With support from the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan and Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles, the 4th Annual Taiwanese American Film Festival (TAFF) is held by Taiwanese American Professionals - Los Angeles (TAP-LA) this October. Followed by the 1st outreach virtual talk show “So What Now?!” held in May, for its 2nd outreach event prior to the Film Festival, TAP-LA, TAP-DC, and TAFF present a webinar featuring guest panelists entitled “Seen and Heard: Filmmaking, Storytelling, and the Asian-American Identity” on Saturday, July 25th, 2020 at 2:00 pm PT, streaming on Facebook Live and YouTube, followed by a Q&A. Moderated by Cindy Lu (executive director of TAFF), the webinar will explore the cultural history of Asian-American filmmakers past and present, revealing their diverse backgrounds with unique heritages and stories. The panelists will reflect on how to encourage the Asian American community through filmmaking to value their unique origins and tell their authentic stories boldly. For more information regarding the webinar, please visit the official TAFF Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/tafilmfestival.
Our guest panelists will feature Nancy Wang Yuen, Kenny Leu, and Jason C. Lin.
Nancy Wang Yuen is a sociologist and scholar of race and ethnicity in film and television. Author of “Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism”, Yuen examines the barriers actors of color face in Hollywood and how they creatively challenge stereotypes. A sought-after expert by news outlets, Yuen pioneered the first policy report on AAPI in primetime television, in collaboration with Asian Americans Advancing Justice. More recently, she was interviewed as a media expert on PBS's documentary series released in May 2020, “Asian Americans”.
Kenny Leu is a Taiwanese-American actor who has developed a reputation for playing real people, reflecting lesser known Asian stories. He played heroic schoolteacher Zue Xuesan in Midway (2019), Sgt Eddie Chen in The Long Road Home (2017), and the indie drama ‘A Shot Through The Wall’ (2020) as a Chinese rookie police officer who accidentally kills a black man, inspired by the grand jury indictment of Peter Liang in 2015.
Jason C. Lin has two decades of film and entertainment industry experience as a film producer and in multiple business/finance roles at companies including Alibaba Pictures, Jet Li Production Studio, The Walt Disney Company, UTA, and Morgan Stanley. His career is focused on the bridge building of Asian culture and perspectives to mainstream media.
TAFF has proudly held three successful years of events, scouting top emerging talent and bridging generations and cultures, as a platform for diverse storytelling, serving as the only showcase in the U.S. of films and multimedia by Taiwanese and Taiwanese American filmmakers.