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Monthly Archives: November 2014
November 29, 2014 — Year in Review (Part 2 — New York in June)
New York in June could only be made possible by the hospitality of longtime friend Peer Just. A free place to stay in New York meant that I could funnel some of our funds towards filming two crucial interviews with Asian American scholar Judy Wu and the award-winning author Danke Li. Both provided important insights into Li Ling-Ai’s motivations and how World War II transformed the everyday lives of women in both the United States and China. Answering the last-minute call for camera help were our New York go-to DP Frank Ayala and another longtime friend Ruth Bonomo.
A visit to New York also meant I got to hang out with Calamity Chang, who has volunteered to record temporary voice over lines that allow us to edit our historical scenes. Calamity constantly inspires me by her willingness to embrace her performance instincts and bare it all in her wonderfully tongue-in-cheek burlesque shows. She also knows her Chinese history and promotes projects like ours that bring it to the forefront. Her musician/photographer husband Mike Webb put in hours of free time as our sound man while dog Chewie quietly put up with our intrusion. After a super long recording session on a sunny Sunday afternoon, we all needed a New York specialty cocktail.
Just being in NYC is a real shot in the arm for a filmmaker. Visual stimulation is everywhere and so are other artists whose very existence and work are like cheers from the sidelines.
Before my New York trip I got word that I received a fellowship to go to China to join a group of high school educators form Canada and New Jersey on a World War II centered study tour. It would be my first trip there, so China was on my mind.
Li Ling-Ai’s spirit is also close at hand when I am in NYC. Her great friend Larry Wilson offered to point out the third floor apartment where she spent most of her life on West 55th street. The breeze picked up and the trees outside the apartment did a dance as we looked up to the third floor.
November 29, 2014 — Year in Review (Part 1- More Editing)
Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since my last blog. Let me assure you, we have been busy and the film is progressing in remarkable ways. It’s just that sometimes a Facebook post is easier to do than putting down a whole blog paragraph. Thinking back on the past year, I groan at the thought of all the grant applications I wrote, and the many tweaks we made to our work-in-progress video. But I also have a great sense of accomplishment knowing that the film has gotten stronger with every grant application. The year contained several highlights, including breakthrough edit sessions, a production trip to New York, my FIRST TRIP TO CHINA, and a wonderful work-in-progress workshop on the prestigious LBGT film festival cruise Pride of the Ocean.
Because of the generous donations of a lot of people, we managed to get into the edit room several times this year. Turning 100 hours of accumulated footage into a compelling story is a time-consuming and often tedious process, involving hours of transcribing interviews, logging b‑roll footage, writing and re-writing narration lines, and hunting for obscure historical photos and film footage.
Luckily producer/editor Shirley Thompson has the real heart of gold she advertises and comes to work with a sharp storytelling scalpel. I took stock after our last edit session which ended the Friday before Thanksgiving — we are 1/3 of the way through our rough cut!! And the remaining 20 scenes are clearly mapped out and ready to be attacked as soon as more funding comes in.
It’s a great landmark in the life of our film. We couldn’t have gotten this far without the support of over 300 individual donors and the encouragement of film fans from far and wide.
Help us get to the finish line in 2015 with a tax deductible donation by clicking on the red donate button to the right. Continue reviewing FINDING KUKAN’s year in the next few posts.…