Episode 2. Go to the main cinemasucks.com site or watch below:

I can't make it to the Mr. Sadman screening in Chicago this Friday, so my friends at FAAIM asked me to do a prerecorded Q&A.

I realized that after all this time this is the first "official" Q&A I've done for the film. I guess the result is kind of fitting then:

My friend Mike Caigoy and I started reviewing movies on a site called Cinema Sucks. It's all pretty lo-fi for now with us talking about films playing at the upcoming Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

Here's episode one with us discussing The People I've Slept With:

Mr. Sadman is one of the first 100 films to take part in OpenIndie. It's an independent film community that aspires to create a new way to see films and reward filmmakers directly. It's somewhat similar to eventful.com's Demand It! feature that Paramount used for Paranormal Activity.

Filmmakers and film fans can sign up for the site and request various films play in their cities. When a certain number of requests are recorded, the filmmaker can make the film available for screening in that area. Those in charge of screening the film can contribute/donate money to the filmmaker.

Right now, it seems to be a lot of filmmakers just requesting each other's films, which is fine. Like any other thing, it's about what we put into it. Another round of filmmakers will be allowed to join and submit their work in the next month. Whether or not OpenIndie reaches the critical mass necessary for it to work remains to be seen. But regardless, mad props to everyone involved for trying something new.

Checkout the roster of films.

And if you want to sign up for the site and "request" Mr. Sadman, you can click on the widget below.

We'll be screening Mr. Sadman in Chicago as part of the FAAIM showcase.

Much thanks to FAAIM's Tim Hugh and the Gene Siskel Center's Brandon Doherty for all their help and dope ass support.

There's a lot of great stuff going on there in terms of film, music and visual art, so click through and check them out.

Found an old interview tape that we shot with Al No'mani, the lead actor in Mr. Sadman. I didn't know what had happened to it until I came across it in a box last week. Was a great find. I sure do miss the guy.

Below he talks about having to drink boba for the first time.

There's more on the film's website, mrsadman.com.

Been testing out Facebook ads for Mr. Sadman in the Middle East to see what does and doesn't work. I never click on ads, but I understand it's part of how Facebook tries to make money.

A few things that I've gleaned after a week and a half. These may be obvious, but it's always good to test out the low-risk basics first, and thankfully Facebook allows you to set your daily balances pretty low.

1) No one else really clicks on Facebook ads. This is true for internet advertising in general, so I wasn't too shocked to see the percentages. Then again, it only takes a few buyers to make it worth the cost. Click-through rates may also have to do with our particular ad creative, of course, so that's something to constantly review.

2) It's hard to separate people from their money. Tough times all around the globe, so you'll have to do a lot more than just get them curious because in the end they'll easily forget and start watching porn or YouTube panda videos instead.

3) Relatedly, it's even more difficult to get people to spend their money on a feature film they've never heard of before, no matter what the hook. The price may not be anything exorbitant, but in the Netflix/BitTorrent-era there's a mental value quotient in terms of paying for one individual film ("I just spent X on this single random movie") and time ("I will have to spend 85 minutes of my life watching this single random movie just to make it feel like it was worth it"). Most people have their fingers off their impulse-buy triggers in this economic climate.

These were expected and may point to that one inevitable result, but for now it's time to mess around some more.

Stay tuned.

I remember seeing this video for Death Cab for Cutie's "A Movie Script Ending" a bunch of times a few years before shooting Mr. Sadman and liking it. Then I came across it again after shooting and was like, "Wait a second, I know that dude."

I've always enjoyed this song.

My friend Joel Quizon posted a list on his blog a few weeks back on "How to Avoid the Pitfalls of Asian American Independent Films". It's pretty funny, kinda sad and very true. The list should probably be much longer. Volumes, perhaps.

I have some problems with the term "Asian American film" as I do with the term "independent film" (they're both outdated and each is too small of an umbrella to cover everything that people hope to push under it; I could go on for a while). My biggest pet peeve with "Asian American independent film", though, is the fact that no one seems to do their homework. Why isn't there greater breadth in films made by Asian Americans? Why is everything seemingly about the same topics: internment, immigration, identity, food, etc.?

I don't think a lot of filmmakers take the time to see what's been addressed before they write their mini-masterpieces. If they did, then maybe they could gain some insight, stand on the shoulders of those earlier films and build upon the discourse. Move the conversation forward instead of wallowing in self-important, thinly-veiled autobiography.

If people care about what's left of Asian American cinema, then shouldn't films be challenging one another? Shouldn't we be raising the bar (however you may define it) for both art and entertainment and calling each other out, instead of holding our hands over our ears and chanting the same tired cries over and over again to people who long ago stopped listening?

You can't just keep top rockin. It's true for short and feature films, the ethnic-specific and the mainstream. Eventually, if you want to get noticed, you're going to have to step in the arena and do something fresh.

I haven't posted anything on this blog since last summer.

Have figured out how to put all videos and clips on one page for now, so took down most of the previous video posts due to redundancy and to speed up load time.

While I'm at it, though, I'd better get some branding out of the way: