Short Film Lab Workshop Series

Writer-Director Workshop

Have you ever wanted to make a short film or even a feature film? Ever wondered how to bring your story to life (and to the screen)?

Learn some tricks from Academy Award nominated and award-winning filmmaker Bing Liu and Pete Lee whose work premiered at Sundance Film Festival and SXSW.

Saturday, February 18, 2023

3:30-5:00 PM CT

In-Person Event at In Progress (213 Front Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55117)

*MASKS and UP-TO-DATE COVID-19 VACCINATIONS ARE REQUIRED.

Producer and Production Workshop

Learn about the role of a producer, budgeting a film, and what is needed to get your film to production with Carolyn Mao.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

7-9 pm CT

Free Virtual Event

Register on ZOOM

2021-2022 Production Lab Support

web-series

HO is a mockumentary comedy web series about the daily lives of a Hmong nonprofit created by APIA MN Film Collective members May Lee-Yang and Peter Yang.

APIA MN Film Collective members created, wrote, and shot this 9 episode web-series. They also mentored emerging APIDA filmmakers on-set and provided paid cast and crew positions. This project is currently in post-production and will debut later in 2022.

This activity is made possible with a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council through the Minnesota Disaster Recovery Fund.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Mentorship

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Minnesotan filmmakers have been receiving one-on-one mentorships from national APIDA filmmakers. Mentors read, review, and provide notes on works-in-progress and meet over zoom.

Mentors

Mentors include: Lawrence Dai (The Late Late Show with James Cordon on CBS), Kevin Seccia (The Great North on FOX), Annie Nishida (Disney/Netflix), Katie Malia (Almost Asian), Kevin Yee (Apple TV’s Dickinson, Netflix), Hye Yun Park (HBO, Freeform, HBO Max), and Andrew Ahn (Netflix’s Gentefied)

Coaching

Creative coaches meet with participants on a monthly basis for 1-hour.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

We're F*@#King Tired! Short Films by Asian Americans

This is a collection of short films created by Asian Pacific Islander Desi American filmmakers. These films navigate how to tell stories during the pandemic and the rise of Asian hate crimes.

A virtual event occurred on Zoom May 21, 2021.

Featuring:
PaChia Vang, Blongsha Hang, Xiaolu Wang, John Vang, Kazua Melissa Vang, Randy Xiong, Tsuab Yang, Ethan Okamoto, Peter Yang

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Check out the films on the APIA MN Film Collective's Vimeo Page:

tsuab yang

BIO: Tsuab was born in the warm state of California and then moved to Minnesota at the young age of five years old. As the youngest in a household of 7, there was never a quiet time even when sitting in front of the television. She grew up like a typical Hmong kid in the 90’s watching a lot of Hmong dubbed Hong Kong action films and eating ramen with fried eggs. Tsuab’s love of cinema was what ultimately led her to getting her bachelors in Cinema & Media studies from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Now she is currently pursuing her dreams of filmmaking through writing her own screenplays or being on set of various film projects.

ABOUT THIS FILM: For this short film project, I want to shoot something that is fun and entertaining. Having contrasted the COVID virus, I want to film a mukbang style of video even though my smell and taste hasn’t completely come back. I won’t be filming the bling taste test like the popular tik-tok videos, but simply of me enjoying and being grateful for the food. A lot of local restaurants suffered during the pandemic so I will be ordering food from some of the locally owned businesses therefore supporting the economy. I originally thought about cooking my own food to promote staying home however my cooking skills are subpar and the food would come out looking not appetizing. So, restaurant food it is!

This project isn’t solely just a video of me eating, but it will also be of me talking about my experience with living through COVID. I will go in depth about how I contracted the virus, being isolated in my room, the mental toll of having the virus, and recovering from it. I know there are a lot of people out there who think they won’t catch it. I must admit, I was one of those people because I thought I was being safe. I want to use this chance to inform people who are like me and encourage them to take extra precautions even when they think they were being careful. 

To sum up the video basically, it will be me giving a PSA warning while eating because I can multitask. 

PaChia vang

BIO: PaChia Vang is a Hmong American actress and artist based in the Twin Cities. She is most known for her work in the Hmong American web series Hmong Organization (H.O.) and the Lifetime holiday film The Christmas Listing. She has been active in the Twin Cities film community for three years. PaChia is delighted to have worked with many local filmmakers and has enjoyed training with the Guthrie Theater, Funny Asian Women Kollective (FAWK), and The BGB Studio in Los Angeles. In 2019, her photography series In-Between was featured at In Progress and Eagan Art Works. Stitch marks her debut as a screenwriter and filmmaker.

ABOUT THIS FILM: Stitch is a semi-biographical short film about a Hmong American woman who finds healing and solace in sewing Paj Ntaub while persevering through traumatic events during the COVID pandemic.

My grandmother taught me how to sew Paj Ntaub over the pandemic. Being home every day, it seemed a good time to learn. My grandmother and aunt often keep themselves busy by sewing Paj Ntaub to make Hmong clothing for our family.
What kept me from trying Paj Ntaub work as an adult was remembering the knots I made when I was first taught as a child. I recall these knots were frustrating and impossible to resolve. Revisiting this craft as an adult, I realize these mistakes are easily fixable and within my control. My huge takeaway from sewing Paj Ntaub is that it is therapeutic, and it has grounded me in staying present. Stitching and breathing share a rhythm. Pulling the needle in, pulling the needle out. Breathing in, breathing out.

When I wrote my screenplay, I thought most about the visuals and sequences in my film. I knew I wanted minimal dialogue and had no plans to record sound on set. I was inspired by both silent films and quiet movie moments where audiences turn to the subtleties in the scene. These moments are powerful to me.

I want to personally thank the APIA MN Film Collective for this wonderful learning experience, and for supporting me in bringing my vision to life.

blongsha hang

BIO: Blongsha Hang (he/him/his) is a filmmaker, writer, teacher, and mentor within the arts community in the Twin Cities. He is a son of Hmong Laotian immigrants. He was born and raised in Minnesota. His art primarily focuses on nostalgia and how film brings awareness to viewers on unwarranted memories such as moments, people, and places that find their way back to them.

ABOUT THIS FILM: Video Description: A typewriter ribbon unwinds as a projection of an Asian American is projected over it. This film shows an Asian American grieving without words, because to speak of the grief raises one important question: Will it be heard?

To depict the struggles in the narration of Asian American stories and experiences is complicated. Asian Americans are still misrepresented and wrongfully categorized as other or the model minority. Their pain, sufferings, and traumas are silenced. When will the otherness or model minority myth stop perpetuating the Asian American narrative and experience? In 2020 and currently, COVID-19 did not teach Asian Americans about these harmful prejudices and behaviors towards them in recent times. Those thoughts and ideas were always here before the global pandemic, and Asian bodies carry on that frustration and discrimination silently.

Xiaolu Wang

BIO: Xiaolu Wang is a self-taught filmmaker and translator from the Hui Muslim Autonomous Region of China. Her first short film, Dumpling, has been screened at local and international film festivals, as well as friend's food pop-ups. She contributed translations to journals including 单读, onlimbo, and Cinephila. She received the 2019 Jerome Film and Media grant for her upcoming documentary, The Subversive Sirens. She lives in Minneapolis with two cats who sleep on separate couches.

ABOUT THIS FILM: Between unsatisfying phone calls, between every Chinese holidays I grew up with but no longer remember to celebrate, between the haunting hours of COVID solitude, between the repetitive motions of life, between new moons and full moons, between catching up on World Cinema, between autobiographies and suicidal notes, between Bryant Ave and 33rd, between cat naps, between uprisings and trials, between the smell of incenses, you might find the grief in my lungs, breathing in and breathing out. This is a film in honor of my grandmother, who is breathing with me in the spirit world and patiently waiting for me to return.

JOHN VANG

BIO: John is a Hmong Twin Cities filmmaker who's been experimenting with different styles of filmmaking since his high school days on Youtube. In his free time, he loves co-op survival video games, aquascaping fish tanks, and backpacking mountains. All of which he tries to turn into stories, too. Everything has a story.

ABOUT THIS FILM: A retired grandfather endures the hardships of Covid 19 quarantine until the day he can once again reunite with his children and grandchildren.

KAZUA Melissa vang

BIO: Kazua Melissa Vang (She/Her/Hers) is a Hmong American filmmaker, photographer, teaching artists, production manager, and producer based in Minnesota. Vang has production-managed NICE, an independent pilot, and official selection under Indie Episodic Category at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. She is a producer for HMONG ORGANIZATION, a comedic web series with writers, May Lee-Yang and Peter Yang, and director, Kang Vang. Vang co-founded the Asian Pacific Island American Minnesota Film Collective (APIA MN Film Collective). Her first short film, RHAUB, an official selection at the 2018 Qhia Dab Neeg Film Festival in Saint Paul, MN. Vang recently received the Forecast Public Art Early-Career Project grant and developed a short experimental narrative film, HMONG EPHEMERA, as a writer/director.

ABOUT THIS FILM: First Death is a micro experimental documentary about three young boys asking each and reflecting with one another their experience of losing their grandfather in 2020 during the COVID19 pandemic. Their sadness, awkwardness, and youthfulness are all wrapped into their interview with one another. I wanted to make sure we document this generation's experience and their voices. Not only from the challenges of receiving an education through distance learning but from the experience of grief and their resilience during this pandemic.

RANDY XIONG

BIO: A Hmong filmmaker based in Saint Paul, Minnesota who loves nerd culture, is a hobbyist music producer, and a foodie. Films are life.

ABOUT THIS FILM: Randy’s project is a rap performance video ranting about how 2020 sucked as an Asian American shot in the style of a zoom therapy session because of having to quarantine. Warning: Contains strong language.

ETHAN OKAMOTO

BIO: I’m a mixed Japanese American filmmaker interested in telling stories unique to the Asian American experience. I’ve always loved telling stories. As soon as I got my hands on a camera, whether it be an iMac webcam or the family point and shoot, I loved to express myself through filmmaking.

ABOUT THIS FILM: A grandmother guides her grieving granddaughter through the day, step by step. My film is about the effects our elders have on us even after they’re gone. I like to think they look out for us from above. It’s about dealing with loss while also realizing the ephemerality of life. Mono No Aware is something not easily translated into English, so I hoped to convey it here.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

See and celebrate APIA MN Film Collective Filmmakers at the 2021 Connect MEdia Festival!

We are a proud partner of SPNN’s Connect MEdia Festival.

February 5-7, 2021

For more information on the Connect MEdia Festival, please click here.