Por: Mary Anne

AWARD-WINNING SCI-FI SHORT “ADVANTAGEOUS” KICKSTARTS INTO FEATURE THIS SUMMER, FOCUS ON EFFECTS OF CLASS DIVIDE ON WOMEN & EDUCATION IN FAST-PACED AMERICAN FUTURE 

SF/NYC/LA – June 19, 2013 — Critically-acclaimed Sundance filmmaker Jennifer Phang (HALF-LIFE, Grand Jury Award: Best Narrative Feature, Gen Art ‘08) launches a Kickstarter campaign today for the follow-up feature to the short film ADVANTAGEOUS, which received an award for the Golden Reel for Excellence in Short Film from the 2013 LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. The film is slated for production this summer in Los Angeles and New York. ADVANTAGEOUS brings back the short’s star, Spirit Award-nominated actor/filmmaker Jacqueline Kim (CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES), who also co-writes and produces the feature with Phang, and marks the feature-film debut of 13-year-old Korean-American actress, Samantha Kim. ADVANTAGEOUS also showcases the return of Obie Award-winning actor James Urbaniak (THE VENTURE BROS, AMERICAN SPLENDOR) to a dramatic indie role.

Phang’s highly anticipated sophomore feature explores the question, “To what extremes would a parent go to secure her child’s future?” ADVANTAGEOUS takes place in 2041 and follows Gwen (Jacqueline Kim), a gifted spokeswoman for a bio-tech firm. Gwen has to consider an unprecedented medical procedure in order to sustain her lucrative position and pay for her daughter’s only chance at social mobility — an elite prep school.

Originally commissioned by the Independent Television Service (ITVS), ADVANTAGEOUS launched with Futurestates.tv and PBS.org as part of its innovative series of speculative independent mini-features. The short went on to screen at Tribeca, Fantastic Fest, and numerous other American festivals and recently earned the Golden Reel Award for Excellence in Short Film at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

Phang and Kim expanded the film into a feature-length script with development and pre-production support from the San Francisco Film Society’s FilmHouse Residency. Phang hopes this story resonates with women and parents: “Stories about women sacrificing and suffering for their children proliferate across generations and cultures. We didn’t want to tell a story about a guileless mother whose sole life purpose is to raise a child. Rather, we wanted to create a mother who was a savvy, accomplished figure – a woman certain of herself, even prideful – a woman aware of her station and the tenuous nature of her position in a hostile, fast-paced world.” Kim adds, “During the writing process, we examined how natural and perhaps unavoidable it is for us to repeat relationships we are born into. We looked at how Gwen, aware of her own dire situation, could nurture a self-sustaining motherhood within her own child so that — no matter what happens — her daughter can re-create that relationship with another being.”

Phang has launched her crowdfunding campaign with backer rewards that include a private dinner party, film production shadowing and consultations, the latest album from the multi-talented Jacqueline Kim, and lunch with Kim, Urbaniak, and Rex Lee (ENTOURAGE). The team hopes to raise $30,000 toward production.

To access the Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1783641494/advantageous-the-feature?ref=recently_launched

For film images:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-EepSmkncUBZkQ1MlNORHU5aWM&usp=sharing

For a .pdf of this press release:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1S8MJcS-jL4U2QzSDQ3eXZ2Z1E&usp=sharing

For additional information, please visit:
http://futurestates.tv/episodes/advantageous

ABOUT JENNIFER PHANG

Jennifer Phang is a San Francisco-based filmmaker with more than ten years of experience, currently participating in the San Francisco Film Society FilmHouse Residency Program. A Berkeley-born daughter of Chinese-Malaysian and Vietnamese heritage, Phang is a graduate of the MFA Directing program at the American Film Institute and holds a BA in Media Studies from Pomona College.

Her award-winning feature film Half-Life premiered in 2008 at Sundance and Tokyo International, screened at SXSW, and was distributed by the Sundance Channel. Jennifer was invited to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and received a Sundance Institute Annenberg Feature Film Fellowship Award, a Sundance CineReach grant, and the Tribeca L’Oreal Woman of Worth Vision Award. Jennifer was commissioned by ITVS to create the short film Advantageous, which was launched on Futurestates.tv and PBS.org. From 2012-2013, Advantageous screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, Comic Con, Fantastic Fest, and numerous other American festivals. In 2012, Jennifer also wrote and directed Glass Butterfly, a visual effects extravaganza, currently being completed with Studio 400A in San Francisco.

ABOUT JACQUELINE KIM

Jacqueline was nominated for a FIND Independent Spirit Award for her portrayal of Charlotte/Darcy in the sleeper hit Charlotte Sometimes. She helped produce and write the film and several features to follow before directing her first short. Present: a moment in the future premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival and played in Hawaii, San Francisco, and at Duke University’s Buddhism & Modernity film series. She was also invited to be a part of the inaugural cohort of the Berlin Film Festival’s Talent Campus.

Ms. Kim is most widely known for her work in Red Doors (Best Narrative Feature Award, 2006 Tribeca Film Festival), Brokedown Palace, Volcano, and Disclosure opposite Michael Douglas (her first role in Hollywood) and for playing Lao Ma in Xena: Warrior Princess and Demora Sulu in the movie Star Trek: Generations.

Jacqueline was most recently seen in the acclaimed stage adaptation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film In A Year With Thirteen Moons at Yale Repertory Theatre. Her career began on the stage, primarily at the renowned Guthrie theatre in Minneapolis where she played some of the greatest classical roles written for a young woman including Nina in Chekhov’s The Seagull and Sophocles’ Electra.

ABOUT ADVANTAGEOUS

Gwen is the spokesperson for a radical technology allowing people to overcome their natural disadvantages and begin life anew. But when her job and family are in crisis, will she undergo the procedure herself?

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