Were the World Mine Director & Lead Actor Discuss Musical Romp through Small-Town America

Irvine -- For the 8 December 2008 edition of Subversity, we talked with director Tom Gustafson and lead actor Tanner Cohen about "Were the World Mine," a musical fantasy about queer teen love.

Tanner Cohen with fellow-actor Nate David Becker,
his love object in Were the World Mine. Photo source:
SPEAKproductions.





The fun and captivating feature film, which has captivated audiences at Frameline and other film festivals, takes a romp through small-town America and pokes fun at traditional "family values" and homophobia. The film is based on director Gustafson's short, "Fairies," as well as William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Nights' Dream."

Set in a boys academy, it stars Tanner as Timothy, a queer teen who's often the target of homophobic attacks. A sympathetic English teacher recruits him to star in the school's adaptation of A Midsummer Nights' Dream, and in the process, he creates a love potion that turns the object of his teenage lust (a rugby star) queer, as well as many others in his small town. Tanner is currently a UCLA student (in Cultural Studies).

More info. on the guests:

Tom Gustafson - director/ co-writer/ producer

Tom made his first film, a Super 8 claymation, at the age of 9. That film premiered in the very gymatorium responsible for the memories that inspired his award-winning musical short, Fairies, which has screened in over 75 international film festivals (including Tribeca), aired on the Viacom network, Logo (as a winner of the short film series in the episode The Click List: Best Shorts Ever!) and is available on iTunes. Tom made his feature directorial debut with his multi-award-winning, critically acclaimed and wildly popular, Shakespeare inspired musical film about the truth of love: Were the World Mine. Among the awards presented to WTWM, Tom received the Heineken Red Star Award and the Scion First-Time Director Award.

While a student at Northwestern University, Tom received the coveted Major Studio 22 grant to make a side-show inspired film, The Need. After receiving the William Morris Filmmaking Award and graduating Cum Laude from NU, Tom explored Chicago's art scene. He wrote and directed an experimental theatre piece, exhibited his investigative portraiture photography, shot a doc about queer youth, received grants from the Chicago Community Arts Program, worked on Michael Moore's Bravo show, The Awful Truth and created SPEAKproductions.

A freelance foray into "Hollywood" film led him down an unexpected path when he landed his first job: Key Additional Casting Assistant on Road To Perdition followed by Additional Casting Associate on Master & Commander. He then took on solo projects as Location Casting Director of Pirates Of The Caribbean (Dead Man's Chest and At Worlds End), The Good Shepherd, The Weather Man and The Dark Knight. For a young Director, this path proved to be an invaluable learning experience, allowing him to work creatively alongside directors including the unparalleled Peter Weir, Sam Mendes and Robert DeNiro.

Tanner Cohen . timothy

Tanner is a New York based actor currently getting a BA in Cultural Studies at UCLA. He recently appeared as Nate in Vadim Perelman's The Life Before Her Eyes (starring Uma Thurman), which premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival and he was first seen as Tad Becker on CBS in As The World Turns. He also portrayed the role of Flute in Creative Arts Projects' A Midsummer Night's Dream, which toured throughout Brooklyn parks in the summer of 2004. Tanner is also one half of the emotronic pop duo The Guts. He is thrilled to be a part of this unique film and thanks the incredibly devoted cast and crew and his family.

For additional info, check out the film site.Trailer

To listen to the show, click here:

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.

To listen to the program, click here: .

Actor, Director, Model Edward Gunawan

Irvine -- On the next edition of Subversity, broadcasting Monday, 31 March, 2008, we talk with actor, director and model Edward Gunawan about his career in film and modeling. Gunawan, who was born in Indonesia and grew up in Singapore, lives in southern California. He's graced the cover of Frontiers, a local gay magazine and appeared in print ads for Honda and Nokia as well as TV ads. As a filmmaker, Gunawan is making his directorial debut with Laundromat, a short film he also wrote and produced. His short film Just (as writer, actor & producer) recently won the Top 5 Films Award at the 9th PlanetOut Short Movie Competition. He recently earned an MBA from Loyola Marymount University and completed a filmmaking fellowship at the Film Independent' (formerly IFP West) Project:Involve in 2007, with Academy Award� winner Chris Tashima as his mentor.

His website: www.edwardgunawan.com
Interview on Fridae: www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/article.php?articleid=2174$
Frontiers interview: www.frontierspublishing.com/2621/agenda/agenda_fd.html

To listen to the entire Subversity show, click here: . Apologies for the background audio for the first part of the interview.

Vietnamese Canadian Actor David Huynh

On our next Subversity show, we talk with David Huynh, who starred as a young Chinese American gangster in "Baby". which had it world premiere at closing night at recent Visual Communication Asian Pacific American film festival in Los Angeles, where the film won two awards including one for him. Show host Dan Tsang interviews Huynh from 9-10 am on Monday, June 11, 2007, on KUCI, 88.9 fm in Orange County, Calif.; the show is webcast simultaneously via kuci.org.

A Canadian transplant, David Huynh has had the fortunate opportunity to have performed on both Canadian and American theatre, television and film productions. David was seen on Canadian television as a series regular on YTV's "2030 C.E." His stage credits also include the role of Oscar in "Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang" and Berthold Brecht's "The Caucasian Chalk Circle". David has studied at The Prairie Theatre Exchange and was a member of the influential Manitoba Theatre for Young People. Before David pursued acting professionally, he was attending The University of Manitoba, working on a Film Major and a Minor in Theatre Studies.

In Los Angeles, David made his stage debut in Joe Jordan's "Dubya 2004" at The Sacred Fools theatre. Most recently, David was last seen on stage in Lisa Hammer's "Grimmer than Grimm" in addition too The Underground Theatre's production of Langford Wilson's "Balm In Gilead" and on television as Sun Kim on ABC's freshly cancelled program "Invasion". David became the proud recipient of the 2007 Visual Communication Film Festival Special Jury Prize winner - Emerging Actor in "BABY", a gang-land drama from director Juwan Chung. "BABY" was also awarded the Jury Prize - Narrative feature award at the festival. In July, David will start principal photography on "All About Dad" a story about a Vietnamese - American family dealing with change and Dad's old world views on life, and his children's new-world views. Shooting will take place on location in San Jose, CA. For more information and pictures of the actor, see: http://www.david-huynh.com/.

To listen to the show, click here:

Actor Dustin Nguyen

Irvine -- On our next edition of Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, we take a look at the Visual Communications' Asian Pacific Film Festival, currently under way in Los Angeles. URL: http://www.vconline.org/.

We talked with actor Dustin Nguyen, who attended Orange Coast College, went on to act in 21 Jump Street, as well as many other films, the latest three showing at the VC Film Festival, two made in Vietnam. See press release for details. To listen to the show, click here:

Actor Justin Chon on his Acting Career

On our February 5, 2007 show, we talked with actor Justin Chon. The Korean American actor is currently in Nickelodeon's "Just Jordan." A rising star, his film credits include "The OC". A New York Times reviewer called him "good-looking" in "Just Jordan."
For more on Justin Chon, see press release.

To listen to the interview with Justin Chon, click here: .