Category: Interview

CHOPSO interviewed Yong Yoon who is releasing his first feature In the Land of the Blind that he made while still at UCLA Film School in the 90s for the first time to the world. In the Land of the Blind streams today via AAM.

On the eve before the world premiere of Zombiclaus (2024), a 35 seconds short film fully created with AI by filmmaker Quentin Lee, CHOPSO discusses the genesis of Zombiclaus with the writer, director and producer who made the film all by himself via AI technology

Dropping the trailer on Youtube today, Yale in Hollywood Fest will launch their fifth edition global virtual film festival streaming free to the world from…

I first met Randi Liberman when she was subbing for dancer Hero Thomas’ class at Los Angeles’ Millennium Dance Complex. I enjoyed her choreography so much that—because I couldn’t make her regular class—I’ve decided to take private lessons from her. Originally from Montréal and now working as a dancer, choreographer and teacher in Los Angeles, Randi currently dances for pop artist Ava Max, teaches hip hop dance at Millennium Dance Complex and choreographs for various rising music artists. I took the opportunity to interview her about her rising career.

Writer Adi Tantimedh and I first met at the 1995 Vancouver International Film Festival through British film critic Tony Rayns. Adi was at VIFF with his NYU MFA thesis film while I was there with my “first feature” Flow, a feature compilation of my short films made at UCLA Film School. The fictional filmmaker character in Flow resembled Adi so that many people at the festival thought Adi was me; and hence this doppelganger relationship at a film festival was how we connected. Almost three decades later, I caught up with Adi whose podcast series Sanctuary will be released this month on August 19 by Voyage Media.

As a collaborator with Koji Steven Sakai, a prolific screenwriter, creator and producer, I interviewed Koji on his first fictional and latest podcast series Elucidity which Voyage Media has just dropped on Apple Podcasts among other major podcasting platform.

On the evening of Wednesday May 29, 2024 in Toronto, filmmaker Quentin Lee and his producing partner Cindy Au Yeung won the 2024 Canadian Screen Award for Best Comedy Special for their series Comedy Invasion’s episode “Rez Style,” beating out three other CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) productions. CHOPSO sat down to chat with Quentin on the evening of them leaving for Vancouver to prep and shoot their latest stand-up comedy feature, Rez Comedy, the first all Indigenous and all Canadian stand-up comedy feature film.

World premiering at the upcoming Inside Out Film Festival in Toronto, Colette Vosberg’s documentary feature Unusually Norman brilliantly portrays “the gayest family” in Canada that spans three generations of queer women. CHOPSO takes the opportunity to speak with Colette about her queerly brilliant documentary feature before its world premiere

Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s nomination of independent creator Quentin Lee’s Comedy Invasion series for Best Comedy Special broke the Canadian stand-up comedy monopoly long held by Canadian Broadcast Corporation, better known as CBC. For the freshly established category of Best Comedy Special, the three other nominees all belong to CBC. Rejected by Canadian broadcasters from development to distribution, creator Quentin Lee funded the 8-part series by themself and distributed the series through their own niché streaming platform, Asian American Movies aka AAM.tv. As a supporter of independent cinema and media, CHOPSO took the opportunity to speak with creator Quentin Lee on their surprising nomination at the Canadian Screen Awards 2024.

Rika Ohara’s experimental feature “The Heart of No Place” imagines the life of Yoko Ono after the death of John Lennon. Rika herself plays the titular character Y. in her feature directorial debut that won accolades on its initial film festival circuit screenings. As the feature drops today on AAM.tv, I have interviewed Rika on her looking back at her own feature film.