En Route To Colorado Springs

Saturday, May 24, 2008

En Route To Colorado Springs

It's a little bit before 5am and I am sitting here at the San Jose airport. My mom and I left the house at 3am to get here, so it will probably come as no surprise to you when I say that we had no sleep last night. The two of us are very tired, but we are content in knowing that we saved $200 by flying out of San Jose instead of SFO.

My mom and I are en route to Colorado Springs to visit the Tostanoskis, the family who sponsored us when we were Vietnamese refugees in the United States back in 1975. I never thought I would ever return to this Rocky Mountain state, but something magical happened two months ago when my mom and I traveled to Vietnam. I am now on a mission to learn everything I possibly can about my family history, and the Tostanoskis hold many of the missing pieces to this giant puzzle. I will be conducting oral histories on Ba Ski (that's the moniker by which we called Mrs. Tostonaski), the matriarch, and her two sons, Mike and Will. Unfortunately, the Tostanoski daughter, Irene, lives in Virginia, so I will not be able to meet with her. I am a bit saddened by this because from what my mother has told me over the past 33 years, Irene is the first girl I ever fell in love with! As for the patriarch of this family, I would have loved to talk to Mr. Tostonaski (Ong Ski in Vietnamese), but regretfully he passed away last year. I have a hunch that this trip will be another tear jerker for my mom, so I will have to mentally prepare myself for any sudden emotional outbreaks. I had a lot of practice in Vietnam, so I think I'll be ok.

We're going to be boarding pretty soon, so I will need to pack up my MacBook Pro. I just took a very unflattering snap shot of my mom snoozing, but I decided not to post it. This woman gave me life, and she could very easily take it away, so I figured I better play it safe and make sure she looks good in my blog. Hence, I am posting a vintage picture of her, circa 1975 in Colorado Springs.

1 comment:

DianeN said...: Wom, mom still looks as if she looked in 1975! Youthful and energetic!

I'm glad you are doing a documentary about the Nguyen's journey to America. Though I was too young to remember much, hearing stories from mom is just too incredible- the life that she lead, the fear and uncertainty during the war, and the struggle and challenge in living in a new country. I'm looking forward to reading and viewing more of your documentary!; June 6, 2008 at 7:45 AM

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It Donned On Me?

For the past few years Evan Donn has been teaching classes in After Effects and Final Cut Pro in the Multimedia department at College Of San Mateo. Every semester there were a couple of students who just wouldn't go home when the class was over, staying after with a seemingly endless stream of questions about every imaginable aspect of video production. Many of them returned semester after semester for whichever class Evan was teaching at the time.

In the spring of 2006 Evan taught a new class called DV Workflow which consisted almost entirely of these "irregulars". DV Workflow became essentially an 'everything but the kitchen sink' type of class covering the entire process of video production with an emphasis on producing video for the web.

As part of DV Workflow every member of the class had to produce an episodic video series for the web. This led to various members teaming up to work on each others' videos as well as providing valuable input on the finished videos during class screenings. When the class ended everyone felt that the working dynamic of the group was worth continuing.

Led by Chief Instigator Tony Nguyen they dubbed themselves 'The Evan Donn School of Film' and began holding quarterly screenings of everyone's current work. In 2006 several members of the group attended one of the 48 Hour Film screenings, and they all walked out with the same thought - we can do that.

From that point on the quarterly screenings took on a new direction as 'challenges' were thrown out with criteria similar to the 48 Hour Film Project. This helped prepare the team members for the challenge of building a short film around a character, prop and line of dialogue.

As the 2007 competition drew closer Mr. Nguyen once again took the lead and signed up the team for the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project. Put on the spot to come up with a team name he considered and rejected many possibilities before the ideal name 'donned' on him...

Despite their history the San Francisco competition was the first time all members of the team had worked together on a single project. Everyone jumped right in and the result was our first short film - 'Urgent Care'.

Despite incredible audience reaction to the film, 'Urgent Care' failed to win either the audience or juried competition for San Francisco. However, the team was selected by competition sponsor Visa as one of ten teams from San Francisco to compete in their national "Life Takes" Invitational against teams from New York and Los Angeles.

With only one film in the can, Evan decided the team needed a little more practice before the Visa competition. Unbeknownst to the team, he signed them up for the nearby San Jose 48 Hour Film Project and announced it at the cast & crew party for 'Urgent Care'. Fortunately everyone jumped at the chance to hone their skills and prove that the success of the first film wasn't just luck. The result of that effort is 'Doggie Style', the second official film from It Donned On Me.

In September the team came together once again to complete another 48 hour film for the Visa "Life Takes" Invitational. In collaboration with members of the a capella group "Flying Without Instruments" they completed the fantasy film "EXIT".

In October, 2007 the team completed their fourth 48 hour project, the National Film Challenge, producing "Retreat", an existential tale of a horse seeking enlightenment. After this they took a break from high-speed filmmaking for the holidays in order to prepare for the 2008 season.

In March 2008 IDOM kicked off the 2008 filmmaking season with the International Documentary Challenge, producing our first non-fiction film, "Stick & Pound". Selected as a finalist in the competition, 'Stick & Pound' screened in Toronto at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival where the team brought home Documentary Challenge awards for Best Cinematography and Best Directing!

After an amazing first year of competition IDOM came full circle, returning for the second time to the 2008 San Francisco 48 Hour Film Challenge and successfully completing our 6th film, "Tail". 'Tail' brought home the award for 'Best Sound Design' as well as being nominated for Best use of Dialoge and Best Cinematography

Just a few weeks later it was once again time for the San Jose 48 Hour Film project. Despite a rough start IDOM pulled together and created 'TwirlyBoy', possibly our strangest film so far.

With seven very different films completed in a years time some would say it's time to take a break, but not IDOM - this is just the beginning as IDOM tackles new projects and goes in new directions in the quest to become the greatest competitive filmmaking team of all time!

Stay Tuned!

Who Is Quang Khoi?

When Quang Khoi and his family immigrated to the United States from Vietnam back in the mid seventies, his mother decided to give all the kids American names. Nobody could pronounce Quang Khoi, so his mother renamed her youngest son Tony. Quang Khoi's mom is a huge movie buff, and her passion for cinema is evident in the fact that she named her children after movie stars. Though it has never been confirmed or denied, word on the street is that her all time favorite movie is Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO, and that she named her youngest son after that film's leading man, Anthony Perkins. "Tony" is not so bad, considering that Quang Khoi could have ended up being "Norman Bates Nguyen."

These days, Quang Khoi uses his real name when he is acting in film. When he's behind the camera, he goes by his American name, Tony. Quang Khoi/Tony Nguyen inherited his mother's passion for the movies. He enjoys every aspect of film, from playing character roles on the screen to editing time lines in Final Cut Pro behind the scenes. Mr. Nguyen is very proud to be a part of this year's 48 Hour Film Project. Working with the It Donned On Me team has been such a rewarding experience, and he hopes to continue to work this awesome group of people in future projects.

Blogged Arteries - The Unrendered Files

Saturday, May 24, 2008