Vilcek Foundation

Almost Perfect, Film

Director: Bertha Bay-Sa Pan
Screenwriter: Bertha Bay-Sa Pan
Producer: Bertha Bay-Sa Pan, Derrick Tseng
Cinematographer: Sam Chase
Cast: Christina Chang, Tina Chen, Edison Chen, Kelly Hu, Ivan Shaw, Roger Rees

Synopsis: At thirty-four, Vanessa is still her large and boisterous family’s go-to girl, with a threadbare excuse of a life of her own. Her love life begins to blossom when she runs into Dwayne, an old friend (Ivan Shaw). Dwayne is the almost perfect guy, who just might be perfect for her; but as those sparks fly, her family starts to go up in flames. Her surf-bum brother (Edison Chen) has gone AWOL; and her overanalyzing, overintellectual mother (Tina Chen) has barred her father (Roger Rees) from their home, sending him into his own midlife crisis.

They all need Vanessa, all the time, to fix all their problems, much to the consternation of Dwayne, who’s beginning to get fed up with the whole deal. Trapped within one family crisis after another, Vanessa has decisions to make: be the family’s savior, or carve out some “me-time“ and concentrate on possibly the best thing to happen to her in her entire adult life! ­

—Abraham Ferrer

Profile: Bertha Bay-Sa Pan’s feature film directorial debut FACE, premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival in Dramatic Competition. Pan also received the Premio Speciale Prize at the International Women’s Film Festival in Torino. FACE was released in theaters in 2005, garnering positive reviews from major publications including The New York Times, and The Hollywood Reporter. ALMOST PERFECT is her latest feature.

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Living in Seduced Circumstances, Film

Director: Ian Gamazon
Screenwriter: Ian Gamazon
Producers: Quynn Ton
Cinematographer: Ian Gamazon
Cast: Long Nguyen, Quynn Ton

Synopsis: Minh is a young Vietnamese woman taking a relaxing trip in the country with Mr. Thanh (Long Nguyen of Journey from the Fall; HIFF, 2006), an older man with whom she had an affair. This is not your typical May/December romance. For one thing, Minh has drugged and abducted Mr. Thanh and taken him to an isolated cabin in the forest. For another, Minh, who is pregnant by at least seven months, spends every waking hour terrorizing a bloody and beaten Mr. Thanh, whom she has duct-taped to a wheelchair. How did it come to this?

Filipino-American filmmaker Ian Gamazon (Cavite; HIFF, 2007) crafted this dark and disturbing psychological horror-thriller. As his story unfolds, filmgoers will come to understand what drives Minh, whose behavior is at once horrifying and kittenish. And viewers may even come to sympathize with Mr. Thanh’s predicament. Despite the emotional roller-coaster ride, one can’t help but snicker as Minh cheerfully lumbers about the woods finding different ways to torment her former lover.

—Jason Musni Soeda

Profile: Ian Gamazon’s debut CAVITE had its world premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2005. He was named in Filmmaker Magazine's Twenty Five New Faces of Independent Film in 2006. CAVITE earned Gamazon the Someone To Watch Award for the 2006 Independent Spirit Award, and the film was subsequently picked up by Magnolia Pictures. LIVING IN SEDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES marks his third feature.

My Last Day Without You, Film

Director: Stefan Schaefer
Screenwriter: Stefan Schaefer, Christoph Silber
Producers: Diane Crespo, Stefan Schaefer, Christoph Silber
Cinematographer: Dan Hersey
Cast: Nicole Beharie, Reg E. Cathey, Ken Duken, Marlene Forte, Laith Nakli

Synopsis: When a young business executive, Niklas, is sent from Frankfurt to New York to shut down a division of his firm, he doesn’t realize his life is about to be turned upside down. By 9:30 a.m. he has done what he was tasked to do. But his flight back home doesn’t leave for another 11 hours. In this time, seemingly by chance, he meets and falls for Leticia, a beautiful African-American secretary and aspiring singer.

Only one problem: Unbeknownst to him, she’s one of the people he just fired. They end up back in Brooklyn, where he meets her father, a pastor, and begins to realize who she is. Unable to tell her the truth about himself, Niklas stumbles through a romantic few hours of eating, walking through Brooklyn streets, and listening to Leticia play music in her new apartment. At the worst possible time, Leticia finds out Niklas’s true identity. In a rage, she abandons him deep in Brooklyn. Despite this, it’s clear he’s been stricken by an emotion he’s never experienced before.

—Brooklyn Film Festival

Profile: Considered one of Germany’s leading screenwriters, Silber has contributed to award winning films such as GOOD BYE LENIN! He has won the German Critics Award and the Grimme Award, Germany’s Emmy. Together with his partner Stefan Schaefer, Chris founded the New York production company Silver Shepherd in 2009. The duo produced and wrote MY LAST DAY WITHOUT YOU, inspired by Chris’s own story.

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Skateistan: Four Wheels and a Board in Kabul, Film

Director: Kai Sehr
Screenwriter: Nadia Hennrich
Producers: Rene Kock, Oliver Percovich
Cinematographer: Kalle Dobrick
Cast: Sharna Nolan, Oliver Percovich

Synopsis: Oliver Percovich and Sharna Nolan come to Kabul in 2007 bringing only a few skateboards with them. They have an idea to set up daily sessions with kids, to connect with them through skateboarding. They begin skating in an abandoned water fountain, attracting a few of the nearby children; soon those numbers multiply, attracting both boys and girls of all ages. These humble beginnings soon transform into the first school for skateboarding — they called it Skateistan. Skateistan’s goal is to bring hope to those without it while at the same time bridging the gap between gender, ethnicity, and class.

As the skating sessions grow, however, so do the mounting problems to keep the program alive. One problem is that girls are forbidden to skate in public with boys beyond the age of 12. This becomes the seed for one of Ollie and Sharna’s most inspired ideas: build a state-of-the-art indoor skate park. For Ollie and Sharna, breaking barriers is one thing; bringing hope and happiness to children in a war-torn country is everything.

—Jason Pila

Profile: A writer and editor, Nadia Soraya Hennirch was born in Hamburg, moved to Teheran as a young girl, and remained there until 1982. After earning a degree in chemistry, Nadia was drawn to the editing room when a friend introduced her to the world of filmmaking. She moved to the United States in 2002, and in the intervening years has edited commercials, music videos, and various long format films including SKATEISTAN. 

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The Price of Sex, Film

Director: Mimi Chakarova
Screenwriter: Mimi Chakarova
Producers: Mimi Chakarova
Cinematographer: Adam Keker

Synopsis: Would you be willing to jump out of a three-story-high window to escape your situation? You might if you were a young Eastern European woman promised work as a housekeeper or waitress, only to find yourself forced into the seedy world of prostitution far from home. That’s the story told by photojournalist Mimi Chakarova in The Price of Sex. Across the world, from Moldova to Turkey and beyond, she leaves no stone unturned in this chillingly thorough documentary on sex trafficking.

The government, police, family members, pimps, johns — everyone is complicit in the trafficking of these women. The Price of Sex examines how these factors, coupled with the fall of communism, have left villages with few competitive options and, thus, open to traffickers eagerly preying on the naivete of their victims. With no easy solutions, this issue affects everyone. ­­

—Jeff Kent

Profile: Mimi Chakarova has had numerous solo exhibitions of her documentary projects on South Africa, Jamaica, Cuba, Kashmir and Eastern Europe. This is Chakarova's 13th year teaching visual storytelling at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. For her film, THE PRICE OF SEX, Chakarova was awarded the Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking at the 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival. 

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