CRANES wins Screenplay Competition!
ACV congratulates Michael Choi, winner of the 7th Annual Screenplay Competition with his entry CRANES! Selected from a final round of three scripts judged by producer Karin Chien, director Michael Kang, and director/actress Rosanne Ma, the screenplay will be staged and directed by Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. We also congratulate the other two finalists: CHINK by Koji Steven Sakai and YOU’RE A BIG GIRL NOW by Tze Chun.
CRANES follows three generations of Korean women. The first story is about a young refugee mother struggling to move her two children south during the Korean War. The next story follows her daughter, a first generation Korean immigrant in New York in 1976. The final narrative is about her daughter, an adopted Korean American girl searching for her identity and journeying across America to bury her birth mother’s ashes.
We caught up with Michael and had a quick chat with him about his screenplay and writer's block!
Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
- My name's Michael Choi and I work as a director, editor, and motion graphics artist in New York.
Please describe your script in 1-2 sentences.
- CRANES follows three generations of Korean women- through the Korean War, the immigration to
American, and into the present day. It's a story about love and family.
Why writing? What¹s so special about it?
- It takes an army of people to make a movie, but my favorite part is before the actual typing- when it's just you, the story, and a pencil at 3 AM. It's certainly the most intimate part of filmmaking for me.
Who or what are your biggest creative influences?
- Terrence Malick, Wong Kar Wai, William Faulkner, Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff, Django Reinhardt...
What was the biggest challenge of writing your screenplay?
- Definitely writing the scenes that take place in 1950 war-torn Korea. It was very important for me to be true to that time. Actually, I wasn't able to even start the script until after I had lived in Korea for
a year, heard and saw the stories and scars, and let the soil seep into my skin.
How do you get over writer¹s block?
- To me, screenwriting, fiction, music, and photography are like my friends. When I get mad at
one, I spend time with another and somehow when you get back together, everything works itself out.
The one Asian/Asian American film that has the biggest impact on you.
- IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE by Wong Kar Wai. I think that was the only thing I watched for most of 2000.
What do you look most forward to at the 07 AAIFF?
- To be a part of this growing Asian American cinema movement is very exciting and I look forward to meeting the other filmmakers in this community as we make our way together.
what | CRANES Screenplay Reading
when | Saturday, July 28, 4:00PM
where | Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue at 70th St