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Giant Robot Podcast: Director Dave Boyle

Director Dave Boyle with his next film budget. Dave Boyle has made three feature films including Big Dreams, Little Tokyo, White on Rice, and Surrogate Valentine which is currently touring film festivals. Surrogate Valentine stars musician Goh Nakamura and debuted at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin and has shown at film festivals including Cleveland International, Seattle International, Dallas International, Bamfest, and San Francisco International Asian American. In this podcast, Boyle explains how he’s fluent in Japanese, why his films feature Asian Americans, how he’s come up with his movie ideas, filmmaking, and what projects he’s working on next.   Giant Robot Podcast: Director Dave Boyle by realgiantrobot
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dave boyle · david boyle · disorient · documentary · film festival · filmmaker · house of suh · News · Reviews Cinema ·

DisOrient Film Festival: The House of Suh

Eugene, OR– The DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon opened on April 29th for the sixth edition, and Goh Nakamura and I are attending to show “Surrogate Valentine.” It’s my third time attending the festival, and it’s fun visiting with old friends and making some new ones. I’ve also been able to catch up on some movies! The Centerpiece screening this year was “The House of Suh,” a gripping documentary produced and directed by Iris Shim. The film tells the story of Andrew Suh, who is currently serving a 100 year sentence for murdering his sister’s fiancee in a much publicized case that scandalized Chicago in the mid 1990′s. Through extraordinary interviews with Andrew, his relatives, and even the brother of victim Robert O’Dubaine, Shim deconstructs the crime and explores the fractured family relationships that may have shaped Andrews eventual transformation into a murderer. Andrew’s sister Catherine Suh does not appear on camera but haunts every frame of the film. The method by which she convinced her brother to murder Robert O’Dubaine is not revealed until the final third of the film, and I wouldn’t dare talk about it here…but I was struck by the fact that Andrew Suh still seems convinced that his sister would never lie to him. I was also very moved and fascinated by the appearance of Kevin Koron, the victim’s brother. The director mentioned in the Q & A that Koron’s participation in the film was understandably met with great resistance by the rest of the victim’s family, but his personal testimony is crucial to establishing who Robert O’Dubaine was. The portrait that emerges, while secondary to the film’s overall focus on the Suh family, is sad and undeniably moving. “The House of Suh” has been acquired by MSNBC FIlms and will be broadcast later this year in a truncated 44-minute version. See the 90 minute version if possible, but the story is worth watching in any available format. \”The House of Suh\” Trailer
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Asian American · Features · filmmaker · indie film · jon moritsugu · News · tv on the radio ·

Jon Moritsugu and Amy Davis are Apathy Productions with TV on the Radio video and more

Interviewing Jon Moritsugu is an adventure. Since Giant Robot 1 until now, this man and wife Amy Davis continue to be interesting. As strange and odd that their films are, so are their interviews. It’s energy many times over and the text nearly conveys the sounds of their voices. Jon will sea, “yeah man!” fast. Amy Davis will say “woohoo, and some retort that’s either from 2020 or 1985. Yes they could be from the future. Making films since the early 90s, Jon has fought the indie fight and years later, there’s still no ballads. A romantic comedy? Sure, almost all of his films have that, but pigs, blood, engines, and experimental energy? Yes, that goes with it too. A champion in the underground film communities world wide, 2011, video and faster filmmaking has finally caught up. Maybe now people will understand his movies.

GR: Tell me about your relationship with the TV on the Radio dude?

JM: Kyp Malone is our old bud. Amy and I met him in 2000 in Frisco and cast him as a lead in our flick, SCUMROCK. A few days after we wrapped, he split for NYC and yadda yadda the rest is rock n’ roll BRKLYN history.

He got in touch with us for this project and wanted to tap into our duo-creative-team-vision… (we now co-run APATHY PRODUCTIONS). Project totally rocked – HARD. Kyp came up with the concept and then we ran with it. He wanted “Conservative American Bandstand” morphs into “Daggering Day Glo Feathered Sequined Sweating Glitter Ressurection” He wanted a sex- laced, confetti-dusted catharsis… dance while guru Michael Musto) sweeping up all the pop cultural messiness… like he does every day. Ahhh semiotics… delicious.

(see the video here)

GR: What’s it like making a music video for a band that’s gigantic?

JM:Really no different than shooting anything else, right?!  I mean, you gots some people, some equipment, you shoot and then you edit. Only amateurs get wigged out by concerns like, “oh this band it gigantic.” It’s all just people… and Amy and I, as directors of the project, are really just trying to create a “safe space” for actors and crew so that the KUNST can be created… Ya gotta be there for the kids.

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