Hollywood

April 25, 2021

by Suzanne Joe Kai

"Nomadland" director Chloé Zhao made history at tonight's 2021 Academy Awards, becoming the first woman of color to win Best Director. 

Her film "Nomadland" also won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Actress in a leading role. 

Frances McDormand won the Oscar for Best Actress in "Nomadland."

She was also a Producer of the film.

Frances plays a woman in her 60's who loses everything in the Great Recession of 2008 and lives in a van as a nomad like other transient workers in the American West during the 2008 economic crisis.

Frances McDormand howled onstage during her acceptance speech in tribute to Michael Wolf "Nomadland's" production sound mixer who died at the age of 35. 

Chloé Zhao is only the second woman ever to win the Directing award, tonight marking yet another milestone for the Oscars.

The only other woman to win an Oscar for Directing is Kathryn Bigelow[5] in 2010,[6] for The Hurt Locker.

Born in Beijing, China, Chloé moved with her parents to London when she was in high school, and attended Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

She attended New York University's MFA graduate film program. 

She currently lives in Ojai, California. 

Sources:

Oscars.org

IMDB

RottenTomatoes.com

Variety.com April 25, 2021 Frances McDormand

Variety.com March 6, 2021 Wolf Snyder

Los Angeles

February 8, 2021

by Suzanne Joe Kai

A Must See feature documentary film is coming to virtual theaters February 12, 2021!

RUTH - Justice Ginsburg In Her Own Words -

is directed, written and produced by Academy and Emmy award winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock.  

To celebrate Women's History Month, Starz is premiering this inspiring film on Monday, March 1 at 9 PM EP/PM, 2021. 

The film tells the improbable story of how Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who couldn’t get a job despite tying first in her graduating law class and making Law Review at Harvard and Columbia Law Schools, became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. It also reveals both the public and private sides of a resilient, resourceful woman who has survived the hostility of the profoundly male universe of government and law to become a revered Justice and icon for gender equality and women’s rights.

How does a person with three strikes against her rise to the highest court in the land, the U.S. Supreme Court? 

How did this happen despite closed doors and legal and social barriers facing Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the 1950's? 

Who made this possible? What personal, social and politial forces intersected to make this happen?

Academy award-winning Freida Lee Mock shows us the inspiring story of Ruth Bader Ginsberg as a wife, mother, and litigator for the ACLU's Women's Rights Project; as a professor; as an appellate judge, as a trailblazer in the 1970's arguing landmark gender...

January 25, 2020

San Francisco

Happy Lunar New Year! Emmy-award winners Ben Fong-Torres broadcasts live with co-host Julie Haener the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco broadcast on television and streaming on KTVU - TV. 

In 2020, Chinese New Year begins on January 25 and ends on February 8. 

Ben Fong-Torres and Julie Haener co-host Southwest Airlines® Chinese New Year Parade on February 8, 2020 in San Francisco beginning at 5:15pm PST. Organizers expect 1.2 million people will be attending in person.

The Parade will be broadcast live on KTVU Fox 2 or KTSF Channel 26 Saturday February 8, 2020 on television! Watch the Parade live from the streets in San Francisco - the largest of its kind outside of Asia! 

Named one of the top ten Parades in the world by International Festivals & Events Association, this is truly a sight to see.

The parade began in San Francisco more than one hundred years ago, and is one of the few remaining night illuminated parades in North America.

This year the Southwest Airlines® 2020 Chinese New Year festivities range from the great Chinese New Year parade, to street fairs, a fashion show, and many other events. Bobo the parrot says Gung Hay Fat Choy!

This Lunar year marks the Year of the Rat. Here is a beautiful watercolor rendition of the Rat, as painted by the late, great former US Ambassador and former longtime Secretary of State of California March Fong Eu. 

The Chinese zodiac is in a...

Hollywood

December 9, 2019

Nora Lum, known professionally as Awkwafina is nominated for Best Actress for her role in "The Farewell" in the category of Best Performance in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards. The Golden Globes Awards will be broadcast on January 5, 2020. 

(Photo credit: The Farewell / A24)

If Awkwafina wins, she will become the first Asian American to win the Golden Globe award.

Her role in 2019's "The Farewell" follows her breakout role as Peik Lin in 2018's 'Crazy Rich Asians' which made her a globally known actress to watch. 'Crazy, Rich Asians' also catapulted her into another Hollywood movie, "Ocean's Eight' with cast mates Cate Blanchette, Anne Hathaway and Rihanna. 

(Photo credit: Sanja Bucko/Warner Bros. Pictures)

After her 2018 breakout role in Warner Bros feature film "Crazy, Rich Asians," the first Hollywood movie with an all Asian cast in 26 years since "Joy Luck Club" Awkwafina played a pick pocket in Ocean's 8 with cast mates

(Photo credit: Warner Bros/Barry Wetcher)

Prior to her breakout role in "Crazy, Rich Asians" she was best known as a popular Youtube star where she posted her rap videos and comedic routines. 

Hollywood

January 5, 2020

Congratulations to Nora Lum, known professionally as Awkwafina. She  is the first Asian American to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress!

Awkwafina won for her role in "The Farewell" in the category of Best Performance in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards. 

Here is a Youtube.com link to her acceptance speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EQlY2UrCN4

(Photo credit: The Farewell / A24)

Her role in 2019's "The Farewell" follows her breakout role as Peik Lin in 2018's 'Crazy Rich Asians' which made her a globally known actress to watch. 'Crazy, Rich Asians' also catapulted her into another Hollywood movie, "Ocean's Eight' with cast mates Cate Blanchette, Anne Hathaway and Rihanna. 

(Photo credit: Sanja Bucko/Warner Bros. Pictures)

After her 2018 breakout role in Warner Bros feature film "Crazy, Rich Asians," the first Hollywood movie with an all Asian cast in 26 years since "Joy Luck Club" Awkwafina played a pick pocket in Ocean's 8 with cast mates

(Photo credit: Warner Bros/Barry Wetcher)

Prior to her breakout role in "Crazy, Rich Asians" she was best known as a popular Youtube star where she posted her rap videos and comedic routines.