Category: Interview

In a hip-hop class at Millennium Dance Complex, I met Diane Paloma Eskenazi, a veteran animator who casually mentioned that she founded her company, Golden Films, in the 1990s and has been producing and directing animated films for more than three decades. Her remarkable career instantly caught my attention, and I knew there was a story worth telling. Inspired and intrigued, I reached out to Eskenazi for an in-depth interview with CHOPSO.

Veteran actor and comedian Jason Stuart shared with me the final cut of his short film, Redlining, which he wrote, directed, and produced. Exploring race and LGBTQ+ identity with wit and bite, Redlining is a compact gem that truly sparkles—and one you’re likely to encounter on the festival circuit at upcoming LGBTQ+ film festivals. I took the opportunity to sit down with Stuart to discuss the film and catch up on what’s next for him.

A friend introduced me to Mark Bernstein, who worked at the Clinton White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and recently founded their own…

On Facebook, I saw my director friend Yusaku Mizoguchi win Best Director at the City of Angels Film Festival for his feature Sae, a touching drama about a Japanese student who decides to overstay her student visa in the U.S. in order to pursue a life as an artist. As an international student myself, I felt deeply connected to Sae’s perspective and reached out to Yusaku for an interview.

As I was programming and moderating a Q&A for Yale in Hollywood Fest, I asked Arnold Setiadi, director of Something Good Going On, whether the…

I’ve long been fascinated by writer-director Dax Phelan, whose debut feature, Jasmine—starring Jason Tobin—was an award-winning hit on the festival circuit. Ten years after its premiere, I’m excited, as a fan, to catch up with Mr. Phelan about what he’s working on now.

When I saw Josette Jorge win a Canadian Screen Award earlier this year, I was overjoyed to see a fellow Asian Pacific Islander friend receive such recognition. An actor, writer, and educator based in Toronto, Josette earned her first Canadian Screen Award in 2025 for Best Supporting Performer in a Children’s or Youth Program for Ruby and the Well. Last year, my producing partner Cindy Au Yeung and I also received a Canadian Screen Award—Best Comedy Special—for our series Comedy Invasio

Jenifer Yeuroukis, a filmmaker friend I’ve met about a decade ago in my hip hop classes at the former Edge Performance Art Center in Los Angeles, has just directed her first feature film The Queerdos that I executive produced. The Queerdos also marks the first feature film of the film movement Dogma LA 25 that a collective of filmmakers and I have founded. Wrapping The Queerdos, I’ve taken the opportunity to have a conversation with her.

Returning to the city where I was born, Hong Kong, I met up with artist Chow Ciao Chow whom I first knew as Steven and a fashion design student. After years of having lost touch, we reconnected via Instagram and he told me we met years ago through a mutual friend and hung out in Hong Kong. Returning to this amazing city, I took the opportunity to interview this rising artist with a uniquely queer and Asian perspective.

Last year, Colette Johnson-Vosberg’s Unusually Normal world premiered at Inside Out. This year, she is world-premiering her LGBTQ+ follow-up feature doc Unlabelled about three trans people from Toronto at the same festival. I caught up with my prolific collaborator after hearing the news of her film’s world premiere.