"Rupture" - An Interview with Writer and Director Yiuwing Lam
09.10 - Posted by Editor
Yiuwing Lam, writer and director of "Rupture" | | "Rupture"
An Interview with the Film's Writer and Director Yiuwing Lam
Interview by Greg Pak
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09.10.03 - Yiuwing Lam has recently been selected for the ABC New Talent Development Scholarship and Grant Program! Previous winners include Joyce Lee and Nora Chau. AsianAmericanFilm.com caught up with Yiuwing to get the inside scoop on the program and his project.
AAF Can you tell us a bit about the program and what you'll be doing as part of it?
YL The ABC Entertainment Group is giving us minority filmmakers the opportunity to develop our talents in a nurturing yet professional environment. Alongside a grant of twenty thousand dollars, they have provided us a mentor in the industry as well as an opportunity to pitch our projects at the end of the grant period (which is roughly one year) to established execs in the industry. The filmmakers can either develop feature length screenplays during that time or short film projects. I'm doing the latter.
AAF Please give us a brief synopsis of the project you'll be working with in the program.
YL The project that I'll be working on is a short film that I wrote and will direct entitled, "Rupture" which is a drama set in Los Angeles about an old, lonely taxi driver who finds himself in a storybook romance -- or so it seems.
AAF Please give us a brief bio of yourself.
YL I'm a filmmaker based in LA though I'm originally from Dallas, Texas-- as you know, the mecca of the world-- just kidding. But it was my experience of moving from Brooklyn to Dallas that really changed me in terms of wanting to be a filmmaker. Just going from a big metropolis to the hell known as the suburbs really pushed me towards making films as an outlet for my teenage angst and adult angst I guess. Just a funny aside, when I first told my traditional Asian dad, I wanted to make films, a look of horror flushed on his face and he said to me:
"Son, me and your mom worked so hard to immigrate to America so you can become a lawyer or a doctor but son... we know you're not that smart, why couldn't you just be a pharmacist?" To this day I don't know if he was insulting me or the whole pharmacy community.
AAF What's been the best thing about winning the award so far?
YL The press and the recognition have been nice, but to tell you the truth, it has to be the opportunity to make another film. There is nothing like the feeling of having someone believing in your work enough to give you money to do it, especially when its an organization like ABC.
AAF Anything else you'd like to add about the whole thing?
YL It's an amazing program and I'm really glad and humbled to be a part of it.
