Lucky Fish
Two Asian-American teenagers meet in the bathroom of a Chinese restaurant while having dinner with their families.
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Emily May JampelDirector
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Emily May JampelWriter
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Jeremy TruongProducerCicada, Dirty, See You Soon
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Yutian FengProducer
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Lukita MaxwellKey Cast"Maggie"Genera+ion
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Anna MikamiKey Cast"Celine"Vox Lux, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, Map of Tiny Perfect Things, Clique Bait
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Alan WuEditorBambirak, Fran This Summer, Sweet Thing
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Lia Ouyang RusliComposerProblemista, Little Sky, Test Pattern, Bambirak, The Little Prince(ss)
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Torin GellerSound DesignSophie Jones, The Shawl, Showgirls of Pakistan, Breaking the Silence
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Ace BuckleyCinematographer
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Genres:Drama, romance, coming-of-age
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Completion Date:January 1, 2022
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Production Budget:25,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Language:English
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Student Project:No
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Frameline Completion Fund 2021/22
Frameline Completion Fund Recipient 2021/22 -
Inside Out 2021 Re:Focus Fund
Canada
2021 Grant Recipient -
Young Cineastes Award, Palm Springs ShortFest 2022
Young Cineastes Award -
Special Mention, Best LGBTQ+ Short, Palm Springs ShortFest 2022
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Audience Award, Best American Short Film, Champs-Élysées Film Festival
Emily May Jampel is a development executive at the Brooklyn and New Orleans-based production company Department of Motion Pictures (BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, PATTI CAKE$, MONSTERS & MEN). Prior to this, she worked at companies like Cinereach and Film Movement, and interned at production companies like Killer Films and Color Force. Emily was born and raised on Oahu and studied film and critical theory at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
This film is a coming of age romance between two Asian-American teenagers who bond over the shared experience of feeling like outsiders in their own families. During this unexpected encounter they discover a temporary escape from the outside world and form a brief but lasting moment of connection. It’s a simple, highly contained story, where a lot happens in small but meaningful ways. This story was inspired by my experience growing up as a mixed-race Asian American and the sense of disconnect I felt with the Chinese side of my family and my memories of these long, never-ending dinners that I’m sure many Chinese-Americans have probably experienced, where the adults would gossip and play mahjong, while all the kids would play gameboy and hangout together by the fish tanks.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve discovered this sense of generational disconnect is extremely common among many Asian Americans and queer people in my generation. Rather than focusing on the darker sides of this experience, I really wanted to revisit this period of my life with a sense of humor and optimism by exploring these feelings of isolation while offering a small, if temporary, sense of relief from it. I’m mostly excited about getting to tell a modern-day story about two queer Asian-American women that isn’t a coming out story, but mostly just about two young individuals existing and connecting in the world.