Hao Wu, The Road to Fame - West Carolina University, Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, & Hapeville, Georgia

From Filmmaker Hao Wu of The Road to Fame:

I guess it could be depressing when an audience came up to you after a screening of your film, and told you that your film made him depressed. The stories of young people struggling to make it in showbiz was too close to home, he said. He was a college student studying filmmaking at West Carolina University (Cullowhee, NC) and the prospect of becoming a successful filmmaker was looking remote.

I quoted a line from the veteran musical director featured in my film - "Only those who really want this can survive" - and wished him good luck in figuring out the industry, and himself.

And then I was elated. I had done my job right, I thought, that I could move an American youth this way with a story about Chinese kids feeling the same stress in the faraway Beijing. What more could we ask for as filmmakers telling stories close to our hearts?

In Madison GA, much younger audiences watched the film. Fifth graders. They were into performing arts and couldn't stop talking about the film after the screening at the beautiful Madison-Morgan Cultural Center. They had a long road ahead of them, and their optimism was innocent, and pure.

In Hapeville, Georgia, the city held the screening at The Historic Christ Church Building & Carriage House. The atmosphere felt like a cozy community party. One audience said afterwards that The Road to Fame was his first time watching a subtitled film. Now he realized that he'd missed out on a lot of good foreign films.

The Southern Circuit Tour was an intense experience with lots of flying, driving and meeting different people from different states. But for an independent filmmaker, it was such a rare opportunity to see the beautiful land in the south, to meet curious and engaging audiences who embrace good storytelling regardless of differences in language, culture and geography. Many asked me during the tour when I could be back with my next film. I replied soon, hopefully soon.

Upward and onward on the road to storytelling!

Hao Wu, The Road to Fame - Robinson Film Center, Union College, & Ritz Theatre

From Filmmaker Hao Wu of The Road to Fame:

The first leg of my Southern Circuit tour was intense; two flights each day, and one to two hours of driving to get to most screening venues. Exhausting, but what a trip! As an immigrant who had lived in six American cities over fifteen years, I had never stepped foot in the south. Not that I didn't want to - kids of my generation grew up in China reading Gone With The Wind, but somehow I never managed to. Now I'm able to have a fast and furious immersion of southern hospitality, all thanks to South Arts.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping my The Road to Fame is bringing a little China to the south. Most of the audience members have never been to China. So naturally, I was apprehensive about how the audiences would receive such a subtitled film from a faraway land.

Surprisingly, however, many came up to me after the screenings, saying the characters in the film didn't feel foreign to them. At the Robinson Film Center and Union College, students completely identified with the dreams, the anxieties over potential failures, and the pressure from family and society that the Chinese students experienced in the film. Those with ambitions in the arts felt the resonance the strongest.

Meanwhile, older audiences tended to be more interested in what China is like and how it is changing. At the Ritz Theater in Sheffield, AL, several audience members had visited China a long time ago, and it was eye opening for me even to learn about the country they knew that had been erased by recent developments. After the screening, they queried me about the one-child policy, the performance arts industry in China, and what I thought where China is going. It was extremely rewarding for a filmmaker to be able to move audiences with a universal story, and to act as a cultural ambassador for his home country at the same time.

All three screening venues so far - Robinson Film Center in Shreveport, LA, Union College in Barbourville, KY, and the Ritz Theater in Sheffield, AL - are beautiful. No hustle and bustle of the big city or the local multiplex. Stepping inside them was like being transported back in time, when film watching was once cozy and communal. My hosts - Meghan Hochstetler in Shreveport, Diana Mills at Union College and Jim Berryman in Sheffield - lavished their attention and care, for which I'm immensely grateful. I'm eagerly looking forward to the second leg of screenings in North Carolina and Georgia, and will report back soon.

November's Films and Filmmakers

We kick off November with three new films showing on the Circuit. We welcome Good Ol' Freda, Go with Le Flo, and The Road to Fame. Read on for more about these films and check out the entire lineup for the 2014-2015 Southern Circuit Film Schedule.

---

Kathy McCabe is an award-winning photographer and Beatles expert with widespread experience in the music industry. She has worked as a publicist and manager, a music video and album producer, and also a recording studio manager. She was the publicist and marketer for Pelada, and initiated and engineered the production of Good Ol’ Freda.



Freda Kelly was just a teenager when she was asked to work for a local band hoping to make it big. Though she had no concept of how far they would go, Freda had faith in The Beatles from the beginning, and The Beatles had faith in her. For 11 years, Freda remained a staple of the band because of her unfaltering loyalty and dedication. As the Beatles’ devoted secretary, Freda was there as history unfolded; she was witness to the evolution – advances and setbacks, breakthroughs and challenges – of the greatest band in history. In Good Ol’ Freda, Kelly tells her stories for the first time in 50 years. One of few documentaries with the support of the living Beatles and featuring original Beatles music, the film offers an insider perspective on the beloved band that changed the world of music.

Schedule:
Nov 05: Oxford College of Emory University, Oxford, GA
Nov 06: Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, Auburn University, Auburn, AL
Nov 08: Creative City Collaborative, Pompano Beach, FL
Nov 10: East Tennessee State University, Mary B. Martin School of the Arts, Johnson City, TN
Nov 12: Indie Memphis, Memphis, TN
Nov 13: Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC

---

In 1990, Producer Robyn Rosenkrantz and Director Michael Glover quit their L.A. jobs, sold everything (except their guitars), and bought one-way tickets to Europe. After landing a deal with Virgin Records, they launched their own company, began making CDs and touring the world. After appearing in the Matthew Broderick/Alec Baldwin film The Last Shot, Glover and Rosenkrantz began writing, directing and producing their own features. Five feature films, eleven CDs and over 3,000 live performances to date, the happily married BBG is still going strong, charming audiences around the world with their music and movies!

Go with Le Flo is a family-friendly, romantic comedy about finding love and taking chances. Florian owns Le Flo, a French delicatessen in Berlin that specializes in salami. When he meets Camille, the daughter of a famous French director, Florian falls in love. He wants to ask Camille to marry him, but it’s complicated. Meanwhile, Jenny, who's German and owns a bakery down the street, is in love with Florian. With German and French subtitles, Go with Le Flo explores what true love is, with plenty of twists and turns (some on a Vespa), and lots of salami!

Schedule:

Nov 05: Clemson University, Clemson, SC

Nov 09: Winder Cultural Arts Center, Winder, GA

Nov 11: Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA

Nov 13: Wallace State Community College, Hanceville, AL

---

The Road to Fame is director Hau Wu’s second film.  He received funding from The Ford Foundation and JustFilms and was co-produced by BBC, VPRO, CNEX, DR, Center for Asian American Media and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Trained as a molecular biologist, Wu previously worked in Silicon Valley for Alibaba and in China for Yahoo. He previously served as the China Country Manager for TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel website. Wu holds a Master of Science degree from Brandeis University, and an MBA degree with High Distinction from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He is currently a fellow at the New America Foundation. His writing has appeared on Time.com, Slate.com, Marketplace Radio and China Daily.


In The Road to Fame, China's top drama academy stages the American musical Fame - China’s first official collaboration with Broadway - as the graduation showcase for its senior class. During the eight-month rehearsal, five students compete for roles, struggle with pressure from family and authority, and prepare to graduate into China’s questionable entertainment industry. They must confront complex social realities and their own anxieties, and, in the process of staging Fame, negotiate their own definitions of and paths to success in today’s China.

Schedule:
Nov 13: Robinson Film Center, Shreveport, LA
Nov 14: Union College, Barbourville, KY
Nov 15: The Tennessee Valley Art Association/Ritz Theatre, Sheffield, AL
Nov 18: Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
Nov 20: Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, Madison, GA
Nov 21: City of Hapeville, Hapeville, GA