Charlie Chaplin: "Kono is my man Friday. He is everything--muse, valet, private secretary, and bodyguard."
"Living in Silence: Toraichi Kono" will be a digital documentary about the life of Toraichi Kono who came to America and found the American dream by becoming the personal secretary and confidant to movie star Charlie Chaplin only to have it all lost in an environment of fear, accusation and paranoia during WWII.
The project is currently in the research/development stage and is funded in part from grants by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEP) and the Mayer & Morris Kaplan Family Foundation. We will be participating in the 2007 Tribeca All Access program which takes place in April during the Tribeca Film Festival in NY (see our blog for more info). Though we each have specific duties on our project, the lines blur and we all contribute in every aspect of this documentary's development.
CREATIVE TEAM:
PHILIP W. CHUNG (DIRECTOR):
Philip is overseeing the directing, writing and other creative aspects of the film. Previously he has taught Asian American studies courses at UC Santa Cruz, playwriting at the L.A. Cultural Affairs Dept. and Asian American Writers Workshop, and worked as a journalist. As a co-founder and co-artistic director of the Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, he has produced, directed, and/or written over 75 productions, workshops, and readings. Philip has directed several short films and ast writing credits include the TV series "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" and two critically acclaimed plays that premiered in 2006, "The Golden Hour" and "One Nation, Under God." Upcoming projects writing include the screenplay adaptation of Gail Tsukiyama's novel "The Samurai's Garden" for director Hideo Nakata ("Ringu," "Ring 2"), writing the screenplay adaptation of Nicole Mones' latest novel "The Last Chinese Chef" and writing/directing "The Crimson Flower," an Asian American film noir to star Kelly Hu ("X2"), Daniel Dae Kim ("Lost") and Clyde Kusatsu. He was selected as one of five fellows for the inaugural film development lab sponsored by the Korean Film Council in 2006, which took place in Hawaii and Korea during the Pusan International Film Festival. He is currently writing a play about Kono and Chaplin.
CLYDE KUSATSU (PRODUCER):
Clyde is overseeing the administration and community relations. He has been a working actor in Hollywood for thirty-three years now in all the various fields of Theater, Radio, TV, Films, and the Internet. He was born and raised in Honolulu and graduated from Northwestern University's famed theatre program. He has been in such films as "The Interpreter" and "Paradise Road;" on TV from "Ally McBeal" to Monk, to playing Judge Lance Ito in the CBS mini-series American Tragedy. He's most proud of his work in "Farewell to Manzanar," which dealt with the internment for the first time on network television. He has been affiliated with groups like Visual Communication, Lodestone Theatre Ensemble and the East West Players--the first Asian American Theatre Company--as an actor, producer and teacher.
TIM LOUNIBOS (PRODUCER):
Tim is overseeing the line producing and marketing. He is an actor and producer, currently producing the provocative and poignant coming-of-age indie film "way leads onto way" starring Sandra Oh, and executive produced the horror short "Harlequin." In 2002, Lounibos helped to produce the Sept. 11th memorial event "My America" in New York. He executive produced the 2001 Ammy Awards (honoring Asian & Asian American achievement in entertainment), after having helped produce the inaugural event the year before, and produced the 2001 Ovation Awards (honoring the best in Los Angeles theatre). That same year, Lounibos became Development Manager for aOnline (named "Best Asian American Community site of 2001" by Yahoo Internet Life Magazine). He's acted in and produced a number of plays for the critically praised Lodestone Theatre Ensemble--which he co-founded and co-artistic directed for five years. As an actor, Lounibos has been a lead in multiple films and will be seen this year in the much-anticipated film "The Sensei." He's guest starred in over 30 TV shows--including "Crossing Jordan," "Shark," "The West Wing," "JAG" and "The Practice." Lounibos has lent his voice to a number of animated shows and video games, and has appeared in commercials for Progressive Direct, Carlsberg, McDonalds, Toyota, ING, Home Depot, Circuit City, Delta Airlines, Travelers Group Insurance and KFC. He feels that it is his duty to participate on panels discussing the image of Asian Americans in the media and how to promote and foster a more positive portrayal of them on the small and big screens.
NANCY YUEN (PRODUCER):
Nancy will oversee the research. Based on her research interests and connections to the Asian American academic community, Nancy Wang Yuen, M.A. C. Phil., acts as co-producer and research coordinator for this project. A current doctoral candidate in the UCLA Department of Sociology, Nancy has devoted her research to Asian Americans in popular culture. She has published widely in this field, including an ethnographic study of Los Angeles-based Asian American actors in 2004. In addition, Nancy has spearheaded two reports on Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) representation in prime time television in collaboration with the Asian American Justice Center. In 2005, she published "'Asian Pacific Americans in Primetime: Lights, Camera, and Little Action,' the Asian Pacific Islander American Primetime Television Report: The Fall 2004 Season" Policy Report and in 2006, she published "Asian Pacific Americans in Prime Time: Setting the Stage," a report on the Fall 2005 primetime television season. Her present dissertation study is a comparative study of Hollywood actors across race and gender, based on ninety in-depth interviews of Asian American, African American, and white actors. One of Nancy's faculty advisors is Min Zhou, a leading scholar in Asian American Studies.
Associate Producer - Sara Edel
Editor - Michael Nouryeh (Additional trailer editing by Tom Huang)
Camera/Sound - Roger Garcia, Jason Inouye, Joe H. Shim
Website - Keith Kamisugi, Tim Twelves
For more info. on Kono or our project, check out our blog which we'll update regularly. To contact us, e-mail:
[email protected]
