Posted in Entertainment Interview

Canadian Screen Awards 2024 Nominee Quentin Lee Broke the Stand-up Comedy Monopoly in Canada

Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s nomination of independent creator Quentin Lee’s Comedy Invasion series for Best Comedy Special broke the Canadian stand-up comedy monopoly long held by Canadian Broadcast Corporation, better known as CBC. For the freshly established category of Best Comedy Special, the three other nominees all belong to CBC. Rejected by Canadian broadcasters from development to distribution, creator Quentin Lee funded the 8-part series by themself and distributed the series through their own niché streaming platform, Asian American Movies aka AAM.tv. As a supporter of independent cinema and media, CHOPSO took the opportunity to speak with creator Quentin Lee on their surprising nomination at the Canadian Screen Awards 2024.

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Posted in Entertainment Interview

Rika Ohara’s The Heart of No Place

Rika Ohara’s experimental feature “The Heart of No Place” imagines the life of Yoko Ono after the death of John Lennon. Rika herself plays the titular character Y. in her feature directorial debut that won accolades on its initial film festival circuit screenings. As the feature drops today on AAM.tv, I have interviewed Rika on her looking back at her own feature film.

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Posted in Entertainment Interview

Nathaniel Dolquist Created Hulkling and Wiccan

On Saturday, March 9, 2024, I was invited to the world premiere of the fan fiction web series Hulkling and Wiccan, produced by and starring a fellow Yale in Hollywood colleague, Nathaniel Dolquist. Unfortunately, when I got out of the Polish Golden Award event for my former UCLA professor Jerzy Antczak late, arriving at the Hulkling and Wiccan premiere, I had already missed the screening. Nevertheless, Nathaniel was kind enough to send me a screener the next day and I was immediately a fan after watching the full 6 part mini web series which has a running time 12 minutes or so. With a nod to contemporary television like Modern Family and the superhero cinematic genre, despite being a fan fiction series, Hulking and Wiccan created a genre on its own where the superhero genre meets LGBTQ cinema.

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Posted in Entertainment Interview

The Evolution of Chink, the Re-release of the Controversial Serial Killer Thriller

On the brink of the re-release of Chink, the low budget thriller about the first Asian American serial killer, CHOPSO talks with producer Quentin Lee who was the brainchild behind this feature film originally released in 2013. Directed by their UCLA film school buddy Stanley Yung, Chink world premiered at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival winning Jason Tobin, who plays the titular protagonist, a Breakthrough Performance Award. Chink also won Best Thriller Feature Film at Burbank International Film Festival.

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Posted in Entertainment

Young Man Kang Is Casting “Prayer International Series” in Rio

Young Man Kang is probably the most prolific veteran AAPI creator I know. Casting now, he is set to continue his ‘Prayer International Series’ with the next episode taking place in Rio de Janeiro during the Rio Webfest 2023 event.

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Posted in Culture Entertainment

First Person: Creating Last Summer of Nathan Lee

When I was going to high school in Montreal as a 15-year-old immigrant from Hong Kong, I remember meeting Nick, a fellow 11th grader, who…

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Posted in Entertainment Interview

Canadian Comic Victoria Banner Hates Stand Up

A star of the first all diverse Canadian stand-up comedy TV series by a BIPOC creator, Comedy Invasion, Calgary-based comedian Victoria Banner is releasing her…

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Posted in Entertainment Review

Karma’s Meth Nightmare by Donna Ong

Reminding me the early brilliance of Wong Kar Wai, Donna Ong’s fresh cinematic debut “Karma’s Meth Nightmare” is an imaginative experimental short dramatic film about a Nepalese teen experiencing a meth induced nightmarish and entertaining hallucination.

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Posted in Entertainment Interview

Giovannie Espiritu, Multi-Hyphenate, Won a Telly Award for Her Short Documentary “Legacy”

On hearing my friend and PGA (Producers Guild of America) colleague Giovannie Espiritu winning a Telly Award for her documentary short “Legacy,” I took the opportunity to interview her about her career as a multi-hyphenate in Hollywood, working as a production coordinator for a production company, an actress and a producer of independent films on her own.

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Posted in Entertainment Interview

Five LGBTQ+ Comics on Their Latest Comedy Special Feature Film “Laugh Proud”

Five LGBTQ+ comics Juno Men, Jason Stuart, Amanda Alvich, Christian Cintron and Brian Clark (aka Brucey) are about to embark to film an ensemble stand-up comedy feature film special “Laugh Proud,” produced and directed by Quentin Lee who has created stand-up comedy television shows such as Comedy InvAsian, streaming now on Peacock and Tubi, and Comedy Invasion, streaming now on Amazon Freevee, the Roku Channel and Tubi. Laugh Proud will world premiere to a live audience and be taped this Saturday July 1 at Los Angeles LGBT Center’s historic Renberg Theatre.

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