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Monthly Archives: October 2011
October 19, 2011 — FINDING KUKAN Excerpts Screen at Evening with Jiang Wen
Two work-in-progress excerpts from FINDING KUKAN (one in its first public showing) will screen as the “opening act” for the University of Hawai‘i sponsored Evening with Jiang Wen, the famous Chinese actor/director who is in Hawai‘i as the featured filmmaker for the 2011 Hawai‘i Intternational Film Festival.
Flyer for FINDING KUKAN Screening at University of Hawai‘i sponsored Evening With Jiang Wen
The evening should be a very special one, and bound to bring great exposure to FINDNG KUKAN. Check it out if you are in the area.or pass the word on to others. Note that the screening is free, but you need a ticket to get in the door. They expect a capacity crowd, so get your tickets early. They are available at UH Moore Hall 417.
October 3, 2011 — Crafting Story with Editor Shirley Thompson
Robin Lung & Shirley Thompson view FINDING KUKAN footage
When I first met Shirley Thompson back in June, I was already a fan of her work and instinctively knew that she would be a great long-format editor for my project. So I was thrilled when, at our next meeting, she voiced enthusiasm for FINDING KUKAN and agreed to edit the project once it got to the post production stage (assuming that schedules, financing, and all the other variables of documentary production work out).
Shirley Thompson edits FINDING KUKAN footage
When I needed an additional few minutes of footage cut for a grant application, I was very thankful that Shirley was available for a few days to help me out. I’m happy to say that my instincts were correct. Not only was Shirley a joy to work with — providing a beautiful, airy workspace; 2 cats to pet; and incredible chocolate snacks — she helped me sort through the small mass of footage I’ve collected so far and turn it into manageable chunks of story that added up to something really exciting.
Shirley creates beautiful post-it storyboards to help structure the edit session.
The result was that I was much clearer in my head about the kind of story I wanted to tell with FINDING KUKAN. And I was more confident about what I needed to film next to follow that story.
Shirley really is a story doctor. And I’m more motivated than ever to complete production and get back to the editing room with her. It’s an exhilirating experience.
July 23, 2011 — A Visit to the New York City Office of the National Archives
When I first started checking to see if Li Ling-Ai could have been the real life inspiration for the fictional detective Lily Wu, I tracked down some of her travels through boat records that are available on Ancestry.com. One of the Ancestry records was a New York Exclusion file that listed the date of her arrival in San Francisco. Going over the notes on the record again, I saw that Li Ling-Ai’s file included an interrogation. Since the interrogation occurred only a year before Li Ling-Ai met Rey Scott and conceived of making the movie KUKAN, I was anxious to read through the interrogation to see if it contained any clues. In July I finally got a chance to visit the NYC office of the National Archives where Li Ling-Ai’s Exclusion file is located.
Robin Lung examines Li Ling-Ai’s Chinese Exclusion File at the NYC office of the National Archives
It was amazingly well-preserved, and I had a lot of mixed emotions while examining it. On the one hand, I was excited to see a photograph of Li Ling-Ai in the file that I had never seen before and letters that were hand-written by her. Handling the documents gave me a very visceral connection to the past and to this woman that I have been pursuing for the last couple of years.
Li Ling-Ai’s Chinese Exclusion File
On the other hand I was appalled that this file existed in the first place. I had to think about the blatant anti-Chinese discrimination that led to The Chinese Exclusion Law — the reason for the creation of the file I was touching. I was astounded that a U.S. citizen like Li Ling-Ai (she was born in Hawai‘i in 1908 when it was already a U.S. Territory) who had a U.S. Passport (documented in the file) would have to spend days at the NYC Immigration Office in order to get a re-entry form that would make it possible for her to come back to her own country after leaving it! And that she would have to sit through an interrogation to prove that she was authentic despite all the other documentation she had made me even more indignant.
As a researcher, I was thankful to be able to access the revealing information in the file and draw both the positive and negative energy from it. So I have to acknowledge the hard work that goes into indexing, storing and retrieving these records. That day at the Archives I witnessed two volunteers who were laboriously going through files and entering data into laptops so that others like me could find information about ancestors and characters from the past. I wish I had gotten their names and taken photos of them if only to pay a small homage to all the others like them who have helped forward my investigation.
Documents in Li Ling-Ai’s Chinese Exclusion File
