Oops!

We're having domain issues with the georgelinfoundation.org address, so we're temporarily reverting back to the georgelinfund.blogspot.com domain for now until the problem is fixed.  Thanks for your patience and have a Happy New Year everyone!

Go out and attend the 12th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival!

Help us raise $2,000 today

Lee Ann Kim, Dan Matthews and the SDAFF crew have helped to organize a fundraiser for the GCL Memorial Fund. In 36 hours they've helped to raise over $1,000 among Facebook friends and SDAFF supporters and our goal is to reach $2,000 on the anniversary of George's passing, which was today 3 years ago. We are floored by the response and thank all of our friends and supporters!  Please consider donating to the Fund via this link.  Here is just one of the comments that friends are sharing on Facebook:

"Today is George Lin Day in San Diego. In 2009, I made a 90 second short tribute for George with the help of many good friends. George was a big part of many of our film festival experiences, and he was there since the beginning of mine. Sadly, George past away from a rare type of cancer. The film fest is raising $2000 for his memorial fund before midnight. Please give if you feel led to do so. Thank you for your time. Thank you, George. ♥" - Karin Anna Cheung

DC APA winner of The George C. Lin Emerging Filmmaker Award announced

This past Sunday DC APA Film announced the winner of the 2011 George C. Lin Emerging Filmmaker Award to director S. Casper Wong in consideration of her documentary film The LuLu Sessions.  The film is an intense and at the same time emotionally tender story about the special relationship between two best friends brought together under unique and ultimately human circumstances.  More coverage on the award will follow, but in the meantime here is an excerpt and the trailer from the film:

"LuLu is unlike anyone you’ve ever met.  A hard-living, chain-smoking rebel with a tender heart.  A poet with a potty mouth.  Farm girl. Former cheerleader. World-class cancer researcher.  Beloved professor.  Dr. Louise Nutter, or LuLu has just discovered a new anti-cancer drug when she finds out she is dying of breast cancer herself at 42.  Shot during those last 15 months of LuLu’s life, The LuLu Sessions is a raw, intimate, yet surprisingly humorous story about the filmmaker showing up for her best friend, and together, testing the limits of their bond while taking on life’s ultimate adventure."



The LuLu Sessions Teaser from OO on Vimeo.



A general donation of $2,000 was made this year to DC APA Film by the Memorial Fund, of which a $500 cash prize was awarded to the filmmaker along with a sculpted bronze made by Chin Wen Chuang.  Our thanks to Tad Doyle, Wyman Lee, Ron Sanchez and the entire DC APA crew for all of their hard work, unwavering support and friendship.  If you're in the DC area it's not too late to check out the festival in its last weekend running through Sunday, October 15th.  

Goodness

Yusef Komunyakaa, Susie Ibarra and George collaborated on a performance piece and opera called Shangri-la which was performed in New York City during 2005.  Yusef wrote this poem for George when he passed away in 2008 and Roberto Rodriguez (Susie's husband) read the poem at the memorial service.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the poem was published in the Fall/Winter 2009-10 literary journal of the Cerise Press and wanted to share it with you all.  Thank you Yusef.  Happy Birthday George.

Goodness
by Yusef Komunyakaa


Sometimes, if we’re halfway lucky
we may stumble & glimpse goodness
in a face, peering around a corner
or sharp turn in the labyrinth.
We arrive, staring over our shoulder
at pawprints the snow leopard left
on a trail circling back to the most fierce
hunter, back to the uncoiled loop’s
double roundel. How many paths
do we dare seek the spun gold knot
beneath the plum tree bent down
with blooms in the middle kingdom?
We brainstormed over bowls of water
spinach, Chinese broccoli, crispy fish,
& Szechuan beef. I can still see
stations of the cross we walked
through the Village, as if taunted
by springtime. Weren’t we in Shangri-la
for happy hour? With so much laughter
in your eyes & mouth, I didn’t know you
could foresee crocuses in the snow
as those perfect nocturnal beings
wrestled day & night to the ground.
George, I’d love to believe nature
is never truly unkind, that she
only wills the tiger bee its stinger
to guard the rally of honeysuckle
climbing the rusty iron-spiked gate
where mercy pulled all the fruit
down to the lowest branches.

Biography

Born in 1947 in Bogalusa, Louisiana, YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA served in the United States Army from 1969 to 1970 as the managing editor of the Southern Cross and as a correspondent during the Vietnam war. He is the author of Warhorses, Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009); Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy, Part 1 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004); Neon Vernacular: New & Selected Poems 1977-1989 (Wesleyan, 1993), which received the Pulitzer Prize and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; and Dien Cai Dau (Wesleyan, 1988), among other collections, including the book of prose, Blues Notes: Essays, Interviews & Commentaries (University of Michigan Press, 2000). Elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets in 1999, Komunyakaa is currently Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University’s graduate creative writing program.

Reprinted from the Ceres Press:  
http://www.cerisepress.com/01/02/goodness

Chin Wen Chuang and the George Lin Award Featured in Taiwan News

Chin's bronze work on the George award for both the San Diego Asian Film Festival and  D.C. Asian Pacific American Film Festival was just featured in the Taiwanese news.  Here is a link to the article.  We're thrilled for Chin and if you watch the video below, you'll see a mention of Nadine Truong (one of last year's winners along with Gerry Balasta).  There is a rumor that as a result of Chin's good work here that she is now collaborating with the Taipei Film Festival for a prize featuring her sculpture & design work.  Congratulations to Chin!

Happy Lunar New Year!

It's been a long time since we last posted, but better late than never to wish all of our friends and family a safe, healthy and prosperous 2011!  Here's to all the lucky rabbits out there...