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A blast in the Bay

(Check back later for pictures/video clips to accompany this entry.)

The screening at DeAnza College was great. I left L.A. last Thursday morning and landed in The Bay about an hour later courtesy of Virgin America airlines (hey Branson, wanna invest in a cool indie movie?). Nathalie Mvondo, the student organizer, met me at the aiport and we went straight to the campus.

Posing with Nathalie outside Forum 1 where the 2nd screening was held.

First up was a film class taught by Barack Goldman. Barack is part of the DeAnza faculty and has worked on a lot of projects over the years. Most notably a stint at Lionsgate and on the staff of the groundbreaking The Chris Rock Show on HBO (without which they’re likely wouldn’t have been a Chapelle Show). We screened the film for the class while Barack gave me a tour of the campus including their TV Stage and well stocked equipment center. A Q&A followed the screening with Barack moderating a conversation between the two of us followed by lots of questions from the students.

Barack holds court at DeAnza

After the screening for the film students there was another one in a larger room on campus. Nathalie introduced the film and following it we discussed the socio political aspects of the film, Asian representation in the media, and interracial dating and its impact on society. The students had a lot of interesting things to say and share about race relations and Asian images in the media. Alas no one videotaped the events, but check back here later for a few clips Nathalie was able to capture on her cell phone.

Following the second screening I sat in on Barack’s screenwriting class where we talked about the realities of working in “the industry.” I told them the story of having to clean up dog sh*t during the production of Boyz n the Hood along with a couple of other Production Assistants. Besides being a great analogy for the film industry, if you’re contemplating a career in this biz ask yourself would you do the same? Barack told an old joke about the guy who’s job it is to follow around an elephant in a circus who hates his job. When friends ask why he doesn’t quit he replies: “What? And quit Showbiz?”

Chillin’ in Barack’s office.

After that Nathalie and I met some of her friends, mainly PHD candidates, at a brewery in downtown Stanford for dinner. It was a great weekend that included a church service, a tour of public radio and TV station KQED, several great meals, and taking in the Wachowski Brothers’ Speed Racer.

Dining with Lee from KQED and sweet Nathalie.

On Sunday, before boarding an afternoon flight back to LA, I accompanied Nathalie and one of her housemates to the monthly San Jose Film Group. This group of cineastes have been meeting for 13 years and a quick review of their website the previous evening showed they were partial to film fest faves. Every month they meet for a breakfast spread at a local indie movie house in Campbell followed by a trivia game and the screening of a new indie feature. Apparantly the director/curator of the group keeps the name of the film secret. This month it was SIDEKICKS, a Canadian superhero film that goes from parody to thriller in a single bound. The director was there for a Q&A afterwards and the film is coming out from Shoreline Entertainment/Warner Brothers on June 9th. I hope to return to the Bay area very soon and will rant more on non-AKIRA stuff related to the trip on my personal blog if you’re interested.

IN OTHER NEWS

* AKIRA’s own Cordele Taylor was featured in a front page story in yesterday’s “Philadelphia Inquirer.” You can read it here. I hope to make many more movies with Cordele in the future. He’s overcome a lot and is a fine person and damn good actor to boot.

* Look for the Screening calendar/page to be updated soon. My NYC based Webmaster has gone from swamped to just crazy busy and will be working with me on some updates here. Suffice to say we’re off to Beverly Hills, Brooklyn, Detroit and Atlanta in the coming months! The AKIRA Summer tour is in full effect.

* AKIRA’s own James Kyson Lee just came back from Bulgaria shooting an original film for The SciFi Channel. He’s also shooting the third season of Heroes which promises to return the show to form following the abbreviated strike season.

* Sometime this summer we’ll begin selling the DVD featuring the AKIRA short. I’m undecided about making a digital edition available for download.

Thanks for reading and be good to yourself and each other!

- Joe