In the morning I went to the breakout session called "Overcoming Cultural Taboos." At a time when most are just getting to their breakfasts, Rudy Corpuz, Eddy Zheng and Atashi Chakravarty really laid out the heavy-hitting goods, speaking with that life or death immediacy that generally only people who work in life or death scenarios can do.
The networking opportunities are tremendous, and everyone so far has seemed genuinely glad to go out and meet some cool folks who are doing cool things.
However, the mini-mentorship sessions could have stood better advertisement. I saw it listed on the program but didn't know what they tangibly meant, or who would be mentoring. But the roster of people today was really great, including Eric Byler, Justin Lin, Michael Kang, Eddy Zheng, and politicians and business leaders. I was able to sit at a table with Roger Fan (of Better Luck Tomorrow and Annapolis fame) and two others (one of whom was from Angry Asian Man) and shoot the shit for over an hour about ethnicity and the film industry. I was supposed to go to another one after that with Elaine Kim, but somehow couldn't find her. Too bad! I'm not sure who will be doing mentorships sessions tomorrow—it doesn't seem to be publicized anywhere—but if it's anything like it was today, I highly recommend it. All of the speakers are incredibly accessible.
While we're sort of on the topic of Roger Fan, I just have to say that he's a complete package: attractive, smart, wicked funny. Color me impressed. (I love that I can say this without it seeming like I want to bear his children, since this is more of a public service announcement. And the public needs to know. His MySpace page says he's single, so ladies, make your move.)
While we're on the topic of Roger Fan and packages, see his short film "The Quest for Length" [on YouTube] if you haven't already. Hi-la-ri-ous. Not for the faint of heart.
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