Jennifer Yuh Nelson was named best director for KUNG FU PANDA 2 by the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood) at the 39th Annual Annie Awards.
Nelson is the first solo woman to win the award for Directing in a Feature Production. KUNG FU PANDA 2 also won an Annie Award for Best Animated Special Production.
The film is also nominated for an Oscar in the Best Animated Feature category.
AsianConnections team was at Kung Fu Panda 2's red carpet premiere in Los Angeles in 2011.
More than 200 videos were submitted by members from the AAPI communities to a video challenge called "What's Your Story" sponsored by the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Here are the top eleven finalists. You may vote only once, for one of these eleven video entries. The deadline to vote is March 1, 2012. A group of finalists will be selected to come to the White House in March, 2012 to share their stories at a White House Champions of Change event.
White House staffers Eddie Lee, Associate Director, Office of Engagement, and Miya Saika Chen talk about the "What's Your Story" video challenge.
Click here for
the
SI
article
on
New
York
Knicks
Starting
Point
Guard
Jeremy
Lin’s
astonishing
ascent.
Linsanity
continues
tonight
at
Madison
Square
Garden,
when
the
New
York
Knicks
play
the
Sacramento
Kings.
Click
here
for
more
commentary
on
Linmania
at
AsianConnections.com.
Other Articles on Jeremy Lin:
cbsnews.com:
Jeremy
Lin:
New
York
Knicks’
Cinderella
story
espn.go.com:
When
Jeremy
Lin
takes
over
your
team
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. In 2010, the Library of Congress established The Lia Chang APA Theater Portfolio in the Asian Pacific American Performing Arts Collection housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian Pacific American Islander Collection.
Richard Wong and writer H.P. Mendoza, the award-winning team that brought you the infectious, quirky coming-of-age tale Colma: The Musical, return to the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF’12) with their fourth collaboration, Yes, We’re Open, a raunchy sex comedy starring Lynn Chen (Saving Face), Parry Shen (Better Luck Tomorrow), Sheetal Sheth (Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World) and Kerry McCrohan, which screens at Clearview Chelsea Cinemas, 260 W. 23rd St, in New York, on August 4, 2012 at 7pm. Click here for tickets.
Set
in
the
San
Francisco
Bay
Area, Yes,
We’re
Open follows
Luke
(Parry
Shen)
and
Sylvia
(Lynn
Chen)
who
think
of
themselves
as
a
modern
couple
–
always
in
the
know
and
open
to
new
experiences.
Enter
Elena
(Sheetal
Sheth)
and
Ronald
(Kerry
McCrohan)a
provocative
polyamorous
couple
that
challenge
Luke
and
Sylvia’s
status
in
their
circle
of
friends
and
with
each
other.
With
temptation
right
around
the
corner,
Luke
and
Sylvia
must
figure
out
where
they
really
stand
on
love,
sex,
and
honesty. Yes,
We’re
Open takes
an
intimate
look
at
the
unconventional
world
of
San
Francisco
relationships,
where
promiscuity
and
fidelity
aren’t
always
mutually
exclusive.
The
film
also
features
Tasi
Alabastro,
Dave
Boyle
(Surrogate
Valentine),
H.P.
Mendoza
(Fruit
Fly:
The
Musical
Award-winning
composer/lyricist
Timothy
Huang
(The
View
from
Here, And
the
Earth
Moved)
has
launched
a Rockethub.com crowd
funding
campaign
for
a
workshop
of
his
latest
passion
project,
a
new
musical
called Costs
of
Living.
Huang
was
inspired
to
create Costs
of
Living after
reading Night
and
Day,
an
article
which
appeared
in
the New
York
Times in
2009,
that
tells
the
story
of
two
immigrant
cab
drivers
who
take
opposite
shifts
off
the
same
medallion.
While the day shift driver (Eng) encounters successes, his night shift partner (Chin) continues to encounter obstacles until the two find themselves on opposite sides of an ever widening gap and in a dangerous escalation that leaves one dead and the other brutalized.
It is, at its heart, a human story, an American story and a cautionary tale lending voice to the unspoken dangers of freedom without social consciousness or oversight. It is a story of love and country, resilience and responsibility, the price of freedom and the costs of living.
“The last ten years of my career have been about finding ways to make the things that move me move other people,” said Huang. “And with tremendous support and feedback from the Asian American community and the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop (where this project originated) I feel like Costs of Living has found a unique balance.