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| Joshua Ching, my son, with the book |
Blockbusters like Harry Potter,
the Hunger Games, or classic favorites like the Lorax
or the Secret Garden get to be movies. So was I
surprised and delighted when Quentin Lee of Margin Films called me to
see if he could make a short movie from my picture book, Operation Marriage. It started with a connection.
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| Howard Fong |
Many years ago Howard Fong an actor, showed up at a book signing I did in the Bay area for my first book, It's Who You Know. It was one of those
signings where two people show up and it’s such a relief that
anyone comes at all. He’s been a friend ever since, always trying
to keep me in the know with Asian Americans in media and
entertainment, stuffing my mail slot and now my email inbox with
articles and links. Howard knew about my book, Operation Marriage (Reach and Teach, 2011).
Some time in November 2013, he emailed
me a link to a short video/public service announcement, called
the Wedding Plan
about a gay man and a lesbian, who pretend to marry in order to get
their parents off their back. The wise mom of the gay man confronts
the pseudo-couple urging them to be themselves. I was impressed by
the production values of the video, the honesty of the acting, and
its authentic message. I’m not gay (though I sometimes call myself
a wannabe lesbian!); I’m a straight ally. As a Chinese American
and a Sinophile, I loved seeing this video set in contemporary China.
I sent the link to the Wedding Plan
video to the Lambda email list, the Oracle LGBT network. For those
who don’t know, I’ve worked as a technical writer or publications
manager at Oracle and Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle) for over
a decade. I thanked Howard for sharing Quentin’s video with me and
didn’t think further about it.
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| Quentin Lee |
Quentin put the book into a script and
along with Brad Stocking made a few minor changes. He created a web
site on the movie project operationmarriagemovie.org. Quentin
recruited producer Alan Reade and they drove up to Palo Alto from Los
Angeles to shoot a promotional video in my house.
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| Alan Reade |
Since my house was being remodeled, I
asked the family, the Merkle-Raymonds, on whom the book is based if
we could use their house. Kathy Merkle-Raymond, daughter Alex, and I
were interviewed for the promo video. I was touched by what Alex said
in her interview, something like: “If everyone else’s parents
were married, we wanted our parents to be married. We thought we were
normal until Prop 8. That’s when some people said we weren’t
normal. We just wanted our family to be accepted like everyone else.”
Quentin and Alan posted the promotional
video on the web site and they set up the fundraising site. The fundraising
race began. Quentin and Alan also created a Facebook page and we
tweeted, emailed, and called friends, coworkers, and family.
My sister was among the first of my
family and friends to call me and to donate. Some friends and family
emailed me with a terse note that they were not interested in
the project. Translation: they didn’t approve of marriage equality.
Those folks were far and away the minority.
Thanks to the many people who donated and worked on this labor of love, the movie (a short) premiered in Los Angeles at the send of September 2014.
Want to know more about the making of the movie? See Quentin's blog about it:
http://youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/book-to-screen-operation-marriage/
See the Facebook page for photos of the LA premiere and the Palo Alto showing and more:
https://www.facebook.com/operationmarriage
Want to know more about the making of the movie? See Quentin's blog about it:
http://youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/book-to-screen-operation-marriage/
See the Facebook page for photos of the LA premiere and the Palo Alto showing and more:
https://www.facebook.com/operationmarriage
