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Upcoming Screenings
Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009 2:16PM
Very excited to announce that "Yours Truly, Miss Chinatown" will be screening at the Asian American Showcase at the Gene Siskel Theater in Chicago this April! The Showcase is the biggest of its kind in the midwest and has supported emerging Asian American filmmakers early in their careers. Some notable directors who have been supported by the showcase throughout the early part of their careers are Jessica Yu, Justin Lin (“Better Luck Tomorrow,” Showcase 2002), Greg Pak (“Robot Stories,” Showcase 2003). More details to come!
Also the film has been invited to screen at Pitzer College in May, and Cal State L.A. as well. Dates TBA.
Really hoping to get the film out there folks! Stay tuned!
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Why?
Sunday, Feb 8, 2009 4:36AM
So this graduate student working on a thesis about ethnic pageants contacted me about the film. She watched it this is her response:
Hello Ms. Shapiro--
I have finally had a chance to watch your video and it is fantastic!
I appreciated the different (and competing) narratives. Thank you so
much for sending it to me. I will definitely be citing it in my
dissertation (I just don't know how just yet). I found the focus on
race particularly interesting. Was that really obvious when you were
filming or was that a focus that's important to you personally (It is
really important for me)? Could I ask why you decided to do a piece
on Miss Chinatown? Of all the newsworthy things to cover, what did
you find important enough so that you spent so much time on it?
I replied:
Glad you enjoyed the film. It definitely evolved in ways I never expected. In fact, when I started to make the film it was not about Miss Chinatown! I was making a broader film about Asian American women and I went to the pageant because I grew up with my parents going to all the pageants, and I simply was curious about them. Also I had met Kristina the performance artist and saw her act and thought it would be funny to meet the real Miss Chinatowns. To be honest, I thought I was going to go there and hear a lot of airheads say a lot of stupid things. Instead, I got really interested in them. Here they are, competing to be this icon of womanhood, of assimilation and success, and really they were just girls trying to figure out how to handle this confusing transition to womanhood.
They helped me to realize, that I was so afraid of being seen as a Miss Chinatown - demure, people (and parent) pleasing, like a china doll - that it was affecting my self image. In other words, I was so afraid of the stereotype, I let it control who I let myself be. I was rejecting a part of myself out of fear of being stereotyped. And I found that when I brought them down to earth, when I accepted them, I finally accepting a part of who I am. I am Chinese, I am a woman, I am dealing with many of the same issues that they are - body image, racial tensions, honesty, communication, etc.
So this had such a big impact on me, that I realized I had to focus the entire film on them, and it took me a while to decide this, and it was quite a painful decision because by then I had run out of money, and I realized I had to go back and shoot followup video myself, and then thankfully my editor said he would help me learn how to edit. That's why I went back 3 years later to shoot the follow up. Miraculously that was the year that Priscilla got pregnant and the 1st time in Miss Chinatown LA history that a half black half chinese contestant competed.
The race thing happened accidentally - it just happened to be what happened to Priscilla - I certainly had no control over that but a definite interest. So when I stumbled on her story I knew I wanted to follow it.
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Girl! (High Five Slap)
Monday, Oct 13, 2008 1:00PM
That's what Alex and I kept saying to each other in our sisterhood of the traveling pants weekend at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. All I can say is - it was just what the doctor ordered. We were both fuming from stuff that had happened last week and were ready for a getaway. Hookah in Glendale was not enough to take away our pain. First though, we had to stuff ourselves silly in San Gabriel valley - we discovered our new favorite dessert - passion fruit ice jelly drink - I had so much of it, I was literally in physical pain from it nearly bursting out of my stomach. Then we met our friend, Tina, and her boyfriend for a Chinese breakfast (fried bread strips dipped into steaming hot sweet soy milk, thin slices of marinated beef, pickles, and cilantro wrapped in a crumbly sesame cake.) Again, I ate until I was in physical pain.We drove down and tried to check into our hotel, a Best Western, but the clerk at the desk told us our reservation had been canceled by someone else! Turns out it was the festival staff - they had switched us over to the Town and Country hotel, a blast from the past (rat pack cool - palm trees, bright yellow seat cushions and white iron chairs, brown block lettering signs) where all the festival events were taking place. On top of that, they were paying for the hotel room. Cool daddio!We checked in at the festival hospitality suite and met some of the very friendly festival staff, and ate some of the food they provided there - they had all these interesting asian chips and crackers, and juices from the korean market - pear juice, muscat juice up for grabs. And we partook. We sat there, and truly felt we had arrived. Just imagine, I said to Alex, when we met five years ago at the House of Blues at Steve's party and the film was just an idea. Now it's real, and here we were, sitting poolside, enjoying the fruits of our labor.5 long years! Turns out, all the other documentary filmmakers we met said the same thing - "It took 5 years. It was hell." "Everyone kept asking me when I was going to finish the damn thing." But, just like after a long labor - once the baby is born, the pain doesn't seem to matter.Later on that night we attended the gala, and danced to 80's songs (Hungry like the wolf! Hungry like the wolf! Thanks Timo) at the karaoke night.Sunday was the big day. I kept telling Alex, "We could be the only 2 people at the screening," because I truly did not know who was going to show up. Much to our delight, the festival did a great job marketing and getting sponsors, and there was a great turnout by a multicultural crowd. They laughed, they cried. They asked good questions afterwards.On our way back home, Alex and I got into an animated discussion in the car. She was really struck by the statistic that Kristina talked about in the film, about suicide rates among Asian American young women. We talked about the pressure that we felt growing up to be proper, perfect, and poised - like a Miss Chinatown, and how we all had this mask on that hid our true feelings - and how this can drive you crazy! We talked about how life had taught us to reveal more of ourselves and peel away that mask, a sometimes painful process that was ultimately liberating.The day before Alex asked me whether I would make another film. I say, no way. Somehow by the time we got to talking back in San Gabriel Valley and after another order of passion fruit jelly ice, we decided that we wanted to try to make a narrative feature film with a similar theme! Stay tuned...
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San Diego Asian Film Fest Oct. 12th
Friday, Oct 3, 2008 5:14AM
Very excited about the film screening at the San Diego Asian Film Festival on Sunday October 12th 3:30p! http://sdaff.bside.com/2008/films/yourstrulymisschinatown_sdaff2008
I have always heard it's a fun festival and so Alex Tieu (Associate Producer) and I are going to road trip it down for the weekend! She missed the sold out screening in LA so this will be her first time seeing it. The response after the LA showing was amazing - more than 400 people showed up and most stayed for the Q & A.
Kristina Sheryl Wong, one of the film subjects, who was too scared to watch herself on the big screen, described in her hilarious blog people's responses to her afterwards:
http://www.kristinawong.com/2008/05/hocus-focus.html
I am happy to report that Kristina has since seen the film, and is no longer in the dark!
The International Documentary Association also wrote a review:
http://www.documentary.org/content/hidden-histories-revealed-los-angeles-asian-pacific-film-festival
People ask me, what is your purpose in making this film? I went into it thinking I wanted to show how Asian women were beating "stereotypes." But what I discovered during the course of this film was that what I really wanted to show was not how Asian Americans were "not this" or "not that (submissive, model minority, etc)." In fact I just wanted to show the multi-dimensionality and complexity of our experience - and our common humanity with everyone else. I wanted to hear people being totally honest. I also wanted to explore the dynamics of racism, and how sometimes we can shut out what is most precious to us, because we can't accept other people. What a shame, when we are all made of the same stardust!
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New Film
Wednesday, Jun 4, 2008 11:17AM
Hello everyone, heretofore is my first blog entry AnD.
Just wanted to thank Patrick Lee and Terence Yin for coming to the June 3rd Los Angeles premiere of a feature film documentary I produced entitled YOURS TRULY, MISS CHINATOWN. I been associated with Patrick Lee and Stephen Wang for quite a number of years when I was an strategic advisor to www.rottentomatoes.com These are guys are amazing! I've also hung out with Terence on a number occasions and also admire him (as well asConroy, Daniel, Andrew) for his activism, passion and dedication to artists.
Though I've supported and promoted quite a few Asian American films in LA through www.apex.org and www.drinkschatter.com, this is the first one that I am formally involved with. I'm really proud of the director, Daisy Lin Shapiro, who took FIVE YEARS to make this puppy! It's essentially about three women who aspire to be Miss Chinatown and somehow end up finding themselves (or who they are not) in the process. As they go through three years of their life -- issues of Chinese identity, family expectations and along with interracial relationships come up. We premiered at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival and have applied to a variety of other festivals.
If you want to check out the trailer go to www.yourstrulymisschinatown.com
P.S. I was in HK when AnD launched in April 2007 and was lucky to be in HK again, a year later, for the AnD 1-year Anniversary party. I'm just amazed at the dedication of the AnD folks. You guys have really built a strong following globally. Happy birthday again AnD!
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- Stephen Christopher Liu is a social entrepreneur and media executive...
- Occupation: Film/TV Producer , Magazine Editor , Dining critic
- Gender: Male
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