What Did I Miss?: April 2020

Appearances

A Tigertail Commentary Panel – I am one of four women featured in this panel, discussing Alan Yang’s film directorial debut, “Tigertail.”

Calls from the Frontlines | Long Distance Radio – I make another audio appearance on this podcast, as I call in to share how I’m doing during the shelter-in-place order during the COVID-19 pandemic ( you can hear me starting at 45:24).

Published Works

The Producers of “Asian Americans” Look Back on the Making of the Documentary Series – For PBS, I interview several of the producers about the making of this five-part documentary series.

“Asian Americans” Producers Hope for Enlightening Experience During COVID-19 Crisis – For PBS, I interview several of the producers of this five-part documentary series about releasing it during this pivotal time in history.

Review of “The Boba Book: Bubble Tea and Beyond” by Andrew Chau, Bin Chen, and Richard Parks III – For Goodreads, I provide my thoughts about this book that, in the best possible ways, is part cook book, part cultural analysis, part success story, and part  memoir.

The Lessons Learned and To Be Learned from Darren Criss in ‘Hollywood’ – For The Nerds of Color, I do a dive into Darren Criss’s role in this latest Ryan Murphy creation, how he has come to understand his privilege as a white-passing, mixed race Filipino American, and why I hope the Asian American community at large will learn a thing or two from his character’s arc.

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A Look Back at My First Film Festival Screening

It has now been a week since I experienced my first film festival screening as a screenwriter. It was part of the fourth volume of unKonference; an event organized by San Francisco artist Kristian Kabuay. It’s a participant driven event that avoids a lot of what comes with a conference like entrance fees and academic institutions. It’s all a way to make space for discussions, particularly within the Filipino American community.

A Film Festival Screening and A Zoom Play

When was the last time I did a spotlight on two major announcements for my weekly Saturday blog post? That would have to be back at the beginning of August 2018 a.k.a. “simpler times.” To think that I would have some big announcements to make in the midst of a pandemic might sound kind of odd, and yet that’s exactly what is happening today. So here it goes:

Thoughts About Fiction in the Time of COVID-19

A few months ago, I read the latest novel from the thoughtful sci-fi author Mike Chen, A Beginning at the End. I won’t go into too much detail about it, but if I were to describe it in a very brief synopsis, it follows three adults from different paths of life and how they all find themselves coming together, in the aftermath of – wait for it it – a global pandemic.

Racism is a Virus: REQUIRED Analyzing

In this world right now, there are two viruses being spread, and only one of them is making national headlines. The other virus that I speak of is racism. While I’ve spoken of racism in the past in this corner of the Internet, this is really the ugliest it has gotten towards the Asian American community in quite some time.