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  • "Passion, hardwork, perseverance, it's all I know"

James Z. Feng Videos

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  • Austin Asian-American Film Festival Day 1 in Texas

    Friday, Oct 10, 2008 10:31PM / Members only

    I’m in Austin, Texas ya’ll!!! I’m currently at the Austin Asian-American Film Festival, if ya’ll in the area, come by Saturday for my film’s Texas premier.

    It is now day two of the AAAFF, and I sit here awake at 7:30am still suffering the lingering effects left by Arthur Dong’s Hollywood Chinese, a feature documentary about the history of Asian-American filmmakers/actors from early Hollywood to today. I highly recommend this film for anyone.

    The scene I can’t get out of head from this documentary is crowd’s reaction against Justin Lin and Better Luck Tomorrow crew Q&A session at Sundance film festival when one gentleman shared with the audience his distaste for the film due to racism(my own opinion) by saying the film degraded Asians, and I applaud Roger Ebert for coming to stand up for the Asian-American filmmakers by literally standing on his chair and screaming “You wouldn’t say that to a white filmmaker”. My first reaction was “WTF?”; how could someone who was not Asian-American judge what degrades our own culture and identity? That guy was VERY lucky it wasn’t me there at the Q&A because I would’ve shredded him and embarrassed the hell out of him. I don’t think the dude would be saying the same stuff at a Spike Lee’s Bamboozled premier in New York? No, because he’d THINK there’d be a ton of black gangsters waiting to beat his ass since blacks are suppose to be violent, right? And supposedly, he can do what he did to Asian-Americans because we’re suppose to be soft, right? please…  I thought we were beyond that.

    What bothered me was not the fact that this non-Asian American ignoranus would come out and say Lin embarrassed Asian-Americans by making BLT; what both bothered & surprised(maybe even SHOCK) me was the crowd’s reaction in support of the man after his comments. People were applauding and agreeing with him in an effort to embarrass Lin and the crew who were all standing in the front shell-shocked not knowing how to react. Let me ask again: Do you think he would be doing the same thing with Spike Lee’s? At a Jungle Fever premier today? I don’t think so…

    It is during times like these that we see the true colors of a lot of people. Seeing all those noding head, clapping hands, “YEAH!” yelling supporters lead me to believe they were doing so NOT because they agreed with the man’s base-less argument; but because of racism. Or maybe I am wrong, and all the people agreed because they also wanted to HELP another culture by discerning FOR US what is right and wrong… Hmm… What do you think? On my account, maybe I’m dilussional, but I thought I saw some faces filled with sheer joy and satisfaction who were salivating to see the kind of reaction Justin Lin and BLT crew would give back. I personally would have liked to see the response from Lin and company(hopefully it was going to be a good one), but I’ll take Roger Ebert’s support anyday!  I think out in Cali, we take for granted how diverse everyone is while there are still pompous ignoranuses out there.

    haha. Ok, enough with the hating, let’s see some pictures:

    WTF?
    WTF?
    This movie theatre serves food INSIDE THE THEATRE!!! While you watch, people come and take your order and bring it to you! GENIUS! Infront of you is a table for food.

    This movie theatre serves food INSIDE THE THEATRE!!! While you watch, people come and take your order and bring it to you! GENIUS! Infront of every row is a long table for food. DINNER AND A MOVIE at a movie theatre! We gotta bring this to Cali

    This is you if you mess with me

    This is you if you mess with me, hahaha




  • "600" Poster, which one?

    Wednesday, Oct 1, 2008 1:59AM / Members only


    or
    Just came out, this is 1st draft, still needs some work I think. I'm thinking about going with one of these as the DVD cover. Digging it? 
  • Vancouver Here I come!

    Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 5:05PM / Members only

    Just got notified acceptance into Vancouver Asian Film Festival ! Craziness! November 6th-9th, a few weeks right after my Austin stop. Anyone gonna be in Vancouver during those dates? hit me up, I'll be there! I would love to meet up w/my Canadian homies. Btw, very busy lately... more updates coming once I get done with a few things. =)
  • Looking for MMA fighters

    Saturday, Sep 6, 2008 10:56AM / Members only

    Hey all, I'm currently looking for real life mixed martial arts fighters(any level, as long as they are pursuing mixed martial arts and goal is to fight a real official fight) to audition for a project, if any of you guys know people who fit this profile, please send me their contacts, I really appreciate it, thanks so much!  
  • Trying to Grow

    Tuesday, Sep 2, 2008 4:13PM / Members only

         Been real hectic these last few weeks!

    3 jobs (1 full, 2 PT) + studying/learning filmmaking + publicity for "Drowning" + Hiring web guy to redo my website + helping friends w/projects = busy!!!

    I must say that right now this journey I'm experiencing is probably what most people who want to make movies go through. I read up some books recently about famous directors and how they made their first movie. Ang Lee's story was pretty sad, he was like a hyped up director fresh out of NYU, and then 6-8 years of "development" disappointment before Taiwan organization finally funded his first film after he had won their screenwriting award for his first 2 scrīpts. Lee was a fresh NYU grad with a lot of hype and believed in his abilities for 8 years and never quit, and just stayed home doing lame jobs like translating and writing articles for magazines which he hated. He had about $12 bucks left in his bank account at one point when he went to buy diapers for his son. Lee's son acted in his first movie and wasn't very cooperative the first day of shooting, so he had this to say to his son "If this doesn't work out, we'll all be in the streets, so please help dad". His son never complained again after that day. I don't know if I'll be able to handle 6-8 years of nothing and hustling without any income and results(I don't think I can). And you can imagine the pressure for Lee since his wife was making the dough to support their family for all those years. Sometimes i ask myself "do you want to go make a lot of money right now and go buy a nice car and put a downpayment and get a house?" and sometimes my brain says "because you CAN do that! all you gotta do is just quit this film thing", but I always look down that path and realize I'll never be happy that way, and will regret it, but I won't deny these thoughts sometimes popping up in my head once in a while. Especially since most of the money I am making all goes to the filmmaking aspect of my ventures, hahaha.

    I realize for a lot of people filmmaking is the only thing they know, so they kind of had to stick to it even during the tough times. For me it's a little different since I have a lot to fall back on, and sometimes that's not always a good thing since you tend to think "ok, I'm going to do this if this doesn't work out". But I'm able to block that out and just focus on what i'm doing, b/c I'm the type of cat that'll get deep into something until I know for SURE whether I'll succeed or fail at what I do before finally making the decision to quit one day, and so far, I'm very optimistic with everything that's happened with my life and career thus far, but in this business, you never know what's going to happen. I'll just have to keep reminding myself that "hype is not real", and to never let anything affect the way I work and to always maintain myself and staying true no matter what comes my way. My deadline is I got two features locked away in my brain, and I want to get those made, and if those two don't work out, then I'll be doing something else. So I got all my eggs in these two baskets, and I plan to do the first film to test the waters and gain experience, so I got more eggs in the 2nd basket than the first. To really believe in something is a great feeling, and that feeling can make you endure a lot of hardships that most people wouldn't be able to take. I remember at times when I was in China and working 16 hour days and visiting hospitals inbetween down time between two sets to get my health checked out, and lying in the hotel room feeling like crap and asking myself "what are you doing? is this worth it?" and the feeling of wanting to cry because I was so alone and facing all these obstacles and pressure. In the end, being able to live through those nights and be able to convince yourself that your doing this because only if you do this can you reach the POSSIBILITY of getting a shot at your dream one day. So I took it. All the bullshit, hardship, whatever, all that couldn't really faze me because I knew the grander scale of things and why I was in it. On certain projects working for almost free of charge, but squeezing contacts and getting to know crew members and connecting with other filmmakers on set, and being hungry and observing and learning from everyone, asking myself "why are they doing this? why are they doing that?" and if I couldn't figure it out, I'd go up and ask them, that's the only film school I know.

    For those that have truly helped me, I sincerely hope they'll be with me one day when I'm shooting my films. I want everyone to succeed with me who have believed in me, and all this is beyond money. I get real emotional reading all these stories of people believing in something and working together on it and slaving over it, that's my dream and goal, is to accomplish that and creating something with people who have the same ideals and goals as you and all of us coming together for it. People ask me why I wanna make movies, there's your answer. It's a natural high that most people wouldn't be able to experience, and to have it manifest on screen and be part of a successful film, that's just a beautiful process and feeling that you won't ever forget. I haven't really been deterred, and am keep working and hustling, and in everything I do, I look at that grand picture in my head and knowing that I am capable of making that vision a reality is something that makes me smile all the time. Those are the reasons I do what I do despite what others may say or think. Keep my eyes on the prize.

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  • posted on Friday, Oct 10, 2008 6:12PM  [Report]
    thz for the visit ~ became your fan !

  • posted on Wednesday, Oct 8, 2008 3:48PM  [Report]
    hello sir
    howz u.howz your work going on.

  • posted on Monday, Oct 6, 2008 12:18AM  [Report]
    HI 哈哈····can u speak chinese?```

  • posted on Sunday, Oct 5, 2008 8:16AM  [Report]
    Hellooo
    Nice to meet U here...=.=

  • posted on Saturday, Oct 4, 2008 5:09PM  [Report]
    thx for your reply and we can keep in touch...

  • posted on Saturday, Oct 4, 2008 3:33PM  [Report]
    (*^__^*) 嘻嘻……

  • posted on Thursday, Oct 2, 2008 5:44AM  [Report]
    my name is nicole...nicole to meet you ...and i hope to be friend with you...you can leave messages for me in my website in alive not dead
  • Official artist
    posted on Thursday, Oct 2, 2008 12:20AM  [Report]
    man, i dont see the difference btw that 2 posters, or am i blind? pretty cool what is it about? where r u nowdays? i m in nyc

  • posted on Sunday, Sep 28, 2008 12:23PM  [Report]
    what's up? guess nothing important coz u didnt leave message. hope all is well.
  • Official artist
    posted on Tuesday, Sep 23, 2008 7:12PM  [Report]
    thanks...
  • More comments >

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  • Indie Filmmaker, actor, rapper, writer, producer. Well... where do we begin? James Z. Feng's the name, been to Shanghai for almost 2 years now, came here straight out of college to do an indie film, t...

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  • Occupation:  ActorDirectorScreenwriter
  • Gender: Male
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