Category: Culture

In 2016 — perhaps even earlier — while I was developing my now-defunct Chinese feature Morning, Paris! in Beijing, I met Ludi Lin, then a starry-eyed young actor with unmistakable charisma. Over the past decade, we’ve stayed close as friends, and honestly, I’ve rarely witnessed an actor’s trajectory evolve with such dynamism, discipline, and sheer cinematic momentum. When Ludi decided to venture into stand-up comedy, I introduced him to my comedy partner-in-crime, Keith Nahanee, who invited him to perform live at Vancouver’s Rez Comedy showcase. Later, when financing finally aligned for Season 3 of Comedy InvAsian, Ludi was one of the very first people I called about joining the ensemble.

Kicking off AAPI Heritage Month in style, Quentin Lee’s Margin Films celebrates its 30th anniversary with Cinemasianamerica—a vibrant new book and a seven-day screening series lighting up the Laemmle Royal Theatre in Los Angeles. The series is also streaming on AAM.tv, bringing the celebration to audiences everywhere. On Friday, May 1, 2026, Cinemasianamerica opened with a 30th anniversary screening of Shopping for Fangs, the groundbreaking debut feature from Lee and Justin Lin. The night drew a feast of collaborators, who turned out in full force for both the screening and a lively after-party in West Los Angeles.

Queer Canadian filmmaker Desiree Lim banded with three queer youths to launch a new podcast, redefining what queer thriving looks like. Queer Becomings: Beyond Survival spotlights bold, brilliant voices who have moved beyond simply surviving and into lives shaped by the courageous act of self-discovery.

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 my feature The Way You Dance, one of the great pleasures was working with Dhirendra, a Vancouver-based South Asian Canadian actor. A veteran character performer with a career spanning more than four decades since the mid-’80s, he remains remarkably accessible, collaborative, and—above all—an absolute joy on set. In the film, he plays Hanish Patel, the immigrant father of Angel, one of the story’s three central characters. It’s a role he brings to life with quiet depth and authenticity—qualities that reflect his enduring craft. So when I learned he had been nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for his voice performance in Crave’s Superteam Canada, I reached out to him for an interview with CHOPSO. Even after working together, I found myself increasingly fascinated by the arc of his career—and eager to explore the stories behind it.

Coming home from dinner with my son, I just received a Facebook post saying that Nicholas Brendon has passed away in his sleep from natural…

While I couldn’t resist the curiosity of watching Melania on Amazon Prime for free—as anyone might be curious about what a well-shot documentary on the inauguration of an American president looks like—I found myself inevitably comparing it to Triumph of the Will, Leni Riefenstahl’s far more brilliant film about the rise of Adolf Hitler at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally. I can hardly recall another feature-length documentary centered on the ascent of a world political figure since Riefenstahl’s artful and controversial propaganda masterpiece—one that won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival before later being widely denounced.

In Japanese, meaning “golden repair,” Kintsukuroi refers to the traditional art of mending broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum—and it’s…

Early this morning, Canadian Screen Award winning filmmaker Quentin Lee minted his viral short video #justiceforReneeNicoleGood on OpenSea, an NFT marketplace. A queer non-binary filmmaker and artist, Lee has pledged to donate 50% of all net proceeds from the sale of the NFT to the surviving partner and family of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026. I took the opportunity to interview them for CHOPSO.

“How can I relax? You just killed my fucking neighbor!” screamed a witness after seeing an ICE agent shoot Renee Good and refuse to allow medics to help her. On January 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Renee Nicole Good—an American citizen—was shot multiple times by an ICE agent. While federal authorities claimed that Good attempted to run over federal agents with her car, the city’s mayor stated that the agent acted recklessly and caused her death.