Welcome to "That Asian Thing" News! Check here often to find out what's going on with the documentary, production notes, ideas, viewings, and random thought releases from the director. Don't forget to click on the links to find other realms of "That Asian Thing." Thank you for coming and keep up the support!
Hey guys and dolls! It's a new month in the summer season, so I hope you've taken advantage of some good weather. On top of that, why not go watch some great indie flicks!??!
"That Asian Thing" will be screening at the end of this month and on top of that, we got an "Honorable Mention" award. Check out the following:
WHERE: AMC Downtown Disney - 1565 Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, CA 92802
WHEN: Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 5 p.m.
TICKETS: Via online purchase is $10/adult. Make sure you change the "Showing On" date to Tue., Aug. 25th, to see "That Asian Thing" at the 5 o'clock slot. Here's the website:
Please tell all your friends, family, peeps, disciples, kittens, and Disneyland characters! We definitely want a great showing as we're not far from Los Angeles and you just never know who'll come out for a screening...
THANKS to all the IndieFest crew and communications personnel. Nothing but good emails have been sent to filmmakers and it looks to be a good festival - one you don't want to miss!
Thanks for the recognition from the Indie Gathering peoples and big handshake to Ray Szuch for being patient with the delivery of our film. Thank you, thank you!
PROPS TO INDIE FLICKS!
I just wanted to say big ups to all the Indie Film Festivals out there. It's always such a great opportunity to showcase your work and get the experience of displaying it in front of an audience (beyond your immediate circle of friends/family). I also wanted to say big ups to all the other indie filmmakers out there. Congrats if you're participating in either of these film festivals and hope to hear more from your camp.
WHAT: "That Asian Thing" Screening @ Indie Fest USA 2009
WHERE: AMC Downtown Disney - 12; 1565 Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, CA 92802
WHEN: Tuesday, August 25th at 5:00 PM
WHY: Why not?! Because "That Asian Thing" is hitting up it's 4th Film Festival since completion and if you haven't caught it yet, what are you waiting for?! The Asian-American population in California is in high percentages and we want the community to come out and support!
We also wanted to give props to the Indie Fest USA people and say thank you for their consideration to participate in their event. As well as their association with B-Side for helping create our film profile page.
Spam emails will fall out of the skies to our peoples on the west coast. Sorry for any over indulgence but we'd like to hype this up to maximum capacity. Let's rock the AMC and let them know our community can represent!
Yeeehaw! "That Asian Thing" is still pumping out that good Asian-American notification per film festivals and colleges/universities across the nation. We've just learned that we've been accepted into the Indie Fest USA 2009 Film Festival. The letter kicked it like so:
"Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that your film has passed our three round screening process and is now an "Official Selection" of the 2009 INDIE FEST USA at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, California.
Don’t forget to mark your calendar for the festival dates, August 22nd – 28th, 2009. There are many exciting changes this year, more events, seminars and let’s not forget the opening night reception and the closing night awards show and Gala! Plus our concert series, Special Guests and Celebrities."
Therefore, if you and/or your friends are in the Anaheim area in Cali, please check out our film. Our screening time is:
"That Asian Thing" Screening Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 5:00 pm in AMC Downtown Disney - 12
More info to follow!
SUMMARY OF PAST EVENTS:
Since we havent' updated our peoples for awhile, we should at least post up some images of traveled past. From our last post, Writer/Director, Jonald Reyes, took part in a panel discussion at Northwestern University. The great Mr. Tatsu Aoki was very generous in giving us another platform to reach out and speak to the college crowd. With friends on side (Amy Homma, Harrison Pak, and Mia Park), we were able to talk to the Northwestern community about our practicing art adventures. For myself (Jonald), it felt good to talk out the issue of gaining more recognition to Asian-American arts.
Like I usually do, I was able to pick out certain aspects of "That Asian Thing" and bring them into conversational pieces. For instance, I always like bringing up Tatsu's p.o.v. of instilling Asian/Asian-American pride to the community. We do this art to speak to people and want them to understand our culture. In turn, people within the community should gain a better sense of pride of our culture. Not even just one ethnic group, but for the whole Pan Asian spectrum.
This is also a shout out to Harrison from Stir Friday Night, as I brought up my own experiences from Second City and shared how humor is used as a device to express these cultural differences (the good and the bad). This aspect of humor has also brought up a new viewpoint to myself and how the community responds to the artform. As most racially energized topics, humor mixed in can institute a sensitivity factor. To some, things may be understood as funny, whereas to others, it can come off as offensive. How do we know when we've crossed that line? Just something to ponder and question about in comparison to how other races react to the joking of their own race.
And as another note of past adventures - the Skokie Public Library experience was amazing! The audience in attendance was very attentive to "That Asian Thing" and the Q&A portion afterwards. I was very happy to see an older crowd at hand and hear what they thought of the film. I'd also like to acknowledge a lady and her two kids - one of which is a writer. They came up to me after the Q&A and asked for advice from my own writing experiences, to which I said what I've always been taught from almost all my writing instructors - "Just keep writing!"
Thanks for keeping up the support y'all! More info to come on the Indie Fest USA!
Yes, it's been quiet on this blog for awhile, but we've no doubt been busy with new projects and networking ventures along the way. So here's our up-to-speed reports!
THE SLANT TV:
Let's get crackin' with what's been on the forefront recently. After our last post regarding the new project on a public access television show, we've been taking it to new levels with each step of the way. "The Slant" (http://www.theslant.tv) is a magazine style, entertainment news media show packed into a half-hour punch. Just like "That Asian Thing," we've taken the Asian/Asian-American culture to lengths of exposure by delivering Chicago's great talent. And what's even better is that we get local and in-depth on the intertwined Chicago culture by featuring Asian/Asian-American related restaurants, clubs, bars, and organizations. We've got a young crew that works hard in getting up-to-date styles, cultural issues, and cool people involved. So check it out! Here's our last uploaded episode:
If you're in the Chicago area, pop up your rabbit ears or tune in thru the AT&T cable package, and pop on KBC-TV (Channel 41 on public access) every Thursday night at 6 p.m. and replay at midnight! Do it! You know you want to....
ASIAN AMERICAN ARTS IN PRACTICE:
Thru the various projects taken on and continuous pursuit to open up eyes to the Asian-American culture, Northwestern University's Asian-American Studies Program has put together a panel of Asian-American artists to display their art. Jonald Reyes, Director of "That Asian Thing" and Executive Producer of "The Slant" will be part of this one-night event. He's put together a short video portfolio of his works in television and film to fit his 20 minute presentation. This short includes footage from the Director's Cut of "That Asian Thing" which is completely different from the final product; his works with the Korean American Community Services; his music video with Chicago's hip-hop group, Contriband; and of course, footage from episodes of KBC-TV's "The Slant." Here are links/info for your stalking purposes:
What: Asian American Arts in Practice Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009 Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Northwestern University, University Hall, Room 102 Street: 1897 Sheridan Rd. City/Town: Evanston, IL
As we are in the midst of Asian-American Heritage Month(s)...
[Ed. Note: I like to say monthsssss because some colleges celebrate it in April due to Final Examinations in May and others celebrate it in May cause we can rock it out for two months!!. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Pacific_American_Heritage_Month ]
...the Skokie Public Library (http://www.skokielibrary.info), has given "That Asian Thing" the green light to showcase the documentary. First, thanks to Richard and the Skokie Public Library for taking our film into consideration and seeking us out to participate! Next, if you haven't seen this film yet - we urge you to come out! Here are your details:
WHAT: "That Asian Thing" Screening w/ Director Q&A to follow WHERE: Skokie Public Library, Petty Auditorium - 5215 Oakton Street, Skokie, IL 60077 WHEN: May 15th @ 6:30 pm WEBSITE: http://tiny.cc/ng3Sm
Also be sure to check out all the other events from the Skokie Public Library as for the most part they're free or low costing. They do lots of great things and what's that?? Why yes - it's truly is a library too with awesome books to boot! Can't go wrong with that!
JONALD'S THOUGHTS:
If you've followed me for awhile, you've gathered that my first true passion is writing. Doing "That Asian Thing" was great experience to get a film together and get my feet wet in the experience. But back in the day, all I did was write, write, write. And now we're back to write, write, write. I'm pushing my screenplay out as much as possible and really hope to start production on this by the end of this year. What I hope is that my storytelling capabilities and "Jonaldian" lexicon surpass critics and become understood for playful interpretation by viewers. This isn't a precursor to cushion a blow of pushed comedy nor art house, experimental writing, but what this section of a post is for, is for therapeutic release. As a writer (if you can relate), you read things you write over and over again which sometimes makes you a bit unsure of yourself. However - you just gotta keep pushing and get all this stuff that's in your head on paper. What was great about the Second City Training Center was that they helped kill your internal editor from incorporating what's p.c. Don't get me wrong, they also help establish great structure and reasoning to character dialogue, but they helped release boundaries that places like work or even certain scholarly teachings may have ingrained into a writer's head. So with this....I just wanted to say - keep on truckin y'all! If you're working on a project of your own and feel like you're at a dead-end, believe me, we've been there before. Just keep pushin and good luck!
Whether you're on the conservative trail, liberal end, left vs. right, or even completely independent on viewpoints - you must admit that today's inauguration of Barack Obama is "change." There is a new face of America and it's is now of minority background. And how does this relate to "That Asian Thing"? PLENTY!
There was a scene within the documentary where Laura Kina took my question of "Why is Asian-American culture important?" and moved it around to ask the question "Why is African-American art important?" Then she went into detail of when she was in school and found African-American art form fascinating and how one of her first role models was Romare Bearden. Laura then made a parallel viewpoint saying that African-American culture is important, just as Asian-American culture is too - "We just have to see it..." (Laura said).
So please take today as a moment in history when the United States of America made change happen.
EXPOSURE:
I've been getting emails and facebook messages on the Jonald Reyes article in the new issue of Rutgers Magazine. YAY! Looking over the bio, you'll learn that Jonald is a Rutgers University (New Brunswick) graduate and is also an active member of the R.U. Club of Chicago. So he definitely has the Scarlet fever! For y'all staying posted via internet, here's the article:
Many, many thanks to all the Rutgers Alumni Association people that made this article possible (including Lori Varga, Shannon Allen, Matt Manfra, and Adam Torrisi). The online version is a shortened version compared to the actual magazine article (as I was told), so for you Rutgers alumni, please check it out. And if you're a Rutgers alumnus that doesn't get updates/emails/magazine, check out what to do online:
On a ripple from the "That Asian Thing" pebble that dropped in a pond, Jonald was contacted by a local television studio. This studio was originally purchased to accommodate to the Korean community within the Chicagoland area, and still does! However, as years have passed, more shows have been created and on-air time has been distributed to other Asian communities, which in turn has made it Chicago's Asian-American Network.
Channel 41 (on local sets) WOCH-CA, KBC-TV Chicago has been active in reaching out to more people in the Asian/Asian-American community and currently has a show entitled, AAN News (http://www.aanwoch.com). With this feisty, young crew at hand, Jonald was given the creative freedom to produce a magazine style, entertainment news show. And now....this is where he stands.
Come February 5th, "The Slant" will debut on Channel 41 KBC-TV at 6:30 pm (re-broadcast at midnight). More news will come on the website and viewing online. Stay tuned!
WRAP-UP:
If you read the Rutgers Magazine article, Jonald has already completed the Contriband music video and that will be uploaded unto his upcoming Groovy Ghost Production website which is now in the works. This will hopefully launch by April 1st (yes, April Fool's Day!). Screenplay for the new project is currently in writing mode and if plan goes accordingly, shooting can hopefully start by Fall.
"That Asian Thing" is still being entered into film festivals and is still open for various screening opportunities. Don't hesitate to contact us.
