“Eve and the Fire Horse” wins Special Jury Prize
at Sundance Film Festival
– very auspicious Chinese New Year's Eve
“About 45 minutes ago, we recieved a phone call from Sundance,” said Yves Ma, one of the producers of the independent film Eve and the Fire Horse. “You are the first people to hear this news, outside of us… We've won the Special Jury Prize.”
Phoebe Kut, who plays “Eve” in the film stood at the front of the theatre with produces Shan Tam, Erik Paulsson and Ma. They were taking part in a Q&A organized by Anita Adams for First Weekend Club at Fifth Avenue Cinemas in Vancouver. The 7:25 pm show had ended to audience applause, and all three people were very happy to share their news and stories from Sundance.
“There was lots of free stuff,” said 11 year old Phoebe answering the question “What was Sundance like?”
“We were the only Canadian film at Sundance, the Canadian Consulate hosted our opening night party and sent two mounties to help us make a splash. We got these nifty jackets sponsored from Telefilm Canada… we got on a bus and people would say “It's the Canadians and start singing O Canada,” shared Paulsson. All four of them turned around showing off their beautiful jackets and vests – black with a red chinese paper cut design of a horse as the logo.
“We were very fortunate, the buzz started early. People were lining up to see the show and talking about it. Roger Ebert's review was great!” said Ma.
I asked them what attracted them each to the film project. Ma was the first to respond.
“It was such an honest story, I could relate to it as an immigrant,” said Ma who is Taiwanese-Chinese on his father's side and Parisian French on his mother's side, “It is partly autobiographical for Julia, but the characters are very strong. Some parts are dramaticized. I just knew I wanted to be part of it.”
“I knew Julia from film school,” piped in Paulsson.
Sham Tan explained that both of the young actors that played the young girls who are the central characters of the movie, had never acted before. In each case, another sister or friend had seen the ads calling for actors, and both Phobe Kut and Hollie Lo were “tag-a-longs” who were eventually cast.
Tomorrow the cast and crew will be parade entry #46 in the Vancouver Chinatown Parade. They will be giving out special custom made fortune cookies. Look for the group wearing black and red, with big big smiles.
Below are some links to stories about Eve and the Fire Horse. including a picture of Julia Kwan recieving the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival in Park City Utah, earlier this evening.
Especially check out: Julia Kwan blogs her “Sundance experience” for CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/sundancediaryday7.html
7:39 2 World Cinema Special Jury Prizes, to two first time filmmakers: Eve and the
Firehorse
http://www.cinematical.com/2006/01/28/sundance-2006-awards/
Julia Kwan at Sundance accepting Special Jury Prize Award for Eve and the Fire Horse
Standing behind her is actor Shirley, Eunhee Cha – associate producer and Tom Brown – executive producer. Eunhee directed the award winning documentary “Tribe of One” about my cousin Rhonda Larrabee.
JULIA KWAN’S “EVE AND THE FIREHORSE”
gathering major buzz
Featured on the current cover of
Vancouver
’s Georgia Straight is a great way to start off Chinese New Year festivities this week for film maker Julia Kwan. The timing is perfect for Kwan, since the film opened in Canadian theatres on Friday January 27. Check out the Straight story at http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=15554
Roger Ebert's review “One of the most beloved films at Sundance.”
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060123/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060127.wxeve27/BNStory/
Entertainment/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20060127.wxeve27