Brazilian born Miriam Kim dazzled SDAFF audiences in 2003 with her short film “Just Between You and Me”, about a young Asian girl questioning sexuality in American society.

For the ABC Talent Development Grant Program, Kim submitted a feature film script entitled “Missing Tarsila”. The screenplay brings us to the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil, where Tarsila, an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, tries to escape from her family and their plans to put her in a nursery home. An uncommon relationship develops between the upper middle class Tarsila and a homeless girl.

“The film deals with the other part of my heritage. Even though I am Korean, I spent the first 18 years of my life in Brazil.”

If Kim receives the grant, she hopes to move to Sao Paulo for two months.

“The city itself is an important character. There is a huge social-economic discrepancy. There are people who are very wealthy living in the same city where there are many people in destitute.”

Before filming, she plans to first conduct research in Sao Paulo and find out current living conditions of the poor. Kim hasn’t been back in over a decade. She fears her memories of the place are too romanticized. She wants to portray the homeless in an accurate, socially relevant light.

“I am going there to attune. I want to be there on the street and get the sense of the place.”

Though the script is in English right now, she hopes to work with a translator and rewrite the entire script in Portuguese. She wants to include street lingo from homeless kids.

“It would be in the style of a documentary – hand held, live captured on the fly. It’ll have a gritty and urban feel.”

English subtitles will be provided, and the cast will compose entirely of local talents, natives of Brazil.

“It is important for us as filmmakers to have some kind of social relevance in our films.”

Kim, inspired by personal experiences with Alzheimer’s from her own grandfather, wanted to portray a realistic account of what could happen when families have to make difficult choices.

“I wanted to ask, how do you deal with old age? How can people who really care for each other screw up?”

Told from a female perspective, the main characters in “Missing Tarsila” make up a community of women. As a female filmmaker, Kim wanted to make a film that was meaningful to her and drew from experiences in her life.

With characters like the coincidental kung fu powered Jax, the 21 year old rave girl Dixie, and a greedy landlady named Mamun, the comedic James Huang submitted what he describes as his first ‘decent’ script for the ABC Talent Development Grant Program.

“Jax Ho: Chi Gung Master” centers around a “banana”, an Americanized Asian who doesn’t know how to think or behave like an Asian. Through a series of slap stick accidents, Mamun the landlady, as well as the other tenants, believe Jax to be empowered with the ancient Chinese healing abilities.

'This is just the starting point. I want to develop this into a sitcom.”

"I love sitcoms. Love watching TV. The shows out there are great, but there is a complete lack of Asian perspective.”

If Huang is selected as the winner of the $20,000 ABC grant, he plans to go into production on the first pilot episode.

“It’s got to be put out there. There are a lot of questions in Hollywood of the viability of Asian sitcoms. The only precedence is “All American Girl” with Margret Cho.”

Huang wants to wipe doubts off of the industry’s mind.

“I still think we got to try. Comedy is the way to go. It has universal appeal to everyone.”

 Huang is continuing with acting, and he currently has a silent short film called “Hamburgler” in the film festival circuit, where he debuted as a director and starred as a man who got his burger stolen by ninjas
.http://www.wongstein.com/hamburglar/