So after a fateful NYU booking and Sundance shuttle ride, I now had the beginnings of a foundation to make the idea of distributing independent Chinese films a reality. For six months, I worked on the idea from afar, that is from my office in Chinatown. I tried email, Skype, and phone calls, but the time and cultural differences between U.S. and China were too great to surmount through digital communication alone. I had hit a roadblock.
At the same time, friends and colleagues began to express interest in collaborating on this venture. By the Fall, Philip Lam, now on our board of directors, and Brent Hall, our COO, expressed their faith in the venture, and made a commitment to building a company together. Their support was what I needed to push the idea into reality.
Having realized that nothing beats face-to-face contact, I booked a three week trip to Beijing to see the underground film community for myself. With nothing more than a handful of contacts and a Powerpoint presentation, I arrived in Beijing for my first time in January’s below-freezing temperatures.
I was ready to start meeting China’s underground directors … now I just had to find them.
Come back soon for Part 3 of “The Birth of dGenerate Films” by dGenerate President Karin Chien…
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