01.24.08

Sundance: Phang’s “Half-Life” wins raves, CNN profiles Tad Nakamura

Posted in Media and Entertainment at 10:25 pm by albert_lim

News from the Sundance Film Festival, which wraps on Jan. 27 in Park City, Utah:

The Hollywood Reporter raves about “Half-Life,” writer-director Jennifer Phang’s feature debut, saying it ” reminds us why Sundance was launched and why it continues to have value.”

Phang “demonstrates an original talent,” the Reporter says, “and though the film has imperfections and sometimes shows the strains of its low budget, it is an imaginative and deeply affecting effort.”

The film is set in a suburb of northern California in the near future, where an Asian American family deals with the tumult of single parenthood, blurred familial lines and closeted homosexuality. The turmoil described here is, according to the Reporter, “piercingly caught by Phang.”

The Reporter concludes, “‘Half-Life’ marks the debut of a promising, truly independent film artist.”

The film stars Leonardo Nam, best known for “The Perfect Score” (2004). For more info, visit the movie’s official Web site and the Sundance Film Festival’s Web site.

Also, CNN profiles filmmaker Tadashi (Tad) Nakamura, 27, for its “Young People Who Rock” feature. Tad’s documentary short, “Pilgrimage,” which was one of only 83 entries (out of 5,100 applicants) chosen for Sundance, looks at a small group of Japanese Americans who in the late 1960s uncovered the heritage of the internment camps and created the Manzanar Pilgrimage.

Jeff Chang, author of “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation,” calls the film “a powerfully moving piece on the dehumanization and dislocations of war, and the community and hope that can be found in resistance.”

The 39th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage is scheduled for April 26. For more info, visit the Manzanar Committee Web site.

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