Someone made a really cool poster for my short film, June, and uploaded it to the film’s IMDB page! Who are you, mysterious designer? I am impressed and flattered that you even did such a thing! Also, I love it!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3450012/?ref_=nm_knf_i2
And please leave a comment on YouTube. I’m sad it’s not getting more views. 😦
Some mini reviews for some short films in last night’s Bright Eyes, Queer Hearts youth shorts program.
Regalia: Pride in Two Spirits
A personal documentary about a young two-spirited gay Native teen. Reminded me of the Playing It Safe Project I took part in, a documentary series about street youth and HIV. There is enough info and story here to be conveyed through multiple episodes/films — ie. What it’s like to be two-spirited, how others in the clan/reserve reacted to his coming out, etc. — and overall, felt a bit overloaded.
Grade: B
Carina
A cute little film from Mexico about a girl who has a crush on her art/dance teacher. Fantasies of driving away together like in old films abound her imagination and with no one to talk to about her feelings, she decides to go for it. Well directed and filled with pop songs, Carina makes for an entertaining watch — until the unsatisfying ending.
Grade: B
Big Time– My Doodled Diary
I was surprised to enjoy this film. Sure, there isn’t much of a plot and a lot of it is told in the voice over of a teenage girl living in India in 1984, but the everyday occurrences, like how she thought her friend’s dog was named Penis, are charming and feel genuine of a teenager’s diary. Although I was looking for the queer aspect, it’s subtle and part of the surprise of the film. Also, more a Capella please.
Grade: B+
Caged (Uitgesproken)
After the understated beauty if cliched storyline of last year’s Jongens, I thought it was a one-off of Dutch culture and society. Apparently not. In Caged, the friendship between two running buddies is torn apart when one catches the other (unabashedly) making out with the only other seemingly gay kid in town. Such a plot is reminiscent of gay teen novels from the early 2000s, so it was strange to watch something that seemed so anachronistic. Doesn’t help that the bullies are big, yelling homophobic stereotypes — not to mention the predictable, unearned ending. Maybe this is actually representative of the Netherlands after all.
Grade: C+
Penguins at North Pole
A queer film from Taiwan? Am I dreaming? The fact that this exists is enough to get me on board, not to mention the fact that the familial conflict of traditional Asian mother was almost too difficult (because it was relateable and understandable) to endure. Two Taiwanese women plan on getting married but want to come out to their parents — one’s mother and the other’s father, respectively — first. The majority of the film is focused on the overbearing and flabbergasted (and borderline caricature) mother as she tries to deal with her daughter’s in love with a woman. At 30 minutes, it’s a little long and a little too cutesy at times. Nevertheless, the film’s warmth will likely win you over.
Grade: B
Check out my short film I made for a photography course I took a few years back!
Spent the day polishing up a TV episode for an original series I worked on with my classmates.
Read up on a couple articles for my Environmental Design class.
Watched Inside Llewyn Davis (fantastic film. One of my favourites from 2013, for sure).
Got super news today that a memoir piece I submitted to Existere has been accepted for publication. Hell yes! Proceeded to stomp around in pure glee in my kitchen upon reading the email.
Spent the rest of the evening looking up film festivals where I could submit my short film, June, and submitted to a whole bunch.
Sometimes, I think my personal motto should be I’m gay, and I get shit done.
I spent the past few minutes submitting my latest film I completed last year, June, to queer film festivals. Only I did it with a sense of defeat. I’ve been telling people for the last while that I’m starting to move away from film; having written and directed short films for the past few years and not gotten much out of it except for a cool thing I can boast about every now and then, filmmaking, as fun as it has been, is so difficult to not just make money from, but to get people interested in.
I’d love to get screened at Outfest, but they’ve rejected all my films, year after year. I’d love to win the Gerry Brunet Award, but I haven’t. I don’t make films for money, but when I put money (and hard work and time and all that) into something I do and don’t get nearly as much after, it leaves you feeling a little deflated.
As with music, the first artsy project I undertook when I was exiting my teens and entering the scary world of the twenty-something, I found that people just didn’t care. And it was hard to make people care, especially when I’m not the type to go around proclaiming how everyone should “listen to my cover on my youtube channel because I’m 5 years old and it would mean so much to me please!” I don’t know what it is. Maybe I just marketed myself poorly when I went around the city and played shows, shows where the other musicians were all guitarists and seemingly more approachable than a gay, Chinese kid playing sad songs on a keyboard.
I’ve been unpopular my whole life, but I guess I thought that people would see through that and get interested in my music because my music was quality. So when I quit music and turned to film, that cycle and that hope began again– only now, I’m declaring the film world the winner, and me the loser.
I like my films. I know they’re not perfect, and I know they may not be super fancy because they’re simple films, but I like to think they’re different and they have a certain quality to them. I like to think I have interesting stories to tell, especially with June, which I’ve spent almost two years developing. I guess I wouldn’t be so reluctant and unenthusiastic about sending out my short film if I didn’t have to pay a submission fee, since it’s not even guaranteed that my film will be shown. And even when it is shown, many film festivals don’t pay, at least not short film filmmakers. So I end up paying a festival to watch my work, potentially paying more money to send an exhibition copy of the film — all in exchange for some people watching my film for 6 minutes.
Is this good enough? Is exposure really good enough? Not for short films. Maybe for features, but most people, I think, don’t really think about short films after (unless they’re exceptional), and even then, it’s unlikely that short film filmmakers get their big break via exposure. It’s difficult for me to justify sending out my film to a festival I feel won’t screen my work when they won’t pay me for it, after I’ve spent a long time working on it. But what else can I do?
I’ll still be sending out June because I spent so much time and effort (and money) on it that it would be a waste to simply let it sit on my computer this year. In a perfect world, short film filmmakers would get more than just exposure. I make films — and music and I write — because I love it. But I can’t use love to rent out equipment for my next film and to pay for film transferring, and for all the people who worked on my film. Wish I could though.
It’s weird, but in a good way. I certainly haven’t come across many reviews for my films (although I’m really interested in knowing what others have to say to the point where I will google the hell out of myself and my films), so I was pleasantly surprised when I came across someone else’s synopsis of Stay on imdb. Here’s what they said:
Eric and Sam, two Asian-Canadian males, have just had sex with each other like they have had several times before. But like he has every previous time after their sexual encounters, in-the-closet Sam is going home to his parent’s house where he still lives, rather than stay the night at Eric’s. The actual act of staying the night becomes a symbol of the status of their relationship. Sam doesn’t ever foresee himself coming out as to upset his culturally traditional and religious parents, and thus he will always “go home” so as not to give his parents any indication of what he has been doing. In Sam not spending the night, Eric sees himself as just Sam’s fuck buddy, which has no emotional connotation. If Eric and Sam truly see each other as a boyfriend, Sam will soon have to make that symbolic leap of spending the night or else risk losing Eric. Written by Huggo
What a wonderful synopsis! Huggo gets the film, which is awesome. It’s a whole lot better than my short, tiny synopsis that was there previously. Thanks, Huggo!
Having trouble trying to find anyone’s reactions/reviews to the wonderful short films at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival’s Coast is Queer last week. I’m super interested in hearing what people had to say about my film, June (does that make me self-centered?)
Please comment, someoneeeeeeeeee…………..
Look at me! I’m so cool.
The Coast is Queer: June may very well have been inspired by a piano playing cat
A Vancouver Queer Film Festival veteran, June is the fifth short from Aaron Chan. A silent drama, June tells the story of a ghost that tries to communicate with his still-alive lover by playing piano in the middle of the night.
A silent drama, June tells the story of a ghost that tries to communicate with his still-alive lover by playing piano in the middle of the night.
Tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Aaron Chan, and I am a musician/writer/filmmaker/creative writing student at UBC. Oh, and I’m a Sagittarius, if anyone was wondering.
Who were your early filmmaking mentors or inspirations?
I started out in film making documentary shorts as part of the Playing It Safe project, co-funded by the National Film Board. Terri Wynnyk, who was one of the organizers of the project and a filmmaker herself, first got me thinking deeply about being selective about images and how they support a story on screen.
I also love older, classic films. Billy Wilder is one of my favourite filmmakers of all time; his natural gift for dialogue and humour and telling a story is amazing. Fritz Lang, Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin are also great at how they convey story and emotion with little to no words; I learned a lot of how to show, rather than tell, from silent films.
In terms of more modern filmmakers, I adore Wes Anderson’s sense of humour and the indie-feel of his films, Ang Lee’s grand visual style, and Hiyao Miyazaki because he’s just awesome and tells wonderful stories.
What inspired you to make June?
I woke up in the middle of the night one night and saw that the light on top of my piano was on. It could’ve been my cat, but I began thinking it was a ghost. When I couldn’t fall asleep again, because I was thinking about the ghost, I began constructing a story about why this ghost wanted to turn the light on and why it might want to play the piano. After that, the story came naturally to me and I when I grew attached to the script, I knew I had to try and get it made.
What challenges did you face while making June?
Oh god, what challenges didn’t we face while making this film? I think our biggest challenge was synching up everyone’s schedules to find a day that worked for everyone to film. Case in point: we had originally planned to shoot in December of 2011, but after many, many delays and difficulties, including finding someone with a piano that would let a crew mess around for a couple days we finally got to filming in July of 2012. More than half a year later, we finally filmed. Scheduling is definitely not my favourite thing to do.
What’s been the coolest experience so far with the film?
I actually finished the film only about a week [or two] ago, so it hasn’t really been anywhere. I’d say that the coolest experience with the film is having it screened at Out on Screen, for sure. Other than that, I think it’s really cool when the cast and the crew were able to relate so much to the emotion behind the film even though it’s a silent film, and it makes me, as a filmmaker and a storyteller, feel like I’m doing something right.
Are you a film festival newbie or have you had another film(s) at the Festival?
This is my fifth short film at the festival! I’m always surprised and excited every year to be a part of it.
What are you most excited to do and/or see at this year’s Queer Film Fest?
Honestly, I’m just really excited to see a lot of diverse queer films. The Lot in Sodom + Vintage Porn program is really interesting, especially since I do love older films (and vintage porn? I’m there!). I’ll also be attending the workshop with Michelle Tea (Book Your Own F**king Career) since as an artist, I need all the help I can get to ever live as one. I’m also planning to catch In the Name of and G.B.F. which looks like a lot of fun.
After a big fight with me and Premiere Pro last night and this morning/afternoon, June has officially been submitted to the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Whether or not it the disc works and will play is a whole other story, muahahahahahahaha!
I went to bed after 3am last night so it’s been a long day. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrr
aaron's random musings 