We recently connected with PEIYUAN XI and have shared our conversation below.
PEIYUAN, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
One sultry afternoon in the summer earlier this year, my old friends, as well as a senior producer based in LA Todd Lien gave me a call. I cannot forget where he began on the phone until today. “I have a really good idea and let’s make a gaysian movie together!” Then, there we go, and here we are. We named this film “EKG”.
EKG is a short film made with the intention of authentically portraying the post-coming out life of a gaysian individual. The coming-out stories have become more popular and more widely seen, and while it is a very important part of a queer individual’s journey, it doesn’t end there. The post-coming out life is a less popular topic but it’s a continuing struggle of being your true self.
In an Asian American family, there are many topics that are taboo, and being your true self is a constant battle in an Asian American family, especially the relationship between a more conservative father and a queer son.
While the focus is on the coming-of-age journey of the gaysian protagonist, we do want to shed a much more positive light on the world of sex and substance and how moderation is the key to enjoying our lives. At the end of the day, we mainly want to elevate the voices of both the queer community and the Asian American community in Hollywood.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
To be a filmmaking producer is not my original dream career, to be honest, I learned how to make a film as a director in college. The awful story is when I moved to Los Angeles from New York State, no one had an interest in funding my pitch or my story. While there are more and more people coming over to my place with their stories or paying a visit to talk with me to invite me to do some producing work. It is so funny.
After a long time, I have got to know that maybe I have some specials rather than other guys. There are two tenets I always follow up on. Either don’t do it, or do it to the best of your ability. The other is done better than perfect. These two rules guide me where and how I go in the independent filmmaking industry.
During the past three years, most of my efforts and time devoted to independent film developing and raising young Asian filmmakers’ voices. They deserve to be seen in this era.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
What a big question, society means a lot, it is not only the gathering of people living, the meaning of that word is closer to a convergence of wills to me. How can that convergence support artists better? My answer is to have a more inclusive mindset to let creatives know that they matter, their creative works deserve to be seen, to be heard, and to be recorded.
As I mentioned at the very beginning, the reason why we made the gaysian short film (“EKG”) this summer, is to elevate the voices of both the queer community and the Asian American community in this country, in this world.
When we did the tech scouting to look for an acceptable and lovely bar as one of our main shooting locations in downtown LA, many bar managers extended an olive branch to us. We are so appreciative of what they did for this set. Their attitudes warm all of our creatives and crew heads.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
There are always challenges lying over there on the way to our final goals. While the fruit of victory after persistent and unwaveringly challenging difficulties is even more delicious.
When the company produces this short film project, namely “EKG”, has consistently posed difficult challenges throughout pre-production, production, and post-production. Casting is one of the most challenging parts because we want to make the story and casting as authentic as possible.
The role of the father has been the most difficult due to schedules and the small pool of talents to select from, but in the end, we were able to find the right casting through friends after multiple failures in different casting platforms. However, the most fun part of this production was to watch everyone reacting to the world of sex and substance during filming and the production design part of the production. It was eye-opening for many crew and cast members! It was educational and creative at the same time for all of us!
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