video i Season 13
#1307 - Original Airdate: Mon, February 11 at 11pm
It's all about LOVE!
Featuring 3 great films for all those romantics at heart
DAMN THE PAST! (DIR. JULI KANG)
Do you believe in love at first sight? Well, that's exactly what happens in this full-blown musical titled Damn The Past. When Gloria, a young woman whose only passion in life is to dance meets Mario, who's only form of communication is through song, it's a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, Gloria's controlling mother has promised her to another man. Can Mario find the courage to overcome his handicap to win the girl of his dreams and can they both break free from the weight of their past to start a new future together? For more about this film, visit the filmmaker's website at: julikang.com.
Filmmaker Bio
Juli Kang was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Los Angeles, California. She received her BA from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she majored in History, with a concentration on European Imperialism in the Third World. She discovered her passion for filmmaking while producing a documentary about refugee and immigrant youth in Philadelphia. Juli moved to LA to pursue an MFA in film directing at UCLA. Her films Princess Fever and The Liberation of Everyday Life have played at various festivals. She is the recipient of several filmmaking awards, including the Jack Nicholson Distinguished Student Director Award and the Edie and Lew Wasserman Fellowship in Film Directing. Damn the Past! is her MFA Thesis Film and was awarded with the UCLA Directors Spotlight Award and Student Awards in Excellence in Visual Design and Originality.
DEAR LEMON LIMA (DIR. SUZI YOONESSI)
A lonely girl with a vivid imagination struggles to plant seeds of love after her narcissistic sweetheart, Philip, breaks her heart. Vanessa spends the summer obsessing over the heartbreaking tragedy, while working with Philip who is her manager at the local ice cream shack. A chance meeting with angel-headed dorks Hercules and Nothing, enables her to overcome her heartbreak on a serendipitous summer day. For more information about this film, visit: sanguinefilm.com.
Filmmaker Bio
Suzi Yoonessi received the Jerome Foundation's New York Media Arts Grant for Vern (2004), which she wrote, directed and produced. Vern is in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and is being distributed by the National Film Network. Her film Dear Lemon Lima received a 2006 Jerome Foundation NYC Media Arts Grant, a 2007 All Roads Foundation grant, a 2007 ITVS Open Call grant and was recognized by 2007 Film Independent Writer's Lab. Dear Lemon Lima is also an official selection of the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, Nantucket Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival. The film received the Cross-Cultural Award at the China-American Film Festival, a Special Jury Recognition for Directing and Cinematography at the 41st Brooklyn Arts Council Film Festival and is a recipient of a Hamptons International Film Festival Golden Starfish Award. Yoonessi received her BFA from San Francisco Art Institute, and her MFA from Columbia University where she was a recipient of the FMI Directing Fellowship.
MEI (DIR. ARVIN CHEN)
A shy young man, Jian, works at a popular noodle stand in the bustling night markets of Taipei. He has always been in love with Mei, the daughter of the stand's owner. But though he has kept his affections hidden from her, things change when he discovers that Mei is about to leave for Taipei. She has long had dreams of moving to America, inspired by the tourists that come through the stand daily. Jian must now decide if he will finally reveal his feelings to her, or let her go. For more about this film, go to: meimovie.com.
Filmmaker Bio
Arvin Chen is an American born Chinese and the eldest son of first-generation emigrants from Taiwan (ROC). He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and studied Architecture and Visual Design at The University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, Arvin spent several years in Asia apprenticing with renowned international filmmaker Edward Yang (Yi Yi, A Brighter Summer Day) before returning to the States for graduate work at the University of Southern California's prestigious School of Cinematic Arts. In 2006, Arvin completed his thesis film Mei, a romance set in the night markets of Taipei, which won the Silver Bear at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival, as well as honors from the Directors Guild of America and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Arvin is now in preproduction on First Page Taipei, his first feature film, an international co-production with greenskyfilms. The project was recently selected for the Pusan Promotion Plan at the 2007 Asian Film Market. Production is planned for Fall 2008.
