June 5, 2011 — First Online Funders

What a won­der­ful sur­prise to open my email and find a notice from Pay­pal that the esteemed New York City artists Richard Cramer and Car­ol Markel had made an online dona­tion to FINDING KUKAN.  They are tru­ly an inspi­ra­tional cou­ple and obvi­ous trend-set­ters.  I hope their ground-break­ing gen­eros­i­ty will encour­age oth­ers to take the step.

Richard Cramer & Carol Markel from the Advanced Style Blog

Richard Cramer & Car­ol Markel from Ari Seth Cohen’s “Advanced Style” blog

For a fun peek at this great cou­ple, see Ari Seth Cohen’s blog “Advanced Style”.

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May 21, 2011 — Official FINDING KUKAN Website Goes Live

“If you build it.…they will come.”

I’m adapt­ing the lines from the great base­ball book/movie Shoe­less Joe/Field of Dreams and hop­ing they’ll apply to this web­site and even­tu­al­ly to the fin­ished doc­u­men­tary FINDING KUKAN. Since this project has been fueled by online research and dis­cov­er­ies made pos­si­ble by oth­er web­sites, it’s only appro­pri­ate that I put out one of my own.  Now it’s up to the cyber­space gods to work their magic…

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May 16, 2011 — Bryan Pearson Records Narration for Fundraising Trailer

British stage actor Bryan Pear­son stepped in to record a few lines of nar­ra­tion for the Find­ing KUKAN fundrais­ing trail­er cur­rent­ly in its final edit.

 

Finding KUKAN narrator Bryan Pearson

Bryan Pear­son and Robin Lung go over lines of nar­ra­tion for the FINDING KUKAN fundrais­ing trailer.

 

Bri­an refers to him­self as the “orig­i­nal Ter­mi­na­tor” since he played Thor in the 1959 cult clas­sic Teenagers from Out­er Space under his stage name Bryan Grant.

 

Bryan Pearson aka Bryan Grant as Thor

Bryan Pear­son aka Bryan Grant as Thor in TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE

 

I found Bri­an through a fas­ci­nat­ing loop of con­nec­tions that start­ed off when I inter­viewed war-time Chungk­ing jour­nal­ist Wing Yung Emery and sis­ter of Choy Wai Chuen, the first Chi­nese man to play at Wim­ble­don in 1948. The loop of con­nec­tion was made pos­si­ble by the dili­gence of Chris Essex, web­mas­ter for Fram­ling­ham Col­lege alum­ni. Fram­ling­ham was the prep acad­e­my that Choy Wai Chuen and Bryan Pear­son both went to.

Anoth­er eye-open­ing zig in the amaz­ing zig-zag jour­ney I’ve had since find­ing KUKAN.

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January 2011 — Work on the Fundraising Trailer Begins

Ron Darby on set

Ron Dar­by sets up for an interview

Cam­era­man Ron Dar­by and Pro­duc­er Robin Lung begin film­ing inter­views and b‑roll in Hawaii for the Find­ing KUKAN fundrais­ing trailer.

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October 2010 — Mayor’s Office Awards Grant

Find­ing KUKAN receives a grant from the Hon­olu­lu May­or’s Office of Cul­ture and the Arts to pro­duce a fundrais­ing and out­reach trail­er for the film!

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May 2010 — Producer Robin Lung Travels to NYC for Research

Pro­duc­er Robin Lung trav­eled from Hawai‘i to New York City, New Jer­sey and Con­necti­cut to research her doc­u­men­tary film on Li Ling-Ai and KUKAN.  She was able to meet with sev­er­al of Li Ling-Ai’s friends and access impor­tant archives at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty and Prince­ton deal­ing with US/China rela­tions and the pre-WWII Chi­na Aid effort.  With the assis­tance of expert cam­era­man Frank Ayala,  Robin inter­viewed Rey Scot­t’s niece Con­nie Tup­per who saw KUKAN when she was 12 years old.

Frank Ayala, Robin Lung and Connie Tupper

Cam­era­man Frank Ayala and Pro­duc­er Robin Lung inter­view Rey Scot­t’s niece Con­nie Tupper

 

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April 2010 — Only copy of KUKAN Arrives at AMPAS for Restoration

Robin Lung & Leigh Mierke prepare to film the initial inspection of KUKAN at AMPAS

Robin Lung & Leigh Mierke pre­pare to film the ini­tial inspec­tion of KUKAN at AMPAS

Pro­duc­er Robin Lung trav­els to Los Ange­les to film the arrival of the only known full print of the 1941 Oscar-win­ning doc­u­men­tary KUKAN at the Acad­e­my Motion Pic­ture Arts and Sci­ences Film Archives in Los Ange­les. Pre­vi­ous­ly “lost” for decades, the print is bad­ly dam­aged and needs a full restoration.

An inter­view with AMPAS doc­u­men­tary cura­tor Ed Carter reveals inter­est­ing facts about the film, but leaves many ques­tions unanswered.

Ed Carter inspecting KUKAN film reel

AMPAS doc­u­men­tary cura­tor Ed Carter inspects KUKAN film reel

 

Film­ing at AMPAS was made pos­si­ble by the gen­er­ous help of fel­low doc­u­men­tary pro­duc­er Rebec­ca Boz­zo (Frank Borzage, Direc­tor) and cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Leigh Mierke.

My dear friend and tal­ent­ed musi­cian John Zain­er pitched in as sound man.

Leigh Mierke and John Zainer film Ed Carter opening KUKAN shipping box.
Leigh Mierke and John Zain­er film Ed Carter open­ing KUKAN ship­ping box.
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March 2010 — Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities Awards Planning Grant

Find­ing KUKAN receives its first Plan­ning Grant from The Hawai‘i Coun­cil for the Human­i­ties, a state affil­i­ate for the Nation­al Endow­ment for the Human­i­ties and sup­port­er of many award-win­ning doc­u­men­taries. We are hon­ored to have their support.

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February 2010 — Hawaii Community Television Signs on as Fiscal Sponsor

Hawaii Com­mu­ni­ty Tele­vi­sion, a 501(c)(3) non-prof­it com­pa­ny signs on as the fis­cal spon­sor for Find­ing KUKAN. This is an impor­tant step as now all con­tri­bu­tions to the film made through HCTV are tax deductible up to the full extend of the law. HCTV has sup­port­ed film in Hawaii for decades and has spon­sored many award-win­ning films such as Pic­ture Bride, Fish­bowl, Heart of the Sea, and Pat­sy Mink: Ahead of the Major­i­ty.

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