Gwen Liu and I are the subjects of the two-time Academy Award winning Breakwater Studios documentary short, LOVE, CHINATOWN, to be released in 2025. I shared this photo guest speaking at the Emerson College FPS MiniFest film festival. Part of my speech was about allowing the magic of spontaneity and serendipity to infuse their work. The grace of trusting the narrative to evolve, allowing space for the surprise moments that do happen, can lend poignancy , beauty, and a deeper truth to a film. I learned this from working with our gifted director, Lukas Dong, on this totally unscripted documentary. This was a spontaneous sparring spring scene, captured by Lukas at the Boston Chinatown Gate . Gwen and I are Taichi classmates. We are Chinatown born and raised; we are lions, and this is how we often greet each other. Gwen initiates. I respond. Sparring and blocking. Sparring and blocking . I grew up in a generation of activist fighters, a time of great social change and upheaval, the revolutionary 60’s-70’s, marked by the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Vietnam War of 1955-1975. Gwen Liu , a child of the 21st century and an outstanding athlete , is soft and gentle, with Ph.D. grit. Lukas Dong captured the warm respect, the affection and friendship between two Chinatown girls , raised in renovated garment factories and warehouses in a Combat Zone prostitution alley , one Taiwanese, one Taishanese, both American born, with the same birthdays, born two generations apart . An audience member, a magnificent Jamaican American woman , Film Marketing Director, Bris Cordon, said my presentation on Art and Identity was “brilliant .” That made me happy, to have crossed borders to create greater mutual understanding .
Watch for the 2025 release of our documentary short , LOVE, CHINATOWN, by Two-Time Academy Award Winner and World Leader in humanist short form , BREAKWATER STUDIOS !
Directed by LUKAS DONG, assisted by FELIPE LOPEZ ; Director of Photography: Two Time Oscar Winner: SAM DAVIS; Award winning Lead Producer: RACHEL GREENWALD; Breakwater CEO: BEN PROUDFOOT.
(Shown: an unplanned, spontaneous dance scene with Gwen Liu: the karaoke singers were packing up, the restaurant emptying out, the music played on, the popular Taiwanese New Year’s song, “Tomorrow Will Be a Better Day ” permeated the halls, drawing us into the space while we were coming down from the upper floor . ). This photo was taken by our talented Breakwater Studios Director, Lukas Dong, who gifted it, framed , to Gwen Liu and myself on our mutual birthdays . Gwen and I share the same birthday, but half a century apart. I showed this photo as an example of how one can allow space for the grace of serendipity and spontaneity to enter in filmmaking , when I was Guest speaker at the Emerson College Frames Per Second (FPS) Mini-Fest Film Festival in December , 2024.
Hudson Street Chronicles 