Kinetic Films’ New Approach to
Asian-American Cinema
Movie Review: Hang Loose
You probably recognize the face of Dante Basco from his role as Rufio in the 1991 Spielberg movie, Hook, and those who love Avatar: The Last Airbender will recognize his voice as that of Prince Zuko. But while Dante’s had a successful career in Hollywood spanning several decades, his story is more the exception than the rule when it comes to Asian-Americans.
Hollywood is a movie engine to more of an audience than I realized growing up. It wasn’t until I lived in Japan that I realized just how broad the reach of, and demand for, Hollywood movies really can be. In an industry like that, there’s a lot of hot competition amongst actors and would-be actors; always more people that want to act than there are roles to fill.
And while that’s true for everyone in town, it’s especially true for actors of ethnic backgrounds other than white. This isn’t really some racist conspiracy engineered by greedy white guys in an effort to only support other white guys – it’s just that that’s the movies that are written, the roles that are created. It’s just business as it’s done.
But that paucity of roles available for Asian-American actors does make it really hard to book jobs, and having no jobs under your belt doesn’t exactly endear you to the next gig you’re applying for. This is just the classic problem for anyone trying to get a foot in the door – you can’t get work without experience, but you can’t get experience without working.
So what to do? If you want to be in the movie business, you gotta make movies. So Dante Basco, James Sereno, and Samira Amiransari have started a film company called Kinetic Films (www.kineticfilms.com) to do that very thing. Kinetic Films is an experimental company with a twofold mission. Firstly, they hope to create a self-sustainable company that can consistently put out Asian-American films, both to broaden the genre, and to show that there is a market for these things. The second is to develop the talents of the next generation of actors by giving them opportunities to develop their movie-making craft.
The first movie to come out of Kinetic Films debuts December 14th (15th in Japan), and is a comedy called Hang Loose, starring Kevin Wu (internet sensation of kevjumba.com) and Dante Basco. These are “micro-budget†films that in return don’t need to earn back big bucks at the box office, so their asking price (3 to 5 dollars US) is extremely reasonable, and better still, when you buy the movie, you stream it online (which, be honest, is totally how JETs end up getting most of their movies anyway). The company is self-sustainable when the movies make enough money to make more movies.
I just watched the extended (30 minute) preview of Hang Loose, and I gotta say, I’m really looking forward to watching the whole movie once it’s available. I want to point out that low-budget in no way means low-quality. You may not be Asian, or American, or Asian-American, but if you’re like me and you appreciate the initiative and are willing to support an idea like this, and if you keep saying you would pay for the movies, only they’re just not, you know, available because you’re “out of region,†well, check it out.
Check out the podcast I did with Impetuous Windmills interviewing Dante! http://www.impetuouswindmills.com/2012/12/10/podcast-episode-65/
Get the movie Hang Loose here (http://hangloosemovie.com/) for $3 (preorder) or $5 (after release).
Watch the trailer:Â http://youtu.be/HcwGiheyy3U
More about Hang Loose and Kinetic Films:https://dantebasco.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/kinetic-films-hang-loose-movie-summer-2012/
