Screenings at NY Universities and Discussion

Students at Columbia University's psychology of race class and at the New School's Ethnicity, Culture and Mental Health really liked my film. I'm shocked to see that 5 of the 37 evaluations rated the rough cut a 10 out of a possible 10! The median score was 8. This was hugely, unexpectedly, validating. WOW is all I have to say. I was not expecting such high marks because there are so many flaws in this rough cut that have yet to be addressed. There are structural issues that have yet to be ironed out. If the project was fully funded, we would already have addressed these issues, but because we are all working part-time on this, it will take us months.
The class at Columbia is taught by Dr. Shinhee Han and is a part of the curriculum for Asian American Studies at their Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.

The experience was a refreshing change from the litany of criticisms we usually get from funders. We get rejected constantly by funders — literally 20 times or more a year for a myriad of reasons. We have been told by many professional filmmakers and producers that the film would not likely do well in their markets for a variety of reasons. The Director of Broadcast, Dayton, OH PBS told me that they weren't really that interested in the film because it would likely only appeal to Asians or those with a predisposition for the subject matter. Because these students are studying psyche, they would fall in that latter category. Even taking that into consideration, I think the marks were really high for an incomplete film with structural problems. There may be strong niche audiences for this film despite being constantly turned down for funding.Publish Post