Charlie Nguyen, Director, "The Rebel"

On our September 29, 2008 show, we talk with Charlie Nguyen, director/producer/writer of The Rebel, a period piece set in French colonial Vietnam that deals with a Vietnamese traitor in the struggle for national independence, with exciting scenes of martial arts. The film stars Charlie Nguyen's brother, Johnny Tri Nguyen and established actor Dustin Nguyen (21 Jump Street, Heaven and Earth) as well as Vietnamese actress/singer Ngo Thanh Van.

For Charlie Nguyen, a Viet Kieu (Overseas Vietnamese), the Rebel marks his return to his homeland. He also directed and wrote Chances Are and produced Finding Madison.

The film won the VIFF (Vietnamese International Film Festival)'s 2007 audience award at UCI among other awards.

The film will be screened Friday October 3 for free at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana in connection with a DVD release party; events start with a prescreening reception at 6 pm followed by the screening at 7 pm. Both Charlie Nguyen and actor Dustin Nguyen will be present for a Q and A.

The OC event is co-sponsored by VAALA. Founded in 1991 by a group of Vietnamese American journalists, artists and friends, Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) is a community-based non-profit organization that seeks to promote and enrich arts and culture by, for, and about the Vietnamese communities. VAALA has organized numerous cultural events such as art exhibitions, book fairs, book signings, recitals, plays, lectures, the biennial Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF), the biennial Cinema Symposium, the annual Children's Moon Festival Art Contest and year-long art and music classes. VAALA recently developed smART Program, which offers free art workshops for non-profit youth organizations in the Orange County and Los Angeles areas.

Bowers Museumio is at 2002 North Main Street, Santa Ana 92706, telephone: (714) 567-3695.

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Remembering Third Party Candidate Peter Camejo

Irvine - On our 15 September 2008 show, Subversity remembers the life and times of third party candidate Peter Miguel Camejo, a Venzuelan American who died the past Saturday in Folsom, California.

Camejo, who was Ralph Nader's running mate in 200 in the presidential race, also ran for governor of california three times before. In the 2002 race he garnered 5 percent of the California vote.


As Ralph Nader remembers him:

Peter was a student leader, civil rights advocate, leader in the socially responsible investment industry with his own investment firm, Progressive Asset Management, Inc., and author of books on investment and history including Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877, The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction, California Under Corporate Rule, and his recent book, The SRI Advantage: Why Socially Responsible Investing Has Outperformed Financially.

www.votenader.org/blog/2008/09/13/in-honor-of-peter-miguel-camejo/

We talk with his comrades, including Matt Gonzalez, who is currently Ralph Nader's running mate in Nader's return bid for the presidency. Gonzalez, a former San Francisco supervisor, is a civil rights attorney in the bay area and Green Party activist. We also talk with Donna Warren, who was the Southern California Chair for Peter Camejo in the California Recall election when he ran on the Green Party ticket for governor.

Paired with Camejo who ran for California governor, Warren ran for Lt. Governor in November 2002 and 2006. In November 2002, she garnered almost 400,000 votes statewide.


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Ping Pong Playa Director Jessica Yu and Actor Jimmy Tsai

Ping Pong Playa star Jimmy Tsai with his buddy, Andrew Vo, from Orange County

Irvine -- For our next edition, KUCI's SUbversity show airs a live interview with the director and star of a new Asian American feature film, Ping Pong Playa.

The comedic take on the travails of a basketball star wannabe who ends up becoming a ping pong paddler pokes fun at both mainstream and Asian American stereotypes.

The director (and co-writer), Jesscia Yu, is an established documentary filmmaker undertaking her first feature film. Yu's documentaryshort, Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien, on a writer who lived for four decades paralyzed by polio and confined to an iron lung, won her many awards including an Oscar and an Emmy.

Yu is perhaps best known as the director of In the Realms of the Unreal, her riveting look at the life and erotic obsessions of "outside artist" Henry Darger, whose prolific art formed the basis of her documentary, shown on the PBS series, POV. Yu is based in Los Angeles.

Jimmy Tsai is both the star of Ping Pong Playa and a co-writer. A production accountant turned indie filmmaker and now actor, Tsai was production accountant on such films as Justin Lin's Finishing the Game and Quentin Lee's Ethan Mao.

A young actor from Orange County, Andrew Vo, then 11, also appears in the film as Tsai's buddy.

The film opened in selected theaters nationally Friday 5 September 2008. In Orange County, it screens at Edwards University Town Center 6 across from the UCI campus.

Our interview with Yu and Tsai aired Monday, 8 September, 2008, from 9-10 a.m. on KUCI, 88.9 fm in Orange County, Calif.

Film web site: http://www.pingpongplaya.com/.

OC Register:

Review: www.ocregister.com/articles/ping-pong-movie-2144278-review-comedy.

KUCI alum Richard Chang's article: www.ocregister.com/articles/asian-american-tsai-2145420-ping-pong.

LA Times review:

NY Times review: movies.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/movies/05play.html?em.

Fandango listing: www.fandango.com/pingpongplaya_115690/movieoverview.

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