Winner: The Perfect Donor

My teammates and I had the great excitement of learning that our short film, "The Perfect Donor," was awarded second place for the Asian American International Film Forum's 72-Hour Film Festival! Truly a rush, working on this short film! And I mean that in more ways than one: yes, it was exciting, but it also had to be written, filmed and edited within 72 hours, as per contest rules. The film also had to be under five minutes long, and address issues of xenophobia and sexism.

The theme was announced on a Thursday night at the beginning of June, and after a long night with not a lot of sleep, the talented crew and cast gathered in Brooklyn at 7am on Friday morning, adding offerings to the pot-luck-style craft services, and enjoying the cat, Iggy, who resided in our donated location. With tired brains, we chipped away, finishing everything we set out to film within one day. The director, Jatin Chhugani, then set to work making movie magic: editing, color correcting, fixing sound.

Sam and Erin (the marvelous Suzie Cho, and me) unapologetically explain genetic racial profiling.

It was an honor to win second place, but it was also rewarding to see the work of the other teams- many unique voices telling stories, using art to ask questions. My two favorites were "Noise," beautifully shot by a husband and wife team, telling a story of all the questions, comments, and other "noise" that surround them and their bi-racial daughter. I also loved one from LA called, "Unwelcome," that felt like a futuristic Romeo and Juliet, with humans and aliens.

Stay tuned- I can't wait to share our film with you!

Cast:

Suzie Cho, Kaylin Lee Clinton, Patrick James Walsh, Jeremy K. Cottrell, Jeff Miles

Crew: Jatin Chhugani, Amanda Evans, Christian Kircher, Jason Woodsum