Category: Interview

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.

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.

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.

Filmmaker Leslie Streit collaborated with Robin McCain on their upcoming immersive installation “When I Become a Ghost” to be unveiled from 6 pm to 9 pm on February 24 at San Francisco’s Pastine Projects. CHOPSO took the opportunity to interview Leslie on her latest artistic venture.

On the week of the 4th annual Yale in Hollywood Fest streaming all its programs free and worldwide, I sat down with programmer Melissa Dawn…

On the day before Halloween, I took the opportunity to chat with filmmaker Quentin Lee on his first children’s book Pumpkin Head Lost His Head,…

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…

Simon Tam, founder of The Slants and The Slants Foundation, has created his latest television series titled Asian PaCIVICS featuring ten artists from the Asian American and Pacific Islander community who have written a song specifically to drive social change. Each has partnered with a grassroots organization in unique ways to support their chosen causes.

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.

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.