ASIAN FILMMAKING GROUP � LOOKING FOR NEW MEMBERS

[ChristopherRevon]

ASIAN FILMMAKING GROUP ? LOOKING FOR NEW MEMBERS

 

Join us and be a part of the largest networking filmmaking group for Asian directors, writers, cinematographers, actors and other filmmakers.

 

Actors' jobs, filmmaker's advice, filmmaker's networking parties, screening notice of new Asian movies and others are posted almost everyday.

 

Go to this website to join: My Webpage

[Guest Y.M.Poursohi]

Your website says"

 

"This is not because we discriminate, but just to promote Asians in the entertainment industry"

 

 

No offense, but don't you think that by having a club with members of similar background you are keeping them away from the realities of the film/Ent industry. I mean people(including me) have to learn moving through and dealing with various other people and situations and the "We network with our likes only" mentality, in my opinion encourages weakness and mediocrity. Artists/technicians earn respect and get work by dealing with all kinds of characters, not just the ones who look similar to themselves. Having been to many of those networking groups and meetings for film/art I just see it as: "we are not strong enough and don't want to push ourselves that's why we click with each other". And honestly nothing ever materializes from that, maybe you'll get some people willing to help you on your shoot. But maybe you could also get that help from non-Asian folks. I do respect your effort at trying to bring people and help them meet, but why limit the meeting.

 

Y

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

> "This is not because we discriminate, but just to promote Asians in the

> entertainment industry"

 

That is discrimination.

 

Phil

[GeorgeSelinsky]

I think maybe Christopher didn't quite word things in the best way.

 

There is nothing discriminatory when one group gathers together and supports each other. Is it an act of discrimination for African-American, women, or Christian filmmakers to have their own talent pools? I certainly don't think so.

 

I've been making a film with Orthodox Christians - Greeks, Russians, Serbs, Romanians, Bulgarians, Armenians. It's never been done before, actually.

 

We DO have non-Orthodox Christians working with us, from actors to the guys who develop and transfer my film. I've had people of Latino, Irish, Italian, Pakistani, Indian, Phillipino, German, Czech, Croatian, Israeli, and other ethnicities involved in my film - some believed in God, some didn't. Many of the people on this forum help us out, and they're not Orthodox Christian. At the same time I spend hours helping people here, and I know that in the overwhelming majority of cases they're not Orthodox Christian, or maybe even Christian at all. It doesn't bother me for one second.

 

Film is such a collaborative medium that you're almost always going to have everyone in the community involved regardless of race, faith, or gender. I myself once worked on a student film with an all African-American cast as the DP.

 

In America, one thing we have a right to do is freedom of assembly. I can ask all Russian editors, Finnish colorists, one eyed cinematographers from Jordan, soundmen who drink only Pilsner beer, etc. to gather and become friends. I have as much of a right to do this as I have to call a family gathering together, or to attend religious services together with a group of my persuasion.

 

If a group of filmmakers wants to get together and talk about what they have in common, if they want to make a film about what they have in common, that is a good thing. That is in part what America is all about, each culture brings to the table something unique - and one way to do that is to allow an ethnic community to have its voice.

 

- G.

Edited February 19, 2005 by GeorgeSelinsky

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

> I can ask all Russian editors, Finnish colorists, one eyed

> cinematographers from Jordan, soundmen who drink only Pilsner

> beer, etc. to gather and become friends

 

What you can't do in any civilised country is exclude people from such meetings because they don't fit [insert definition.[

 

In any case, it strikes me as a strange and unfathomable thing to do - gather lots of people with the same beliefs together? What debate, discussion, improvement of society is that going to provoke? Cliquism has long been the supporting more of religion, and I think it's unhealthy.

 

Phil

[Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith]

Jeez just imagine if someone here said they want to create a filming group of ONLY english white people to promote them? I will go no further.

[GeorgeSelinsky]

What you can't do in any civilised country is exclude people from such meetings because they don't fit [insert definition.[

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If you came into my Orthodox church, you could observe the services as long as you wore the right attire and didn't participate in them (as in parttaking in communion, part of the sacraments). Is that discrimination against non-Orthodox?

 

In my church, even I cannot walk into the altar via the altar doors (I can only enter through the east and west entrances), nor touch the chalice, nor walk in certain areas - that can only be done by an ordained deacon or priest. I also cannot walk into a meeting of the bishop's synod, because I am not a bishop. Are they discriminating between clergy and non clergy?

 

If you were lying on the street dying our faith would require that we help you regardless if you were Orthodox Christian or not. If your family was needy and I was the only person who could help you, I wouldn't start asking about your religious beliefs either. That should say a lot right there.

 

If you walk up to a masonic lodge and want to attend a meeting, and you are a non-mason, they will turn you away. Unlike an Orthodox church or most other places of worship, you won't even be allowed into the masonic temple without passing a test to see if you are a mason. Is that discrimination against non-masons? Better be careful how you answer that one, a lot of very prominent and important people in society are members of this secret order.

 

There is nothing wrong with people of a certain confession gathering together for any noble reason ,as much as your family has a right to get together. If you have a problem with organized religion, it's your right to feel the way you do. But that doesn't give you license to brand those who have a similar bond as "discriminatory" and "exclusionary", just as it doesn't give you the right to insist on being able to walk in to my church and take the sacraments just like that, or walk around in the altar anywhere you want.

 

I think that the contributions I make on this forum are a clear example of my will to help people regardless of their confession and/or nationality. Many of us evolve in a multi-national, global society and have access to people of different backgrounds and ideologies. I went to school with them, I worked and continue working with them, socializing with them, etc. Yet at the same time it's natural that we gravitate towards people who think and feel like we do. Otherwise, are you going to insist that Stephen Spielberg hires a few Neo-Nazi's as grips on "Schinder's List" in order to be "non-discriminatory"? :blink:

 

- G.