"OCEAN OF PEARLS" AND "OH SAIGON" TAKE GRAND JURY PRIZES AT 24TH LOS ANGELES ASIAN PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL

AUDIENCE AWARDS GO TO "OCEAN OF PEARLS" AND "LONG STORY SHORT" WHILE SHORT FILIMS "TAILORMADE: CHINATOWN'S LAST TAILOR" WINS GOLDEN REEL AND "SWEAT" WINs NEW DIRECTIONS/NEW VISIONS AWARDS

LOS ANGELES, CA, MAY 8, 2008 - Director Sarab Neelam and his debut feature film "OCEAN OF PEARLS" took home the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature Film at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival presented by Honda and produced by Visual Communications as announced at closing night. Neelam, one of the few, if not the only Sikh filmmaker in the U.S., made an impressive directorial debut with a story of the Sikh experience in America with a script written by Veerendra Prasad based on a story by Neelam and Prasad.

The Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature Film went to director Doan Hoang and her film "OH SAIGON" - which tells her story of being airlifted from Vietnam in 1975 and arriving in the US to begin again, and going back 25 years later to follow up with the family and people she left behind. Moving and compelling the film illustrates the often unspoken effects of war on people.

Audiences at the festival agreed with the jurors and voted "OCEAN OF PEARLS" with the Audience Award for Narrative Feature, and embraced the non-fiction film "LONG STORY SHORT" from director Christine Choy and written by Jodi Long with the Audience Award for Documentary Feature.

Short films are a very important part of the Fest, and the Golden Reel and New Directions/New Visions awards reflect the best of these films. This year, the Fest awarded the Golden Reel to "TAILOR MADE: CHINATOWN'S LAST TAILORS" - directed by Leonard Lee and Marsha Newberry, while the New Directions/New Visions accolade went to SWEAT from director Na Hong-Jin.

The entire list of awards is as follows:

NARRATIVE FEATURE FILMS

GRAND JURY PRIZE: Ocean of Pearls, directed by Sarab Neelam with screenplay by Veerendra Prasad from a story by Neelam and Prasad

AUDIENCE AWARD: Ocean of Pearls, directed by Sarab Neelam with screenplay by Veerendra Prasad from a story by Neelam and Prasad

BEST FIRST FEATURE: Always Be Boyz, written and directed by John Kwon

TECHNICAL ART AWARD: Option 3, directed by Richard Wong with screenplay by HP Mendoza and Richard Wong

OUTSTANDING NEWCOMER: JIMMY TSAI - in the film Ping Pong Playa, directed by Jessica Yu with screenplay by Jimmy Tsai and Jessica Yu

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILMS

GRAND JURY PRIZE: Oh Saigon, written and directed by Doan Hoang

AUDIENCE AWARD: Long Story Short, directed by Christine Choi and written by Jodi Long

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: Up the Yangtze, written and directed by Yung Chang

HONORABLE MENTION: Long Story Short, directed by Christine Choi and written by Jodi Long

SHORT FILMS

GOLDEN REEL: Tailor Made: Chinatown's Last Tailors, directed by Leonard Lee and Marsha Newberry

NEW DIRECTIONS/NEW VOICES: Sweat, written and directed by Na Hong-Jin

HONORABLE MENTION: Sweat, written and directed by Josh Kim

This year's judges included:

SHORT FILMS
Roger Fan - actor (Annapolis; Better Luck Tomorrow; Finishing the Game)
Maysie Hoy - film editor (Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns; Joy Luck Club)
Eric Nakamura - founder and publisher Giant Robot
Suchin Pak - news reporter MTV NEWS

DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Tracie Lewis - programmer, Film Independent
Ada Tseng - director, UCLA Asian Pacfic Arts Online Magazine
Win-Sie Tow - manager, Sundance Documentary Film Program

NARRATIVE FILMS
Julie Asato - producer (Finishing the Game; Better Luck Tomorrow; Ethan Mao)
Brian Hu - film critic/professor Cal State Fullerton
David Maquiling - filmmaker/writer/professor - University of Southern California

Known globally as Southern California's largest and most prestigious film festival of its kind, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival presented by Honda launched the celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month through this year's slate of over 160 films and videos from both Asian Pacific American and Asian international directors from over 17 countries including the U.S. The festival was established in 1983 by Visual Communications - the nation's premier Asian American media arts resource center.

"Before the Rains," a film I did rewrites on, is currently in theaters.  Please visit www.beforetherains.net to hear some of the score, view the trailer, read reviews by Deepak Chopra (see below) and Mira Nair, and to see where the film will be playing near you.

What makes "Before the Rains" so touching is that it isn't what it seems to be about. It seems to be about a quietly good Englishman, a planter in south India, who wants to build a road to the top of a mountain.

He must complete this road before the monsoon rains arrive and wash away all his hard work. The road will bring money for him, jobs for the locals, and a better future.

But in Santosh Sivan's melancholy, lyrical, and intelligent film, this quiet Englishman stands for the tragic twilight of empire, and his "goodness" is rife with betrayal and arrogance beneath the surface.

He destroys the life of his mistress, unravels his family, and almost causes an innocent man to be found guilty of murder. How can goodness lead to catastrophe? The answer is wrapped up in the complex fate of three people who try to live in two worlds- traditional India and colonial Anglo-India- at exactly the wrong moment, when a fervor for independence is sweeping through the land.

Fueling the story, which unfolds with the reflective pace of E.M. Forster rather than the robust speed of Kipling, are three gripping performances. Linus Roache as the English planter Henry Moores (no coincidence that he echoes the name of Mrs. Moore from Forster's "A Passage to India") is trapped by a crushing moral choice, and his slow, quiet collapse is a symbol for every good Englishman whose moral shortcomings were tested in the era of empire. Nandita Das's extraordinary portrayal as the mistress Sajani is remarkably sensitive and very poignant. She is luminously in love but also terribly vulnerable. Her natural empathy for her character turns a potential victim into an emblem of feminine struggle. Sajani is overwhelmed by uncontrollable feelings and the forces of history.

Best of all is the man caught in the middle, T.K., the sahib's trusted foreman who must choose between the two worlds he can no longer inhabit. Rahul Bose sees more and says less than anyone else in the cast, yet his intensely moving performance is the linchpin of the entire story. It is T.K. who is trapped in the same dilemma as Fielding, the hero of "A Passage to India": Is it right to betray a friend or one's own people? How T.K. decides forms the climax of the film when he must either kill the Englishman who gave him a job, a future, and the only dignity he has known, or die for a crime he didn't commit.

In America, we've enjoyed a spate of films that read like nuanced short stories ("In the Bedroom", "Little Children", "The Savages"), and now it's a delight to find such layered sophistication coming from India. "Before the Rains" fully deserves to stand in that company. It unfolds along expected lines -- the classic Merchant Ivory costume movie from which we expect exotic scene-setting and just as exotic love affairs, only to wind up in much deeper waters. Touching and thought-provoking, "Before the Rains" doesn't set out to change our conception of how conscience came to grief as British imperial glory died, but it achieves even more. It makes us reflect on how we ourselves will feel when the dispossessed of the world rise to ask us for dignity, freedom, and love without past taints of condescension and guilt.

-Deepak Chopra, 2008

"Before the Rains," a film I did a rewrite on, will be released in theaters in NY and Los Angeles on May 9th and select cities on May 16th.

For more info on the release and to view the trailer and stills from the film visit the official film  website:

www.beforetherains.net

or see the trailer on youtube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q37yxRpKzx0

"Ocean of Pearls," a film I wrote had its World Premiere at the Miami International Film Festival this week.  Premieres in other cities including Mumbai, Los Angeles, and Toronto are forthcoming.

This winter, I return to my alma mater and my home town of Ann Arbor, Michigan to teach "Screen Arts and Culture 310: Screenwriting."  What makes this especially exciting is that I was a student in this class the first time it was ever taught at the school.

According to the course guide, the class "teaches students to write a feature-length screenplay in acceptable format. Students will learn to develop an idea first into a written 'concept,' then into a 'treatment,' 'step outline,' and finally into a full script. The course will focus on such subjects as screenplay structure, plot and subplots, characterizations, shots, scene, sequence, dialogue, thinking visually, and soundtrack. Students will also learn the importance of rewriting their work. As part of the process, the class will study select screenplays, then view the films which were made from these scripts."

When the term ends in April, I will return to Los Angeles for the Spring Quarter of UCLA Extension to again teach "Introduction to Screenwriting."

Screen Daily is the first of the trades to print a review of "Before the Rains" which premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and received a standing ovation from an audience of six hundred festivalgoers.

According to critic Allan Hunter, the film "has the feel of a careful literary adaptation" and that "there are echoes of Somerset Maugham and Joseph Conrad."

This upcoming quarter I'll be teaching the following class at UCLA Extension:

Introduction to Screenwriting I

X 430A  Film & Television 3 units  $375

Screenplay writing is a rigorous craft and, at its best, an art.  In this course, you learn all the key elements of writing feature film screenplays, including story structure, plot, scene development, characterization and dialogue.  Writing assignments guide you toward mastering the basics of screenwriting, which you use to conceptualize and begin work on your own script.  The course goal is to complete a step outline or beat sheet that prepares you to turn your story idea into a screenplay.  This course of its equivalent is a prerequisite for all intermediate and advanced courses in feature film writing.  Enrollment is limited to 20 students.

Reg T3960W

            UCLA: A152 Bunche Hall

            Wednesday, 7-10pm,

            October 3-December 12, 10 mtgs.

            (no mtg. 11/21)

            No refund after October 10.

Instructor Statement:

"The principles of dramatic writing are easy to learn but can take decades to master.  My hope is that by the end of my course, you'll have shaved a few years off that timeline.  The primary goal of the course is to start training your mind to think in terms of these basics dramatic principles so they become ingrained as you continue writing long after the last class.  It's less about fitting your stories into a paradigm and more about showing how the form can both spark you creativity and push it to the unexpected heights you can achieve when the critical and creative sides of your brain top battling and start working together."

"Before the Rains," a film I did a rewrite on, will have it's premiere as a Special Presentation at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.  The film, directed by Santosh Sivan, features a great performance by Linus Roache as a British tea plantation owner in 1930s India.  Nandita Das, Jennifer Ehle and Rahul Bose also star.

Sivan is one of the world's most acclaimed cinematographers and the film allowed him to turn his camera on the lush spice hills, tea plantations and waterfalls of his home state of Kerala.

The film was produced by Echo Lake and the production company is currently developing another project to be directed by Sivan, a ghost story set in India that I will be writing.

My feature film debut.

The last couple days consisted of mostly MOS shots (primarily transitional scenes where we see the main character, Amrit).

In one, we see him playing basketball.  I filled in as an extra.  Because I didn't have any basketball shorts or jerseys, I had the costume designer give me some OR scrubs so it would seem like Amrit was playing with some co-workers from the hospital.

The lead actor Omid and I played two-on-two against two local models (one of whom played college ball and was nice enough to lend me some shoes) while cameras rolled.  I got so into my "character" a couple times that I forgot to pass to Omid (you know, the one playing the guy the scene's supposed to be about).

Some shots that the editor, Jason, is allowed to use:

- my "character" hitting Amrit with a nifty Chris Webber-like behind the back pass.

- another nice pass from the high post where my "character" finds a cutting Amrit. 

Shots I will kill him if he uses:

- a drive where my "character" blatantly travels and then blows a layup.

- a post move that shows that my "character" clearly can't finish with his left.