunity to pitch a TV executive at FOX.

Writers will submit a synopsis, logline, and sample pages from a completed original television pilot script as well as submit a video of a two minute television pilot pitch. The top five pitch ideas chosen by judges will be matched with directors who will also be selected by submission process. The directors will be given seed money partially derived from the entry fees and work with the writer to develop a 1 minute teaser of the pilot. Actors and production crew are also encouraged to apply to be considered for the chosen projects. Submission deadline for writers is June 9.