My name is Terry and this is my blog. 
01/19/2006: "Journey From the Fall"
mood: reflective
Today marks the start of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Those of you who are acquainted with me, know how passionate I am about film. Fuck, I spent 4 years of my life studying it in college and spent a good deal of time volunteering for and later running the DC Asian Pacific Film Festival. When I started this blog, I hoped to create dialogues surrounding the world of celluloid.
"Journey From the Fall", the film I worked on during the autumn of 2004 is having its festival premiere at the prestigious film festival. Festival organizers are touting this year's fest as a return to tradition, focusing on the independent spirit of cinema. Journey will be a part of the Spectrum screenings (which are not eligible for the prizes, unfortunately). But, I heard that all the screenings for the film have sold out, which is awesome because this is a huge film for the Vietnamese community.
In light of the film's forthcoming success, I'll be posting stories and pics in celebration of the film in the following days and will keep you updated on any news. This is not an easy task, however as I myself have mixed feelings about the film and my experience working on it. In short, you end up sacrificing a lot of yourself (i.e. your relationships, finances, friendships, and health) for the sake of great art. And I'm not speaking only for myself, here. Ultimately, I am still honored to have worked on such an amazing film and I continue to tell those who shared the experience with me that the 2 months that I spent in Thailand were some of the happiest times of my life.
The photo below was shot with a Holga Camera with attached Polaroid back, on B&W medium format Polaroid film. This was taken on one of the few days I was allowed to go to set (asst. editors rarely need to go to set), as it was the day that they shot the fall of Saigon scene (April 30, 1975). The baby is actually asleep and the woman is its nanny. The blood is fake. The people in the background were townfolk who came out just to watch the filming. There must have been 300 people behind the ropes on all sides of the set. I took two photos of nanny and baby and I gave her the copy where she was actually smiling. Personally, this is one of my favorite photographs that I've taken.