When I got into UCLA Film School in 1993, I set out to make a feature film before turning 25. Every short I created at UCLA became part of that larger vision—I was building toward something bigger. The result was Flow, which world-premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 1995. It was the first major festival I ever attended—and where I met my doppelgänger, Adi Tantimedh, who bore an uncanny resemblance to the actor playing the fictional filmmaker in Flow.
While making one of the Flow shorts titled “Fall of 1990,” I met Justin Lin, who came on board as the director of photography. As you know, that creative spark led to us co-directing Shopping for Fangs together.
In the blink of an eye, Shopping for Fangs turns 30 this year. And Adi—whom I first met at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 1995—and I reunited decades later to create a feature together over Zoom, Comisery, born out of the creative constraints of the COVID pandemic.
What I’ve learned over a 30-year career is this: value your creative relationships. Collaboration is a blessing.
Adi and I have known each other for over three decades—and worked together once. Justin Lin and I have also shared a 30-year journey—and collaborated twice. Richard Anderson, whom I first knew as a teenager in Montreal and reunited with years later on Comisery, has been a creative partner twice as well. Harrison Xu and I made my first short together in 2010, and more than a decade later, we came full circle with the feature Last Summer of Nathan Lee in 2022. And Elizabeth Sung, whom I met when I first arrived in Hollywood, became a treasured collaborator on both The People I’ve Slept With and The Unbidden.
If there’s one piece of advice I can offer any emerging artist, it’s this: work with the people you love from day one. Over a lifetime, you might get another chance… or two.
And I carry deep gratitude for everyone I’ve worked with—especially those who met me with kindness.
