Changing "Can" to a Short Film

I met with consultant today regarding fundraising for my film after getting a slew of rejection letters from foundations. It is daunting to keep writing grant applications, but this is the plight of many indy filmmakers. The consultant told me that he didn't think that my film would make it into film festivals in its current state because the film has too many expert interviews, which make it too educational instead of character-driven. The idea was to make it character-driven, but that idea also competed with the idea that the film had to educate about Asian American mental health to a certain extent because of the California Endowment grant.

I think I had it in my mind that I'd fix the problems once I began to edit and since I had been delayed so many times due to Can's relentless delays in getting home, I also had to delay making the fixes that I needed to to my most recent rough cut. So I guess I will be making a short. It may be more compelling and terser as a short.

I am sulking, but not as crazy as I expected to be. As long as there are lessons learned, nothing has been lost. This project was difficult from all angles and I knew that it was all a huge risk from the get go. I have to put my ego aside and put my social objectives first. I did succeed in raising a lot of awareness among key opinion leaders in mainstream mental health and that was an important feat to me. The model minority myth has always worked against Asian Americans with mental illnesses. The secondary myth is that you can't have a mental illness and be a model minority at the same time, but the truth is is that many successful, intelligent, productive people (e.g., Iris Chang, John Nash, Kay Redfield Jamison) do have mental illnesses. Success and mental illness are not mutually exclusive.

The hope is that these key opinion leaders will use the knowledge that they learned from our workshops and presentation in executing their jobs and gain the understanding that they need to specially train their therapists and staff to work with Asian Americans. Some of them do walk away with the understanding that they do not understand Asian American cultures and that acknowledgement of ignorance is equally as important as knowledge. Some therapists complete their clinical training without any knowledge of Asian Americans and do not understand that they may have the skills set to help counsel Asian Americans.