Matte Chi, President AAFilmLab, The Workshop (2005-)

While I write this during the sleepy hours of a Sunday afternoon, the Asian American community is silently but unstoppably growing. At this very moment the Asian Americans who are accounted for, form 4% of the population of the United States. We Asian Americans will double our population in breakneck speed mirroring the historic growth of Hispanic-Americans. In a mere 50 years time we will stand on the platform alongside Hispanic Americans and African Americans to rival the majority in the United States (non-Hispanic White Americans will cling to a 50.1% majority).

During this time of unprecedented growth there is an incredible amount of work to do if we want to participate in the grand democratic conversation. As history has proven, physical numbers alone will not inherently provide the means of expression for our beliefs nor will sheer numbers alone provide the social structures necessary to distribute our expression. We must participate and we must commit to participating in the daily conversations of our lives.

And by what means can we converse amongst our peers and to the diminishing majority? As has been said before truthfully and correctly, it is through the Arts where expression will always be found.

I have found within myself and within this generation the incipient need to discover and communicate our ideals, our goals, our desires. Discovery is the most important element here. Though what we’d like to communicate is inchoate and continuously changing, the need to share this knowledge as it is gained has become an incessant drumbeat ever increasing in volume as each day progresses.

What better medium than film to discover and communicate these ideas? What medium can provide a better arena from which to continue the grand conversation taking place among us? Film’s intrinsically collaborative nature provides the testing ground from which to uncover a singular voice, or even better a chorus of voices, we all wish to find. Film provides the comraderie which we as social beings desire and need to survive, to reach that not too distant future when we will have more at stake and more voices that will want hearing. Film with its multidisciplinary breadth is perfectly designed to take advantage of the roles we have traditionally taken in our quest to find happiness through our until now obligatory lives.

Though fifty years may seem too far away, by then as elders, that is exactly the moment when we will need to have a stable, viable outlet of expression. Without expression we will find ourselves living in a world where nothing we say will ever be heard, and nothing we want will ever be given. We have the rest of our lives to work. Take this opportune moment to make that work worthwhile. Find a means to communicate the meaningful. Join us and pick up a camera, learn from experience and share that knowledge. Convince others to do the same, and you’ll find they will need little convincing.

The mission is simple: Create. Create honestly, continuously and share it. Above all Create.

Matte Chi

Derek Ting, AAFilmLab President (2003-2005)

Friends, fellow filmmakers and actors, welcome to the Asian American Film Lab.  Come here to relax and unwind and find out about the latest activities going on with the Asian American Film Lab.  If you need a resource:  Actor, director, producer, crew member, take a look at our database.  Full Functionality is coming soon.

The Asian American Film Lab is an offshoot of the Asian American Film Collaborative-The workshop, of which I am still the President.  For those who don’t know, the workshop is a organization where filmmakers and actors meet frequently to work on their craft.  It was formed by talented and committed filmmakers in 1998:  Stephen Bai, the first president, Greg Pak, Donna Tsufura, Rea Tajiri, Michael Kang, to to name a few.  Many past members and leaders have gone on to do great work and be recognized in the industry.

Being President gave me the opportunity to be inventive and try new ideas to invoke our art.  I noticed that organized activities are a great way to motivate filmmakers to tell their stories.  For example, with a screenplay contest, writers are forced to meet a deadline and goal.  The Film Shootout, currently our largest endeavor, pushes our community to make Asian American films.  Now, while having these activities are encouraging, the organizing of these activities takes away from the workshop mission: Sharing work, doing work, honing skills.  Thus, I realized that, the workshop could not effectively do both:  Manage activities and work on their art.

Consequently, I founded the Asian American Film Lab along with an energetic team:  Matte Chi, Mayur Khandewal, Justin Wan, Joyce Yung, Nelson Wang, and Tana Sarntinoranont and other hard working individuals to manage and facilitate activities that foster Asian American Filmmaking.

Together, we will help pursue the dream of getting Asian American Stories prominently told in main stream America.  We will help expose Asian American filmmakers and actors to industry execs, promote their stories, and develop their talents.  To do this, the AAFilmlab will endeavor to run thrilling competitions, seminars, and other related programs.

Further, it wil be a central place where these story tellers can find the necessary resources to complete their projects.  Members will be able to find cast, crew, Directors, producers, DPs, equipment rental discounts, knowledge, and more(All of this is coming very soon to our website).

All are welcome to join the AAfilmlab.  The more help, the better, Asian, Non-Asian, Green, Purple, Whatever.  We are an organization bent on helping our community, as such, we need our community’s support.

My biggest wish is that we come together as a community and take initiative to get our stories told and our faces seen.  May this organization be a vessel to conquer that challenge.

To this I say, again, welcome.  Please enjoy.