Backed by NBC’s Universal Content Productions (UCP) and mentored by Soo Hugh (Pachinko), the program offered Asian American writers, including me, the opportunity to learn about television writing and the industry through panels and lectures with writers, development execs, managers, and agents.
A ten-part drama series currently streaming on the VIU platform in Asia.
Set in modern-day Malaysia and inspired by true events, DEVOTED tells the story of Eva, whose devotion as wife and mother is tested to the limits when her husband and son are indoctrinated into a paramilitary cult.
Project received development grant from FINAS (National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia) and was one of fifteen projects selected for the 2016 Southeast Asian Film Financing Forum at Screen Singapore.
It was also showcased at the Luang Prabang Film Festival's Talent Lab, run by Tribeca Film Institute.
A feature on Corinne Iman Adrienne, lead actress and producer on DEVOTED, on female-centric storytelling.
Currently in development.
Set in modern-day Beijing, this is a romantic comedy about a high-powered matchmaker and entrepreneur Amanda Zhang, who is very successful at running her exclusive matchmaking business, but poor at sorting out her own love life, until she meets the client of her dreams.
The script was a finalist of the inaugural China-Hollywood Screenwriting Fellowship.
Producer
Directed by Alec Tok
In this intriguing and quietly evocative portrayal of modern Chinese lives, we enter the world of Minjie, a young woman caught between the past and the present; between life and death. As her spirit wanders about the city of Shanghai and its suburbs, we bear witness to the downtrodden existence of a beautiful daughter named Yulian, and the erotic liaisons of a virgin, Xiaofang, caught in the empty demi-monde of her wealthy older patron.
But things are about to change. The arrival of an infant sets off a series of events that open a new chapter for all three women, where dreams, desires and a desperate yearning soon meld into one. Hope will prevail where beauty dwells, in this surprising journey from death to life.
Producer
Directed by Djinn
Screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Perth is described as the dream of a simple man - a Singaporean taxi driver who yearns to leave his homeland for the greener pastures of Perth, Australia. Of course, things are never that simple, and holding him back is a Vietnamese prostitute, whom he falls hard for. Between doing the right thing and pursuing impossible dreams, lies the gap in which redemption is both readily available and absolutely deadly.
Executive Producer
Directed by Djinn
Plagued by premonitions, US-born Charity makes a belated return to Pontianak, the village in Indonesia where she was born, to uncover what happened. There, she chances into a mysterious woman in white, and quickly gets sucked into a deadly adventure where body count will only escalate as she gets deeper and deeper into the steamy, equatorial jungle.
Damon began his film career at Wong Kar-wai’s Jettone Films in Hong Kong, where he started as a consultant and ended up as its Head of Business Development. He then moved to Los Angeles where he was appointed Vice President and General Manager of Impact Pictures, a Hollywood production company that has been responsible for five #1s at the U.S. box office.
As an independent producer, Damon raised funding and oversaw the production of made- in-Singapore feature Perth, which was invited to many film festivals including Cannes (Tous Les Cinemas du Monde), Rotterdam, Locarno, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Bangladesh. It received the Best Film at the 14th Lyon Asian Film Festival. Damon also helped finance and produce the made-in-China feature A Big Road, seen in competition at the 22nd Singapore International Film Festival.
Damon’s entertainment experience extends into the online sphere. He wrote the original business plan for video-streaming pioneer IFILM, which was sold to Paramount Studios in 2005. He was also involved in the social media start-up Zeal.com, and helped roll out dotTV’s offerings across Asia.
