During a panel on the future of Pasifika storytelling held in downtown Los Angeles Thursday evening by the Pasifika Entertainment Advancement Komiti, Peak co-founder and executive director Kristian Fanene Schmidt proposed a question to the participants: Should the AA be separated from the Pi in Aapi? The answer regarding Asian American and Pacific Islander representation in Hollywood is as complicated as the enduring fight for greater pan-Pacific presence onscreen, the panelists noted, though the undercurrent of the hesitant responses was indeed “yes.”
“Last night at the Writer’s Guild meeting there was an Asian writer who walked up on the question side and said, ‘I’m Asian, I’m an Asian American writer, and it’s Asian American month, and I screamed out, ‘What about the PIs?’” recalled Freddie Gutierrez, a writer for Nickelodeon’s That Girl Lay Lay, who hails from Guam. “She looked and she just kept on going.
“Last night at the Writer’s Guild meeting there was an Asian writer who walked up on the question side and said, ‘I’m Asian, I’m an Asian American writer, and it’s Asian American month, and I screamed out, ‘What about the PIs?’” recalled Freddie Gutierrez, a writer for Nickelodeon’s That Girl Lay Lay, who hails from Guam. “She looked and she just kept on going.
- 5/5/2023
- by Brande Victorian
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Taryne Laffar.
Taryne ‘Pinky’ Laffar has officially launched her own production company, Pink Pepper, boasting a diverse slate that includes a full docuseries based on Our Law, a comedy web series created by Clarence Ryan, feature film Red, and a six-part TV drama.
A descendant of the Bardi and Jabbir Jabbir nations, Laffar – who has worked variously as a writer, director, producer and in casting – has started the new venture with the aims of working with Indigenous and diverse creatives across documentary and drama.
Pink Pepper will also specialise in casting Indigenous and diverse talent, with Laffar also available as a freelance producer, writer, director, mentor and workshop facilitator.
The company’s debut project is documentary Our Law, following Australia’s first and only Indigenous-run police station, which recently screened in Sydney Film Festival and airs tonight on Nitv as part of Karla Grant Presents.
‘Our Law’.
With Periscope Pictures,...
Taryne ‘Pinky’ Laffar has officially launched her own production company, Pink Pepper, boasting a diverse slate that includes a full docuseries based on Our Law, a comedy web series created by Clarence Ryan, feature film Red, and a six-part TV drama.
A descendant of the Bardi and Jabbir Jabbir nations, Laffar – who has worked variously as a writer, director, producer and in casting – has started the new venture with the aims of working with Indigenous and diverse creatives across documentary and drama.
Pink Pepper will also specialise in casting Indigenous and diverse talent, with Laffar also available as a freelance producer, writer, director, mentor and workshop facilitator.
The company’s debut project is documentary Our Law, following Australia’s first and only Indigenous-run police station, which recently screened in Sydney Film Festival and airs tonight on Nitv as part of Karla Grant Presents.
‘Our Law’.
With Periscope Pictures,...
- 6/22/2020
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
Most portmanteau features are potluck. But “Vai” has a lovely consistency of style and content that heightens the accessibility of its unique value as a combined effort among eight native female directors from eight different Pacific Island cultures. The task of each writer-helmer was to create a 10-minute vignette from a fictive woman’s life, each segment advancing a decade or so forward, deploying a single continuous shot where possible.
The result is neither straightforward narrative nor polemical abstract, but instead an aesthetically pleasing meditation on womanhood and vanishing traditions — in places where those things have been under siege from various forms of colonialism for hundreds of years. Though offshore commercial prospects will be limited (Vendetta Films is releasing in New Zealand and Australia), this is a natural choice for festival and educational programmers seeking input from cinematically underrepresented communities.
“Vai” doesn’t really pretend to be the story of a single character — in fact,...
The result is neither straightforward narrative nor polemical abstract, but instead an aesthetically pleasing meditation on womanhood and vanishing traditions — in places where those things have been under siege from various forms of colonialism for hundreds of years. Though offshore commercial prospects will be limited (Vendetta Films is releasing in New Zealand and Australia), this is a natural choice for festival and educational programmers seeking input from cinematically underrepresented communities.
“Vai” doesn’t really pretend to be the story of a single character — in fact,...
- 5/30/2019
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
“Yellow Rose,” written, directed, and produced by Diane Paragas, was awarded the Grand Jury Award for outstanding North American narrative feature at the 35th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, which ran May 2-10.
Special Jury Awards for cinematography, actress and breakthrough performance went, respectively, to Ante Cheng for “Ms. Purple”; Maya Erskine for “Plus One”; and Eva Noblezada for “Yellow Rose.”
“Seadrift,” directed by Tim Tsai, took home the Grand Jury Award for North American documentary feature, while the jury-panelists gave Special Jury Awards to “Jaddoland,” directed by Nadia Shihab, and “Origin Story,” directed by Kulap Vilaysack.
The Grand Jury Award for international narrative feature went to “House of Hummingbird,” directed by Bora Kim. Jury Awards went to Leon Le for “Song Lang,” and to the directors ensemble of “Vai”: ‘Ofa-Ki-Levuka Guttenbeil-Likiliki, Amberley Jo Aumua, Becs Arahanga, Dianna Fuemana, Marina Alofagia McCartney, Matasila Freshwater, Mīria George, Nicole Whippy.
Special Jury Awards for cinematography, actress and breakthrough performance went, respectively, to Ante Cheng for “Ms. Purple”; Maya Erskine for “Plus One”; and Eva Noblezada for “Yellow Rose.”
“Seadrift,” directed by Tim Tsai, took home the Grand Jury Award for North American documentary feature, while the jury-panelists gave Special Jury Awards to “Jaddoland,” directed by Nadia Shihab, and “Origin Story,” directed by Kulap Vilaysack.
The Grand Jury Award for international narrative feature went to “House of Hummingbird,” directed by Bora Kim. Jury Awards went to Leon Le for “Song Lang,” and to the directors ensemble of “Vai”: ‘Ofa-Ki-Levuka Guttenbeil-Likiliki, Amberley Jo Aumua, Becs Arahanga, Dianna Fuemana, Marina Alofagia McCartney, Matasila Freshwater, Mīria George, Nicole Whippy.
- 5/11/2019
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
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