Asian A.V. Club newsletter #49: Tribeca Film Festival Shorts
Join us as we talk to the creatives behind two very dynamic shorts premiering at Tribeca Film Festival; Connie Shi of THE REBIRTH and Chelsie Pennello & Corbett Blair of CHERRY-COLORED FUNK.
Tribeca Film Festival has always been excellent in its curation of the shorts program. Every year, they do a wonderful job of highlighting the next generation of filmmakers on a global scale, and this year they even increased their slate with 82 films in competition, making it the highest number of selections in any major film festival. As fans of shorts, we decided to take a look at two films from talented multi-hyphenate female directors making waves this year!
The Rebirth logline: An overworked waitress takes a black market abortion pill that gives her an unexpected side effect.
Asian A.V. Club: We are always curious to hear the origins story of our creatives, can you tell us yours?
Connie Shi: I kind of had a winding route into the industry. I grew up in suburban Pennsylvania. My mom's an immigrant and both my parents are in biochemistry. Growing up, I always loved art and was making short films at home, but it was never something I felt like I could pursue. So, when went to college, I switched my major five times. (laughs) I graduated, had an existential crisis, and moved to Madrid. By going abroad and moving to a place where I didn’t know anybody, it actually allowed me to rediscover myself and grow the courage to do what I wanted to pursue.
During the two years in Spain, I met a lot of other expats who loved film and we started making these fun little shorts together in Madrid. I also responded to a flyer for this English-speaking theater company, and I started acting in these plays in the basements of pubs. It really was a creatively freeing time. and at that point, I was like, this is what I want to do. I want to act. I want to be in the industry. I want to make films.
So, I moved to New York, and somebody gave me advice that I don’t agree with anymore. They basically told me to focus on one thing. I was like, I guess I'll pick acting right now and focused on acting.
Asian A.V. Club: What made you want to tap into your other skill set as a writer and director?
Connie Shi: It was right after Trump was elected the first time. I felt like I needed to start making my own work again. And the first thing that I made was a film series called Project: Girl, which was a bunch of short films adapted from true stories we collected from women. And so immediately I knew what I wanted to tell stories about women and their issues, queer issues and identity issues. Obviously, as you know, it takes making a lot of things to kind of hone in on your voice and figure out what you're good at or what you're not good at.
Asian A.V. Club: From your first short to your latest short The Rebirth, have you picked up some directing hacks along the way that made this shoot easier than your previous work?
Connie Shi: That’s a really good question, the first few things that come to mind is to build a team that you really trust. I think when you're first starting, you care so much about the things you make you, you. It's really important to trust the people you hire and let them do what they're amazing at and allow them to take care of you too. That was a really big learning process on The Rebirth. The other one is trusting yourself to experiment. I think in the beginning, it took time to even felt like I belonged in the of a director. I was kind of tiptoeing into that space creatively, where I didn't want to try anything too wild even with the camera. But now, I feel more confident and feel free to share wild references with my DP [Director of Photography] and be like, can we try this? Even though our budget is this, do you think we can just play and have fun with it?
Asian A.V. Club: I’m a firm believer in collecting cool people who inspire you and keeping them in your back pocket, so when the time comes, you know you have a great collaborator to turn to. I’m guessing that through working on TV series and film sets, you’ve met some amazing folks who may have helped out on The Rebirth.
Connie Shi: I totally agree with your collecting analogy. The cool thing about New York is that there's just incredible people everywhere. So, whether you’re working with them on your current project, or you work with them 10 years from now, you are constantly collecting. I mean, one of our producers on The Rebirth, Stephanie Bonner, has been a friend of mine for years. When I had the idea, I called her, and she was like, I have a bar, we can make this. We made this film together for no money and just a lot of favors.
Actually, the most important thing about collecting those people you trust is that you have someone else who believes in the project and can kind of keep that motivation and momentum going when you're starting to feel like, is this impossible? You just need one person to be like, yes, it's possible. And then it's great.
Asian A.V. Club: Can you talk about the kind of original setup for the rebirth? Was there a particular thing that kind of inspired the short?
Connie Shi: I wrote the script years ago. I spent years working in bars and restaurants in New York, like a lot of artists, and a friend once told me about a coworker who wasn’t allowed a day off for her abortion. So, she took the pill and served customers all night, running back and forth to the bathroom. That story just always stayed with me.
When Roe v. Wade was overturned, I wrote the script in a night. I realize it now that it was like therapy. It felt cathartic to write a version of her story where she was able to demand what she needed in the end. I called Steph, and she was in. I had others in my pocket too. Justine Sweetman, who produced a web series I acted in, and Yuki Maekawa Ledbetter, who I met at a film festival and instantly vibed with.
When it all came together, it came together in an incredible way, because the team consisted largely of female, non-binary and API creative. It just felt like a really beautiful community on set.
Asian A.V. Club: As a working actor, you’re probably one of the few working on set that are of Asian descent. What does it feel like when you are on your own set and most of the people look like you?
Connie Shi: I think just because how I was raised, it's easy for me to feel imposter syndrome, and it's easy for me to feel like I don't belong in certain spaces. So, when I can operate a set like that, I feel like I belong. There's just a level ground where everyone cares about the project.
I have a story about our producer Yuki. On our second day on set, I was running around because I was directing and acting and getting my bloodied makeup done. Yuki pulls me aside, rubs essential oil on my wrist, and just had me take a deep breath and exhale. And I was like, okay. And was centered again. I think about that little moment all the time. I felt cared for on a level beyond professionally.
Asian A.V. Club: We all need a Yuki in our lives.
Connie Shi: (laughs)A pocket version of her. It'd be amazing
Asian A.V. Club: There are elements of genre and supernatural to this film, are you interested in developing that style in your work?
Connie Shi: Oddly enough, when I wrote The Rebirth, the supernatural elements just kind of came out. It just it felt like a way of exploring a really dark topic that allowed for an immediate redemption that I don't feel like I would get if I was just writing a slice of life version. And the first version of the script did not have the very end of the film, which kind of opens it up to a bigger world.
Asian A.V. Club: You mean a feature?
Connie Shi: (nods) We are developing a feature version; I feel like I've fallen more and more in love with genre films. I love films like Titane and Raw (dir: Julia Ducournau) that have an extreme approach but explores something very grounded and authentic within that world. That's my favorite kind of stuff. This is my first time venturing into genre, and I think I'm hooked.
Asian A.V. Club: I always like to ask, do your parents know what you do for a living?
Connie Shi: (laughs) When I was in Spain, and I had signed up for this summer acting program in New York to pursue acting. I remember sitting in my living room with Skype open about to call them, and I was just taking deep breaths because I was so scared to tell them. The conversation went fine. They were like, Oh, well, we're happy that you're choosing something.
My parents were both the first in their families to go to college. So, I was like, I'm going to try it for a year, and then we'll see. And then a year in, I was like, I'm just gonna do it for a couple more years, and then we'll see. (laughs)
They would see my early plays in New York. But I think when I booked Law & Order, that was the big thing because my dad loves that show. They were like, Wow, you're on Law & Order. And then, of course, everyone knows Tribeca, because of Robert De Niro, so it helps to have the big-name things for them to be able to place it in their minds.
Asian A.V. Club: Have they seen this film yet?
Connie Shi: They're coming on Saturday! My whole family, my brother, my sister, everyone's coming.
Asian A.V. Club: That sounds awesome! I can’t wait to see the family carpet picture! Congratulations on this film and I can’t wait to see what you do with this story in the future.
Connie Shi: Thank you!
The Rebirth just had it’s world premiere and is still showing at Tribeca Film Festival this weekend. It will be playing at other film festivals in the coming months, so keep checking their official instagram for updates!
Cherry-Colored Funk logline: A serial grifter faces the music when seemingly everyone he’s ever wronged shows up on the opening day of his dubious Italian ice business.
Asian A.V. Club: Chelsie, you’ve worked together with Cory [nickname] since directing your first short, how did your creative collaboration begin?
Chelsie Pennello: We actually went to high school together for two years. Cory grew up in California. I grew up in Rockville, Maryland my whole life, and he moved sort of the latter end of his high school. He's a year older, so we weren't really friends, but towards the end of my time at college at Syracuse University, I was making my first student film, and I was looking for someone to do music. We were connected on socials and stuff, and I found out he did music, and then from that point on, we've had a really wonderful creative partnership. This is the fourth film we've made together.
Corbett Blair: I started as just a composer, but this is the second one that we've written together as well.
Asian A.V. Club: In terms of the collaboration, how does it work? Especially watching Cherry-Colored Funk, the music and visuals are so intertwined into the fabric of your short. How much pre-production is involved before you even go on set?
Corbett Blair: It's a long process, but I think it just starts with us talking about the idea a ton and sort of homing in on themes. And this one we wrote specifically for the lead actor, Michael Tow, because we worked with him in our last short Mandarins. It started with the idea for a character, and we also knew we wanted music to be playing throughout most of the runtime. When Chelsie and I started writing the scripts, I was also writing music on the side, developing them in tandem, and seeing how they played off one another.
Chelsie Pennello: I do feel like our process with the integration of the music is a bit unusual compared to how music is created for most other film productions. Usually, music is one of the last things done in post-production. We almost always have Cory working on music as we're writing the script. And we like to have segments of it, play for our actors, so they can get a feel. For example, there’s a shot of Michael bursting through the curtains before the film titles drop. And Cory is in the corner of that room with the speaker playing the music so that Michael could get a sense of the rhythm and get pumped up for him to do his sort of like swag walk outside of the curtains.
Asian A.V. Club: Making a short is such a passion project for everyone involved, was it easy to find collaborators who shared your vision and who were willing to work for maybe less than their usual pay?
Chelsie Pennello: In terms of collaborators on the piece, there has been pretty much zero difficulty in getting people wanting to work on the project. And I think part of it is that from the get-go, we try really hard to have a very realized vision before we even start shooting. We're super pre-production heavy before we go on set and have a very strong understanding of what the final cut might look like through a look book even. People generally get a very strong sense of what we're trying to make, and that's made it very easy to get people excited to work on these indie projects where they're excited to participate.
Corbett Blair: We definitely got everyone to work for “friend rates”. (laughs)
Asian A.V. Club: I know you wanted to write a short featuring Michael Tow as the lead, but what was the inspiration to set it in an Italian ice shop?
Corbett Blair: Chelsie worked in an Italian ice shop in high school and so pretty early on we knew this was where we wanted to set the film. As for writing with Michael in mind, we sort of came up with the idea of this character that we thought Michael would kill but hasn't quite had the opportunity yet through the film and TV work that he does.
Chelsie Pennello: I definitely created the same layout of the Italian ice shop that I had worked in for like, four summers. (laughs) But Michael really was the biggest inspiration. It was like, what character would we love to see him play? Because we just knew that we had such a great talent on our hands. He’s so willing and humble to work on our little baby indie projects. And so, we just wanted to use him in a way that we felt like he hadn't been used before. I mean, we're really happy with it. I remember we did our first table read, and it was like, wow, that's exactly how we heard it in our heads.
Asian A.V. Club: What is DC like as a creative hub for filmmakers?
Chelsie Pennello: We love DC. It's wonderful. But it's a small group and everyone's just really, really generous. I think for indies in particular, it feels like somewhat of an advantage in that when you're making indies, you have no money, so you need people to give you favors. And the good thing about being in a city that is doesn't have a huge film industry is that people who are in the film scene are making their money on corporate videos. So, when they're signing on to your indie project, it offers an opportunity to do some work that they haven't done before.
Corbett Blair: There's been a huge appetite both times when we made our films because our crew was largely the same from the first film that we made. It was also really advantageous getting location, being able to contact, this is like a functioning ice cream shop, and asking to rent it out for a week and even repaint it, and then paint it back. We talked to people in New York and LA and seems like that sort of request wouldn't fly.
Asian A.V. Club: You are not only working towards telling stories with Asian leads, but I noticed that a lot of your heads of departments are of Asian heritage, what is it like to be able to collaborate in that space?
Chelsie Pennello: We have quite a lot of Asian crew members, and we obviously love working with Asian creatives, as Asian creatives ourselves. I think another thing we're both very passionate about is just putting Asian actors in leading roles that, if slightly tweaked, could have necessarily gone to someone of any background. Michael’s Asian-ness isn't directly tied to the character itself. He is a leading man in our eyes, and he has the talent to lead a film. Obviously, if you go to Asia, they have wonderful stars there. But in terms of the American film industry, Asian actors don't necessarily get that opportunity. And even if they are in leading roles, it's still very strictly tied to their cultural background.
Asian A.V. Club: What are you guys working on next?
Chelsie Pennello: We have a draft of a feature length script that is sort of like an existential coming of age horror that takes place on the beach.
Asian A.V. Club: Oh, that sounds awesome! Congrats on the short and I can’t wait to see what you guys do next.
Chelsie Pennello & Corbett Blair: Thank you!!