Our Cheese: Taking Back The Karaoke Video

By Raina Lee

When you mention karaoke, the first thing that comes to mind is not just the singing and the drunkenness. It’s the ghastly reaction to the visuals. The karaoke video: the D-list actors, the sepia-toned interpretive dance, the overdramatic storylines of a romance, fight, and reconciliation. If it's even more cheaply made: Asian girls strolling along a coastline while holding hands, a practice not at all interpreted as lesbian in Asia.

The Asian American International Film Festival is located in an iconic city of mythic proportions; a backdrop for countless films, its image resonates in the minds of people all over the world. Woody Allen’s film, MANHATTAN says it all with its opening lines:

by Daryl Chin

On June 21, 2008, Mark Gill (of The Film Department, ex- of Miramax and Warner Independent) delivered the keynote address for the Los Angeles Film Festival's conference on film financing. The title of his speech was "The Sky Is Falling" (which gives you an indication of the direction his speech took); he was talking about the collapse of so many specialty divisions, and the crisis in financing, marketing, and distribution for independent films. The shockwaves are still being felt.

Juli Kang’s award-winning musical DAMN THE PAST! sashays with a snap across film festivals; with a singing mute for a hero, and the girl of his dreams; who just got released from a mental ward for being a perpetual dancer. This UCLA thesis film is 29-minutes of dreamy interludes and crazy melodrama, wrapped in campy gloss. Damning the past doesn’t look so scary after all. In fact, it makes you want to grab a mic and sing your own tune. Juli Kang takes some time to share some of the people and films that inspire her work.