Jul

23

2008

(8) Comments

Review of Korean film “No Regret”

04:08PM by elenastevenson

Oh, the excitement of the FedEx envelope arriving from L.A. Publicist Jack Song asked me to review “No Regret,” a Korean film with an upcoming U.S. theatrical run. It’s being billed as a gay Romeo and Juliet, in light of its melodramatic romance and class-differences theme. According to the press kit, “No Regret” was such a passion project that cast and crew worked for next to nothing and contributed their personal cash toward production expenses. Released in South Korea in November 2006, the buzz around this film has been building steadily.

Jul

19

2008

(50) Comments

Initimate Moments from Rebuilding the Bridge

07:32AM by Hoc

Lan and Alvin have already did a great job of talking about the acts and personal anecdotes for the Rebuilding the Bridge event last Saturday. I’ve been meaning to write my own summary for the past week, but I’ve had very little downtime. Plus, I’m thoroughly, every-inch-of-my-body exhausted. I don’t think I ever felt exhaustion before, but it really sucks. This isn’t a complaint, merely an explanation why I’m so slow to respond to emails, txt msgs, Facebook, and just about everything else right now. Everything was worth it and I’ll get to why after you watch this montage.

Rebuilding the Bridge was a huge success in so many ways. There were a lot of things to take away from that night. It was personally one of the best nights of my life in terms of the people I’ve met and the connections I’ve made. First, some perspective: the reception part of the event officially started at 7:30pm. People started coming in at 6:30pm. The house was full at 7pm. The line for the performance part was all the way to the end of the street about half a mile long by 7pm.

Jul

13

2008

(50) Comments

‘Rebuilding the Bridge’ Charity Event: AMAZING

09:11PM by Alvin Lin

On Saturday night I was privileged to watch the ‘Rebuilding the Bridge’ charity event at Pace University, to raise money for Chinese earthquake victims.  Talk about an AMAZING show loaded with huge stars.  I finally got to see why Phil Lam and Hoc Poeng (fearless generals of Ningin) were so busy the past few weeks working to put the show together, and this extravaganza definitely didn’t disappoint.  There were lots of logistics not to mention controversies that I’ll let other people comment on if they want.

The show was largely hosted by Miss Info of Hot 97, who was clearly passionate about this charity and used her Rolodex to pull in some amazing and talented names from around the entertainment industry.  The show included appearances or performances by Beau Sia (you might know him from this eloquent video), J-Lim, JYP, Ryan Leslie, Rik Cordero, DJ Cipha, DJ Delinger, Nas (!!), and also a meet and greet with the JabbaWockeez.

Jul

12

2008

(13) Comments

13 hours before the Rebuilding the Bridge Sichuan Charity Event

07:16AM by Hoc

Believe it or not, we had less then three weeks to plan Rebuilding the Bridge. Believe it or not, we had zero money - no budget - when we started. All we had at the start was an idea and five people with a burning desire to do something about the tragic, tragic earthquake in Sichuan, China. But what can five people do alone? We built a coalition and now five people became a unified community. The underlying premise was, “If Asians can’t come together for something so tragic, what will we come together for?” So this coalition of Asian non-profits, for-profits, old media, new media, political offices, and everything else became the body of a movement with compassion for a soul.

Now here we are, 13 hours away from one of the biggest, if not the biggest Asian charity event in NYC this year. In less than three weeks we secured Ryan Leslie, Planet B-Boy break dancing crews, J-Lim, Beau Sia, and Andrew Choi. We’ve had many artist and entertainers volunteer their time and services. Many of which we ultimately couldn’t fit. We’ve had an outpouring of support from Asian and non-Asian organizations and corporations alike. Without them, we would have no money, no venue, and no hope. All of those bricks were laid in less than three weeks.

I’m painting a rosy picture. Many times we were thinking it’s over; we just lost our venue, we just lost some sponsors, and we just lost our headline act (multiple times). All the issues and all the drama during this building process seems irrelevant now, staring at the event 13 hours in the future. When you think about the scale and reach of what we were doing and in the timeframe that we did it, literally a dozen small miracles had to have happened. Why put ourselves under such pressure to produce a show of this caliber in less than three weeks? This was the only timeframe we had to work with the Jabbawockeez…

So we lost our headline act about 4 days before the event; the act that we built this entire event around. As much as I want to get into why this happen, there are numerous reasons why it’s easier that I don’t. For the record, please don’t blame the Jabbawockeez members and managers for this. They really do care about what we’re trying to do and said that if they had a choice, they would be at our event in a heartbeat. They are the same guys that you’ve read about before this event, and the fame of winning America’s Best Dance Crew has not changed them one bit.

Jul

9

2008

(34) Comments

So what happen to Jabbawockeez?

09:24PM by Hoc

I can’t really say just yet. There were many parties involved which made things chaotic. No need to vilify Jabbawockeez. I personally wish them the best. 

Jul

2

2008

(26) Comments

Are You Experienced?

12:44AM by elenastevenson

Hey Jim, you’re cool because you’re old like me : ) Check out my interview with Jim Chu, filmmaker and owner of White Rabbit Lounge in NYC:

Jim Chu and White Rabbit

Jul

1

2008

(34) Comments

Come See Jabbawockeez Perform Live in NYC - July 12th!

10:37PM by Hoc

For the past few weeks Ningin and Museum of Chinese America have been secretly planning a massive Charity Event for the victims of the Sichuan Earthquake. It took us a while, but we finally have the big details locked down. Jabbawockeez is the main performing artist along with Ryan Leslie, Beau Sia, and Andrew Choi. Also special guest appearances by Park Jin Young (JYP) and Ken Leung, aka Miles from the TV show Lost. The incredible Minya Oh, Miss Info of HOT 97, will be the event host. There’s more performers and celebrities pending confirmation, but it’s a pretty big lineup already.

Save the date! Saturday July 12th, 7:30pm at Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center of the Arts Auditorium!

100% of the proceeds from this event goes directly to MercyCorps.

While this is all fun and entertaining, the overriding goal is to maintain awareness of the earthquake victims in China and the cyclones in Burma. Already these disasters have fallen of the headlines in mainstream media but tens of millions of people need our help there and will continue to need help for many years to come.

This Jabbawockeez headlined performance is really just the first step towards that goal. Ningin and many others will partner together to develop a special microsite dedicated to maintaining awareness for these victims and we welcome anyone else who wants to join the cause. I’ll update what this entails as more details get confirmed. For now, if you are an Asian blogger or a blog that covers Asian stuff, contact me via Ningin private message to see how you can get a ticket to this event and get involved!

Jun

19

2008

AAFilmLab Team Interviews

11:02AM by elenastevenson

Hi everyone, I’ll be interviewing various teams in this year’s 72 Hour Film Shootout. They’ll appear on the AAFilmLab microsite. One interview is up already, more to come!

Team Pork Bun - Rachel Lu
SOHCAHTOA - Calvin Sun

Jun

18

2008

(2) Comments

Programming Note: AAFilmLab Launch Party this Friday!

06:56PM by Hoc

The launch party at White Rabbit Club, NYC, is this Friday at 6pm. More info on our AAFilmLab microsite. I’ll be there and as well as other Mixr Staff, Ningin bloggers, and AAFilmLab heads of state. The up and coming hip-hop rapper, Koba, will be there performing. Now, I haven’t followed rap for awhile, but I do like what I hear on his Myspace.

We’ll be conducting an interview with Koba for you later. For those not in the NYC area, we’ll be recording the performance and streaming the video sometime after we recover from the anticipated hangover.

We also hope to have pre and post competition interviews of the participating in the coming days. 

Jun

14

2008

(11) Comments

The AAFilmLab 72 Hour Film Shootout Microsite is Up!

09:52PM by Hoc

Today is really a big day for Ningin. We launched our first microsite and our own video streaming technology!

The microsite, as mention in this previous press release, is for the Asian American Film Lab’s 72 Hour Film Shootout. We’ll basically be handling their entire online presence providing complete blog coverage of the event, interviews with the participating teams, and of course video streaming of all film submission from this year and previous years. You’ll also find complete list of rules, instructions, prizes, and info on the judges.

So far, we have streaming videos available from last year’s top 10 short films and we’ll be adding the rest during the new few weeks. High-definition video streaming will follow in the next few days.

The Shootout officially begins next Friday, 6/20 at 8pm. If you’re in the NYC area, the launch party starts at 6pm at White Rabbit Lounge (145 East Houston Street, New York). David Hou, president of AAFilmLab, will be there as well as Ningin blogger Alvin Lin and future Ningin blogger James Chou. It’s entirely possible that I’ll be there also, so come if you can.