Interview with "Red Doors" director and producers
07.14 - Posted by Editor
By Ed Moy
Red doors are supposed to bring good luck -- and Georgia Lee's feature directorial debut, "Red Doors," proved just that when it won the NY, NY Best Narrative Feature Award at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival. Lee's heartwarming comedy, which has been called a cross between "The Joy Luck Club" and "American Beauty," also won the Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Acting at the 2005 CineVegas Film Festival in Las Vegas, NV. In Lee's film, we meet the Wongs, a bizarrely dysfunctional Chinese-American family living in the New York suburbs. The cast includes Jacqueline Kim, Tzi Ma, Freda Foh Chen, Kathy Shao-Lin Lee, Elaine Kao, Rossif Sutherland, and Mia Riverton.
"Red Doors" will screen at Outfest in Los Angeles, CA as part of their "All Girl Friday" program. Outfest runs from July 7 - 18. "Red Doors" is scheduled to show Friday, July 15 at 7:00 p.m. at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood. There will be a reception in the DGA Atrium preceding the film at 6:00 p.m. and an after-party at Girl Bar at Ultrasuede at 10:00pm. A "Red Doors" ticket will get you into both events. Tickets are on sale at the theater and via the Outfest website: www.outfest.org Additionally, Georgia Lee has been named a "5 in Focus" director by Outfest. "5 in Focus" is a new director spotlight that recognizes five first-time filmmakers with outstanding features playing in the
festival. For more info, visit: www.reddoorsthemovie.com
AsianAmericanFilm.com recently had a menage a trois [that is, an interview in cyberspace] with RED DOORS director Lee and producers Jane Chen and Mia Riverton, who also stars in the film.
AAF: First off, how did you three ladies meet up at Harvard?
GL: I actually met both Mia and Jane at Harvard. Mia was two years below me and Jane was two years above
me.
MR: Yup - I saw Georgia around campus a lot, and we ended up having an economics class together.
GL: I worked for Jane at the "Crimson" [school newspaper] where she was the big boss.
JC: I'm still the big boss.
MR: We all bow down to Jane. She really wears the pants, so to speak.
GL: The three of us had always been very passionate about filmmaking, but we had followed the more risk-averse, straight and narrow path.
MR: I kept in touch with Georgia after she graduated, and I like to think that I encouraged/badgered her to follow her filmmaking dream. She made several very good (and award-winning!) short films...
JC: I worked on a few of Georgia's short films in various capacities too over the years.
GL: Jane and I actually co-wrote "Educated" [one of Lee's first short films].
MR: When I graduated, I went straight to Hollywood to do the acting/producing thing. I spent all my spare time trying to convince Georgia and Jane to quit
[management consulting firm] McKinsey (and Harvard Business School) and move to LA.
GL: I finally gave in and moved to Mia's kitchen and wrote "Red Doors."
AAF: If you had a daughter or niece that wanted to drop out of school or quit her day job to make an independent movie, what would you say to her?
GL: Stay in school! Filmmaking is madness. You have to be half mad to do it! And between Jane, Mia and myself, it's a loony bin. [crazed laughter] I think
that people have to follow their hearts -- and that you can only fully be happy with yourself and your choices if you do so. That being said, indie filmmaking is incredibly difficult. So, I would want her to be as knowledgeable about what she was getting herself into and then make sure she had a good team.
JC: I'd make sure she knew that she was making at least a two year commitment.
MR: I'd tie her up and lock her in the basement until she came to her senses. Then I would enroll her in therapy. If she still wanted to do it after all that, I'd fund her first movie. [wicked smile]
AAF: The three of you created Blanc de Chine Entertainment. Can you tell us more about your production company‚s name?
MR: Blanc de Chine = White of China (in French) = porcelain. But it is also a play on the whole "East meets West" vibe: Asian-American, hapa, mixed-blood,
second generation, etc.
JC: Well porcelain is delicate and valuable like women are supposed to be. We use it ironically.
MR: Men are frightened of us. LOL.
GL: It‚s a slightly tongue-in-cheek nod to all three of us being of Asian American heritage (Mia is hapa). The East meets West sensibility. A bit kitschy.
AAF: You're screening at Outfest next; tell us more about the lesbian relationship in the movie?
MR: My favorite topic! [In the film, Riverton plays a movie star named Mia Scarlett, who begins a relationship with the Wongs‚ middle daughter Julie
[played by Kao].
MR: Okay, seriously... the great thing about "Red Doors, and about Georgia as a director, is that character is first and foremost. It's all about the people as people, and gender is sort of incidental. That said, we had a lot of fun with the roles. Elaine Kao, who plays the straightlaced middle sister (Julie Wong) is such a great actress.
JC: Well, I really like the fact that the storyline is so matter of fact. We get lots of kudos for that. There are not enough stories that present gays and lesbians as part of a familial whole where the family dynamics are the story rather than the "coming out" or "gay bashing."
MR: Julie's storyline is all about coming out in a number of ways -- coming out of her shell, etc. -- without being a typical "coming out" story.
GL: We wanted to tell a gay story which wasn't completely focused on the "being gay" part. And in many ways, that was the philosophy of the Chinese-American dimension as well.
MR: It's just a real relationship between two people who are dealing with many issues including sexuality, celebrity, tradition, and cultural mores.
JC: I think it's also important to point out that the lesbian storyline is the only traditional "love story" in the bunch, and it‚s the only one that is actually requited.
MR: And how requited it is!
GL: Lesbians and Chinese-Americans have the same complications, emotional complexities, frays and issues in their lives as anybody else.
