RED RICE
7 minute short film
13-year-old JESS finds herself attracted to girls, and discovers that the excitement, flirting, and sexual experimentation for a teen is stressful. It is especially challenging when her conservative Chinese mother has a completely different idea on how Grace should behave as a “girl”. Mom chooses to ignore the glaring evidences of Jess’s sexual orientation and imposes her traditionalist values on Jess. Red Rice investigates a young girl’s development of homosexuality; it also touches on race and the tender moments girls experience during puberty.
STATEMENT:
Scholarly and Creative Research Agenda:
As a filmmaker, I aim to use the filmic experience to present stories that reflect my personal experiences, touch the human heart, and reveal a slice of life, in the hope that my audiences will find an echo in their own lives. Building on my own experiences as an immigrant to this country, I understand the desire of those who live in poverty to seek a better life abroad. It is human nature to dream of a better life. This core belief undergirds the ongoing theme of all my creative work: that all beings desire happiness and deserve the opportunity to pursue it.
Red Rice’s characters are close to me, they are collections of souls I have befriended over years in my own community. They are the families that invited me into their lives while mine was on the other side of earth. I see myself and my daughter in these characters. This is a story about the importance of family.
Filmmaking in Covid-Time:
CCC awarded RED RICE with Faculty Development Grant in Spring 2020, this was to be a co-production of Associate Professor Cari Callis and I. As creative partners, we had a successful collaboration on a short film in 2012 titled Towing, a short film that illustrates a female soldier’s PTSD experiences. The project was distributed through American Film Institute, won several awards including best women director and screened both domestically and internationally and was sold for distribution. We believe collaboration on this socially relevant film project will enrich our body of work as well as our teaching. Our collaboration demonstrates to our students that we as faculty members practice the skills that we require our students to demonstrate in this collaborative art form.
We plan to shoot RED RICE in Summer 2020 and complete it in Spring 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many unexpected changes. The rapid worldwide spread caused great disruption to every human life. We were excited to receive the Faculty Development Grant; we also were realistic that the prospect of film production in July and August 2020 was not possible.
Learning how the virus spread outside of US we knew we had to pivot with our production. We discussed what we could accomplish before the November 30 grant deadline without using camera, lights, and sound equipment from Cinema and Television Arts, working with cast and crew members on location and in preventing the danger of exposure to the COVID-19 virus. One thing we were clear on was what our goal was: to safely produce a film and tell the story of Red Rice using the resources available.
We create extensive storyboards for the project and waited until the moment was right to push forward for the production. In Spring 2021 Cari has decided to retired from teaching. She continuosly to support the project in the same capacity and we were able to shoot the film in summer 2021. It is now in the rough-cut stage.