The Grace Lee Project

Just got back from Seattle where The Grace Lee Project was the opening night film of the Northwest Asian American Film Festival.

The festival is held at the Northwest Asian American Theater, which is on the ground level of the Wing Luke Asian Museum -- two institutions that I have always wanted to visit. Fortunately, the post-screening reception was at the Wing Luke so I got to briefly check it out.

We arrived on Thursday and the screening started a few hours later. The theater was full and afterwards, festival director Wes Kim along with Warren Etheridge who puts on the 1-Reel Film Festival at the art festival Bumbershoot did a Q&A with me. In the photo we look a trio of folksingers.

Wes had arranged for Grace Lees to get in for free to the screening. Three GLs showed up, including Grace Lee-Park from Portland. I met Portland Grace years ago and she has also made films and done media stuff. When we met, and this was long before I started The Grace Lee Project, we figured out that our mothers used to work in the same hospital in Chicago as pathologists. As it turns out, of course they knew each other and Grace Lee's mother even came to my parents' wedding. I guess neither of them knew that they had independently named their babies with the same name! At the screening on Thursday, Grace brought me a nice postcard note from her mother. It's amazing how small the world is.

Another chapter in the small world book: my good friend from high school and former roommate in college Molly Shen also showed up to the screening. Molly is a reporter and weekend anchor for the local ABC news station KOMO4 and I finally got to meet her two kids and husband in person. It's funny to think that back in high school we both worked on the school newspaper and planned to become journalists, but she has actually stayed one!

The next day Tom and I walked around Seattle. We spent a lot of time in the "new" Seattle Public Library which was designed by "starchitect" Rem Koolhaas. It's an amazing building, and I got giddy just walking around but the Seattlites I spoke with said that it's quite difficult to find books in there. But I didn't really care. Walking through a building like that is akin to watching a film. There's a whole narrative and invisible structure there that you can slowly discover. By the time we had gone up to the top and spiralled our way down through each floor, we discovered this bright red cavernous hallway, which felt like being in some sort of aorta. It also felt like the colorful climax to an already inspiring mental exercise. As we were walking through, I overheard a tourguide telling a group of kids that the entire construction cost million. It seems like a lot, but when you think that some movies cost that much in order to create such trash, you can put things in perspective. Anyway, if you ever get to Seattle, it's really worth a look. Way more interesting than the space needle!
More info about the design is here.

For lunch, we met up in Chinatown, which everyone there calls the International District, for Cambodian noodle soup with IH Kuniyuki who is a local photographer and artist and she keeps a zine about various and sundry items. She gave me a bunch of questions to answer, which may take a while to get to. I was never a good test-taker.

Later that afternoon, I met back up with Wes and we headed to KOMO news to do a live interview on their 4pm show. I have no idea what I said. The interview, along with the newscast, takes place in the actual newsroom and there are people working and walking around, and monitors everywhere. It was pretty distracting and all I could think about was how short I looked next to Wes and the anchor. Wes did a good job keeping it together, though, thank goodness. I hate being on camera that I'm not controlling already.

Anyway, after dinner we headed back to the festival, caught the tail end of the Northwest shorts program, and then stayed for the Cineoke party. Cineoke is awesome. It's basically karoke along with scenes from musical numbers in movies. So you can also act out the scene while you're singing your heart out. The host of the event (I think his name is Jason) was great and even did a Bollywood number. Also, who knew that Wes was such a good singer (and mike hog!??) Just kidding, Wes. The highlight of the evening was a woman (clearly a regular) singing a number from Grease 2. The scary thing is that I actually remember watching that movie a few times (on cable) and actually knew some of the lyrics. C-O-O-L R-I-D-E-R!!

The next morning, the rain came pouring down in torrents. We walked to the Pike Place Market, had some salmon chunks for lunch (that's how they're called on the menu) and then headed off to the airport with fond memories of Seattle to keep us company.

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Comments

Wes Kim
Tue, Jan 31st 2:12PM
Hey, Grace, On behalf of NWAAFF 2006, it was great having you and Tom in Seattle. I have a copy of our KOMO TV appearance on tape -- I'll get a copy to you before long. Best, Wes "Mike Hog" Kim NWAAFF 2006
Grace in Sac Town
Tue, Jan 31st 10:21PM
Great pictures, Grace! Cineoke? I must put that on my to do list. I always enjoy your blog updates.

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