New titles: The Industry: Steven Spielberg and an Invisible Nation
Plus, At The Edge of Empire, Journalists and Foreign Affairs
When my friend, actress, writer, director Michelle Krusiec, who has been generously supporting and promoting our film while juggling a promotional tour for her own short film NIAN (a must see!), writing a new film and acting in a new series (!), showed up for INVISIBLE NATION at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles and during our Q&A, asked me whether I identified more as a journalist, foreign policy wonk or filmmaker because she felt the influence of all three in our film, I was very moved.
The short answer is that I’m devoted to being a filmmaker and telling stories with emotional resonance through characters on screen, but I still keep up on a regular basis with my friends in journalism and foreign policy who I respect and admire. I couldn’t have made INVISIBLE NATION without them and their seals of approval. And at the same time, it’s been so exciting after years of filming to have my first film in a movie theater (!) and to begin to feel a part of this industry my grandparents helped to build from its inception in meaningful ways.
Inspired by Michelle’s questions, I’m dividing this post into three parts: The Journalists, The Foreign Policy Wonks and The Industry — with permission to re-post a chunk of The Industry newsletter we’re in!
THE JOURNALISTS
Journalist friends, foreign correspondents I’ve known in Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, DC, the Bay area and New York, who’ve given me feedback and support are too numerous to mention here without going into some detail though many are in the THANK YOU credits of the film. Friends like Edward Wong, a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times along with The New York Times national correspondent covering Asian American communities across the country, Amy Qin, together have already taught INVISIBLE NATION in a journalism class at the University of California, Berkeley!
Ed has written an important, new book I highly recommend, AT THE EDGE OF EMPIRE: A FAMILY’S RECKONING WITH CHINA.
Wong tells a moving chronicle of a family and a nation that spans decades of momentous change and gives profound insight into a new authoritarian age transforming the world. A groundbreaking book, At the Edge of Empire is the essential work for understanding China today.
You can learn more and buy Ed’s book HERE.
THE FOREIGN POLICY WONKS
If you’ve been in our Q&As at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles last weekend, then you’ve heard me recommend the latest Foreign Affairs article by Ben Rhodes, who from 2009 to 2017, served as U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting in the Obama administration. It’s called
A Foreign Policy for the World as It Is
Biden and the Search for a New American Strategy
and I highly recommend it. Ben’s points about Taiwan, China and the U.S. reflect the thinking conveyed in INVISIBLE NATION by President Tsai and others in her circle and guiding the film’s impact in the world:
In Taiwan, the United States should try to preserve the status quo by investing in Taiwanese military capabilities while avoiding saber rattling, by structuring engagement with Beijing to avoid miscalculation, and by mobilizing international support for a negotiated, peaceful resolution to Taiwan’s status.
“Mobilizing international support for a negotiated, peaceful resolution to Taiwan’s status” is much easier said than done, but INVISIBLE NATION is already making a difference with audiences and conversations of all kinds around the world.
I only had to email Ben to ask one question about his framing of Taiwan independence as an American hawk agenda, but what he meant was also something I agree with which is that “IF Taiwan independence is framed as an American hawkish agenda (eg. Mike Pompeo) then it paradoxically becomes less likely and more likely to result in war…The trap for Taiwan, which President Tsai saw clearly, is that being hugged too tight by hardliners in the US who have more of an anti-China agenda than a pro-Taiwan agenda could backfire.”
This is why it’s so important to listen carefully in INVISIBLE NATION to the exact wording by President Tsai and others in Taiwan (and she emphasizes in the film how critical wording is) to say that the status quo is de facto independence and the Republic of China (Taiwan) will maintain this and bide its time and not make a formal declaration of independence as a British reporter at the BBC asks her. Taiwan’s current President Lai is continuing this approach.
Too often, the United States has appeared unable or unwilling to see itself through the eyes of most of the world’s population, (particularly people in the global South) who feel that the international order is not designed for their benefit.
Again, Ben’s words resonate with me as that was the project of INVISIBLE NATION for this American woman, not only seeing Taiwan, but seeing America and China through Taiwan’s eyes. We are at a moment when the U.S. should be turning to diplomacy to avoid wars, establish new norms, and promote greater international cooperation and that is precisely what the opportunity of Taiwan’s geopolitical predicament offers the U.S. and the world.
Ben Rhodes’ conclusion in his article feels in sync with another new book I’ve just read and recommend, Soraya Chemaly’s The Resilience Myth. Soraya’s family is from Haiti and the Bahamas and the island perspective she offers reminded me of the island perspective that Taiwan offers and why these perspectives matter so much.
Soraya Chemaly is an award-winning writer and activist whose work focuses on the role of gender in culture, politics, religion, and media. She is the Director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project and an advocate for women’s freedom of expression and expanded civic and political engagement.
Finally, I’m writing from on board a flight with Ted to New Zealand for the Doc Edge Film Festival where I’m looking forward to meeting in person another foreign policy wonk I often recommend in Q&As, Van Jackson.
THE INDUSTRY
It was so cool to wake up on June 21st and find this in my inbox and shared by friends around the world who received it in theirs! Referral and sign up info is at the bottom of this abbreviated version. Enjoy!
June 21, 2024
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Spielberg's American Fiction, Donald Sutherland's screen legacy, Riz Ahmed's existential crisis, Villeneuve and Eggers Bros. and a soulm8ate.
Let’s go!
INVISIBLE NATION
The cinematic texture of Invisible Nation pairs intimate close-ups of the president of Taiwan, with long-lensed wide shots of her citizens, hungry to maintain their freedom.
The documentary follows the first female president of Taiwan through a myriad of scenarios where she seems outmeasured.
In one scene, she is dwarfed by a war helmet and in another by a crowd of thousands, which she leads in prayer. During the film, she hints at her own struggle to become recognized:
“When I was young I was very shy, I never dreamed of being a president.”
The director, Vanessa Hope, broke down her core driver for making the film:
“The discrimination, threat of violence, marginalization, and domination that Taiwan faces, that contribute to the vulnerability of its democracy, is not unlike the second class status and poor treatment most women face around the world which jeopardizes democracy everywhere.”
Cinema like Invisible Nation gives the oppressed a voice.
The film’s producer Ted Hope explained:
“Everything specific to its situation, it's also universal. You know, you see a woman president with an outside bully… all of these things where people just can't be seen or heard in an invisible nation, and we're just trying to make sure that people get seen and heard.”
At a time when freedom around the world is under threat from authoritarianism, documentaries that ground the struggle to the individual level become a universal driver for change.
When the specter of violence stifles freedom, we must listen.
For More:
Check out the Invisible Nation trailer and showtimes here.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Steven Spielberg goes down the river with Percival Everett (writer: American Fiction’s source novel). The project is James, a retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Here’s the line-up:
James (based on the novel by Everett)
Writer/EP: Everett (his first screenplay)
Director attached: Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabitt)
EP: Spielberg
Production Company: Amblin Partners
Distributor: Universal
Here’s the official synopsis:
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town.
Like in American Fiction (trailer), Everett will continue to deliver lacerating observations about America, this time through Jim's eyes. The director Taika Waititi seems fined-tuned to expose these racial hypocrisies as he did in Jojo Rabbit (trailer) with a similar comedic pizazz.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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Thank you, Vanessa! How you hold these identities in your film should be taught to everyone as it is an example of how we cannot be limited to just one thing. Ever. And Taiwan as displayed in your film, represents this, after many years of colonization, this basic idea, “we exist and we will not go quietly,” resonates so strongly and so universally. 🙏🇹🇼