Goodness for your mind

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!