Francis Hsueh and Steven Hahn

Francis Hsueh and Steven Hahn (both born in October 1973) are a film-making duo based in New York City. Hsueh and Hahn were former corporate lawyers from large New York firms who met in 2004 after becoming solo practitioners. While working on their first case together, they realized that they shared the same dream of making movies.[1] Later that year, they opened Omerice Works Inc., a film production company named after the Korean dish that their first client served them for lunch.

Party

In fall 2005, Hsueh and Hahn completed their first film, Party, a feature-length documentary about New York's Asian nightlife. They shot, directed, edited, scored, produced and financed it themselves. The film features intersecting stories of several party promoters and partygoers, as well as a voiceover narration provided by Prof. Gary Okihiro of Columbia University. Party appeared at the 2007 Rotterdam Asiascope Overseas Asian Film Festival and was chosen for distribution by Pathfinder Pictures in 2006.[2]

Screenings

Pretty to Think So

In early 2006, Hsueh and Hahn began writing their first narrative script, Pretty to Think So, a love triangle story set in New York City in 2000. Based on the moderate success of Party, Hahn and Hsueh obtained financing from a Google executive, Michael Zee. In April 2007, they successfully completed photography on the film, which was premiered in March 2008 at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.[3][4] The film toured subsequent Asian American film festivals in Chicago, Los Angeles,[5] Philadelphia[6] and Austin,[7] and had its East Coast premiere at the New York Asian American International Film Festival in July 2008.[8]

Pretty to Think So, set in the post-internet boom, pre-9/11 limbo period of October 2000, tells the story of a tragic love triangle between Hanna (Pia Shah), a recently laid-off investment banker, Jiwon (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a corporate lawyer, and Alex (Rob Yang), a former street hustler turned youth pastor.

Leo of St. George and the Air Galactic

In late 2006, inspired by news of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism company (scheduled to be launched in 2009), Hsueh and Hahn completed their second feature-length script, Leo of St. George and the Air Galactic. In April 2008, the script was a finalist in the Beverly Hills Film Festival screenplay competition.[9] In June 2008, the script won a prestigious fellowship from the Korean Film Council's Filmmakers Development Lab which promotes works by overseas Korean filmmakers (Hahn is Korean-American).[10] The script also placed as a Semi-Finalist in the StoryPros 4th Annual International Screenplay Contest (2010).

Festivals and awards

Party (Pathfinder Pictures)

Official Selection:

  • 2007 Rotterdam Asiascope Overseas Asian Film Festival

Pretty to Think So

Official Selection:

Leo of St. George and the Air Galactic
  • Quarter finalist, 15th Annual Writer's Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition
  • Finalist, Beverly Hills Film Festival Screenplay Competition
  • Fellow, Korean Film Council Development Lab

Notes and references
  1. Hahn, Steven. Letter from a New York Filmmaker Archived July 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. A&S Online. May 21, 2008.
  2. Party. DVDTalk.com. March 20, 2007.
  3. 2008 SFIAAFF: Films and Events by Title. Asian American Media.org. 2008.
  4. SFist: SFIAAFF: Pretty To Think So Archived March 8, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. sfist.com. March 17, 2008.
  5. Pretty to Think So. Visual Communications Film Festival 2008.
  6. http://www.phillyasianfilmfest.org/. Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival 2008.
  7. http://www.aaaff.org/. Austin Asian American Film Festival 2008.
  8. Pretty to Think So. AAIFF.org. 2008.
  9. Beverly Hills Film Festival.
  10. Korea Daily article about PTTS (in Korean).
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