#asiansdoingeverything

Name Erman Baradi

Location Los Angeles, California, USA

What do you do?

I am Asian American and was named Top Networker in Hollywood by The Huffington Post in November 2016. I am a screenwriter mostly known for producing Hollywood panel and mixer events as well as mentorship contests.

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Website: thefilmempire.com

Twitter: @erman_la

Instagram: @erman_la

Contact

[email protected]

Name Kelly Huang

Location Minneapolis, MN, USA

What do you do?

I'm a Lao/Chinese American filmmaker in the Minneapolis area. I'm mostly known for my documentary films. I'm also a full-time Video Producer at a tech startup, a part-time wedding videographer, a part-time production assistant for a community TV station and part-time travel blogger (it’s my new found hobby). My biggest struggle has always been me trying to prove myself as an artist. I feel like I have to go an extra mile and then some to prove my worth because I am a girl but also an Asian girl. I think that’s why I have so many jobs, because subconsciously if I stop the hustle then I’m going to be irrelevant. There's also a stereotype that girls in the film/video industry aren't girly, I'm girly. I'm a great hardworking artist that's girly, but times are changing and I can see this change slowly start to happen in the industry.

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Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user31313126

Website: kellyhuangfilms.com

Travel Blog: wordlytravels.com

Twitter: @kelly__huang Instagram: @huangkellster Facebook (artist page): https://www.facebook.com/Kellyhuangfilms/ Facebook (personal): https://www.facebook.com/kelly.huang.1428

Contact

[email protected]

Name Kim Parker  

Location Houston, TX, USA

What do you do? I published a memoir/self-help book detailing how I was a refugee of the Vietnam War, immigrant to the U.S., sponsored by a Christian church, helped by social workers, and later became a Christian social worker and therapist. I also ended up marrying a white Southerner from my sponsor church, became mom to three boys, and am now addressing interracial marriage and multicultural issues in parenting. I'm also interested in being a bridge for racial reconciliation work.

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Contact FB: @kimparkerlcsw (author page) Twitter: @kimparkerlcsw Instagram: kimparkerlcswauthor

Name Jia Sung

Location Brooklyn, NY, USA

What do you do?

I am an artist and educator, born in Minnesota, raised in Singapore, now based in Brooklyn. Questions of identity and belonging are central in my practice, and my interest in animal symbols and literature drive my work, through projects ranging from paintings, zines and poetry comics, to murals. Since graduating from RISD in 2015, I’ve done editorial illustration for clients including TED Talks, Lenny Letter, Nautilus, and shown work at the RISD Museum, the Whitney Houston Biennial, La Mama Galleria, and Wook + Flavio. Currently, I am art fellow at Guernica Magazine, a selected muralist for the O+ art activism festival this year, and the inaugural Teaching Artist in Residence at the Museum of Chinese in America.

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Website:Jia-sung.com

Twitter: @jiazilla

Instagram: @jiazilla

Contact

[email protected]

Name Sky Bruno

Location  Honolulu, HI

What do you do? I am Filipino, Hawaiian, Japanese, and Caucasian and was born and rasied on the island of O’ahu, Hawai’i.  I plan to major in filmmaking this fall at the University of Hawai'i, Mānoa.  My art [photography & filmmaking] has to do with preserving my culture and providing an accurate representation of it to the public eye. I wouldn't consider myself to be creative. I am constantly reinventing ideas into something bigger and seeking inspiration from my surrounding community. I feel that creativity is more so a combination of hard work and learned skill vs. a natural knack for something. It’s the same picture format with a different story. I am a story-teller and have something to say through my art. 

-sky's creative endeavors also range from ceramics to screen printing-

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Instagram: @sky.bruno

Contact

[email protected]

Name Jessica Nguyen

Location Boston, MA, USA

What do you do? I am the host of Project Voice, a Podcast series dedicated to increasing visibility on narratives from Asian/Asian American women. The entire project was a huge step for me as an online content creator because it required me to use something I grew up feeling very self-conscious about: my voice. So, having to step outside my comfort zone to articulate the feelings and experiences of a community that I am a part of was worth it because it was also a community that I really care about. There may always be social injustices happening to our community and all over the world during my lifetime. However, I find that the bigger issue that I have in life is about how people react to these injustices caused by the systems rather than the systems themselves. For that reason, I don't think I will ever stop creating.

More  Project Voice

Contact @projectvoiceaaw on Twitter and Instagram

Name Yu-Han Chao

Location  Merced, California, USA

What do you do?

Born and raised in Taiwan, I am a writer, educator, martial artist, mother, and nurse. My biggest struggle as well as accomplishment has been juggling and transitioning between multiple identities, both culturally and professionally. I write about everything: Taiwan, Asian-America, martial arts, science, motherhood, and medicine. The Backwaters Press published my poetry collection; Dancing Girls Press, Imaginary Friend Press and Boaat Press published my chapbooks. My short story collection, Sex and Taipei City, is forthcoming with Red Hen Press in 2019.

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Website: www.yuhanchao.com

Contact

[email protected]

In the Field with Anthony Ma (Executive Director, Taiwanese American Film Festival) 

Interviewed by Lara Santos, Field Reporter

Lara Santos (LS): When’d you start your work doing the work that you do?

Anthony Ma (AM): I was in advanced drama in high school and during my junior year, my teacher cancelled a play and we were left without anything to do for 2 months. We were 20 actors just sitting there so I was like you know what, I'm gunna write a script, so maybe we can do a movie instead of a play and we did it. And from then on, I got hooked and continued writing and making films.

LS: What were the influences in making your work come to life? Are there businesses, people, orgs, celebrities you admire or want to work alongside?

AM: I wanted to be an actor ever since I saw Jim Carrey when I was 5 years old. That's when I was like I'm gunna be an actor for sure and started entertaining my friends around me. Once I saw Brokeback Mountain by Ang Lee, I was like woahhh you can really use films to inspire and not just entertain. It was Ang Lee that really showed me how important film can be and how to cultivate my voice in telling a story through film.

LS: Where do you see your relationship to AAPI communities in the years to come?

AM: I hope that I can be an influence for actors and even filmmakers. I really enjoyed cultural film festivals when I was a new filmmaker; it instilled confidence in me to tell my stories and created a platform where a community could inspire together. Especially now I feel like a door has opened where diversity is such a hot topic and its the perfect time where this community can really take advantage. Everyone's been trying to get a bite of the cake, so it's really important now to share our own stories. So hopefully I can be one of these voices that continues to help open more doors.

LS: What do you hope the impact of your work to be?

AM: For a kid later on to see someone like me onscreen and be like hey I can do that too because when I was growing up in Arcadia, I would always say I wanna be an actor, I wanna be an actor and my aunts and uncles would always be like oh okay and take it with a grain of salt, and it'd always sorta hurt, but that's because they've never seen an Asian person onscreen show that it could be possible. I hope that I can help change that perspective in the future.

LS: Anything you want to add?

AM: This Taiwanese American Film Festival is really special to me because as I was growing up as a young Asian American kid, everyone would ask me what are you and I'd say oh I'm Chinese, but as a child I would go back to Taiwan often and that was the culture that stuck with me. After creating this film festival watching all these Taiwanese films, it reminded me that there is a very diverse Taiwanese culture that deserves its own spotlight as well and it only adds to the amazing Asian American art form that we have and it just shows that there are so many of us with stories that have yet to be told and familiarized.

The Taiwanese American Film Festival is this Saturday, July 8th at the Downtown Independent. Buy your tickets today: http://bit.ly/2tiYiy3