and who I am in all of this?

A background character? An illustrator? A wife and mother? A daughter of my own watery homeland. A reader, watcher, listener. Someone with endless questions and a willingness to wait?
This process has been unlike any other (and yes, I have been pregnant and given birth during the productions).  I have been making little illustrated books since I was a child, three of which have been published and recognised in various ways, thousands of which were collaborations with the stories of others and encouraged self reflection and celebration. This has been my most distant work (or so it seems at 9:22 which might as well be 3:00 a.m. as I wake and sleep to nurse, change diapers, shake off nightmares, and feel the world getting bigger and smaller with the in breaths and out breaths of my husband and child). So very much is not in these pages, so very much has come about because of what these pages would hold.  Let there be background music and let it bring joy. Stories do not end, we just run out of pages,

or perhaps the stories themselves leave the pages altogether, to live in our posture, our hands and our mouths. The story of who I am is also woven into the work we have done together.

Titles?

So we need a cover and title...Hmm. Youme thinks it needs to be basic in an elemental kind of way and not too complicated. Something that just states whatever it wants to say, I suppose. I see her point. It's a good point. I agree. But we still need ideas.

Shall we make a title in connection to the documentary Nuoc? Shall we work with water? Reflections? Not sure.  I had a concept with mirrors but now I don't think it'll work well. Perhaps it will be better if we look at the overall picture and perhaps some inspiration will come up to tie everything up?

Update

Hello!

We apologize for the lack of recent posts. Life has gotten super busy for everyone. Youme and Hai are mostly done with their pictures. Khanh is still working painfully. We've shared our pictures and have general texts and storyline down. Hai and Youme have a title page for their story, which is lovely. We've got another printer under consideration.

Next scheduled meeting was moved to this coming Friday. Previously, instead of meeting, we emailed updates. Youme has gone out of town with Song. So Hai and Khanh will have a Comic Meeting this Thursday (before the meeting with the Mentor).

That's about it so far. So there isn't much to update on, per say...


Take care,
Khanh

Falling Petals

We are holding +2 reservations for the first two interested for http://erasingthedistance.blogspot.com/2010/08/falling-petals.html Friday, March 4th!

Credit Update

Prof. G emailed and said credits should read for the grant:

"This project is supported by a student grant from the UIC Asian American
and Native American Pacific Islander Students' Educational Engagement
Initiative, which is fully funded by the U.S. Department of Education."

Much thanks,
-KT

Meeting Updates

So I had typed meeting recaps for the last three meetings we had, but my laptop effectively crashed (to spite me, of course) and I've lost it.

The 3 meetings are:
Friday 2/4-Mentor Meeting (MM) with Prof. G.
Friday 2/4-Comic Meeting (CM) with Khanh, Youme, and Hai (right after the MM)
Thursday 2/10-CM with Khanh and Youme

Prof. G. sent notes she had for the MM so I'll simply repost that here:
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MM Recap:

Hi everyone,

Thanks for a good meeting and for sharing the scrapbook and the sketches.
They are fabulous! Youme--thanks for the cookies as well (the ginger with
rosemary was my favorite!). Also, I will make sure to give Prof. S the copy
you gave her of Mali Under the Sky! She will be excited.

Just to touch base on what we discussed and also what Prof. S and I can
follow up on:

1) IRB: re: documentary and also campus policy on drawing/sketching
various sites on campus (we know that photography and filming is
prohibited on some campus sites but we don't know if this applies to
drawings).

2) What is the appropriate "credit" line on the film to properly
acknowledge the grant funding?

3) Policy on selling the novella AFTER the expo event

4) Date and format of the expo which we will bring up with ASAM faculty as
we plan the event--you suggested having different pre-scheduled time slots
for viewing the film. You prefer having at least 25 minutes to view the
film (current running time is 30 min). You will all be available to
introduce the film prior to viewing it as well as answer questions from
the viewers. We also talked about the possibility of having booths where
the film can be shown simultaneously while  other poster presentations are
displayed.

5) Grant disbursement --given that Hai is ineligible to receive his
portion of the grant funding per UIC's "Off Term Policy," I have told you
all that this does not change the amount you will receive as a team (i.e.,
you will still get the $1000). What this would mean is that the funds will
be disbursed between Khanh and Bing at $500 each.  However, I encourage
you all to  think of ways to spend the money equitably among the three of
you.

Ok, we will be in touch with you on answers to these questions.

Have a great weekend,

Prof G

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CM 2/4 Recap:
So Khanh and Hai went back to the Nguyen's place to work on the comic after the meeting (with the brownies bootie courtesy of Prof. G).
We discussed storyline and transition. Made a rough book according to what the comic would look like. Made little notes on each blank page to remember what we wanted to put there. Some pages had sketches and text already. Also discussed last page with 3 airplanes and a phoenix (for rebirth) contrail image possibility. Trying to figure out how that would work.
Didn't really draw. Talked specs and decided on a smaller size: 7" by 10".
Talked about printers some more.
Meeting decided for next Thursday.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CM 2/10 Recap:
Note: Finally finished the paperwork for the grant and turned it in before going to Youme's.
Only Youme was at home when Khanh came over to work on the comic. We tried to sketch. But admittedly I (i.e. Khanh) was restless and tried that failure attempt to update the blog on the comic's progress and write out the text for the comic first (which will make drawing the pictures easier). Youme drew some and she had a lot of drawings done already.
Added in prologue (may be printed in blue coloring?) to the comic and reorganized some things. Discussed possibility of have separate title pages for the two stories (have to wait for Hai's return to discuss further). Discussed possible titles:

• Water Dreams (good tie-in to Nuoc, but it doesn't fit the mood of the comic well)
• Contrails (lots of word play and meaning here)
• Con as in "conflict" of identity, narration, perspective, prejudice, etc. 
• but also con as in "convene", a sense of togetherness 
• Trails can be respelled as "trials" as in the trials of being Asian American and trying to define self through that lens or even the attempt to reject that lens
• Trails as in "trails", a path or tracks left by Hai and Khanh in their life and how they're retracing those trails now to add to the Asian American dialogue.
• Group will think of other possibilities

Discussed printers. High possibility of going with Comet Press on Halsted and Van Buren. Youme called them and they said they'll send specs and pricing info to us. (Thanks Youme). I've noted down the address and will be making a visit to them next week to see if they have printing samples to look at and maybe take home to share with everyone.
...that's about it...hopefully. We may not meet next week, depending on midterm constrictions. But midterms may be over by Wednesday night and leaving Thursday open as usual. Will touch back with Youme on that.
Meanwhile, we plan to have many more drawings and all the text finished by next Thursday (meeting or not).
Specs will definitely be 7" by 10".




Good day all,
KT

Update on legal issues.

After worrying about all the faces that were shown in the film as well as issues of copyright, etc., I finally did some research and have found some promising information.

Specifically, we had a plethora of photographs displaying not only young Khanh and young Hai but also their parents, their siblings, their foster parents, and their foster siblings. We've obtained the signatures of Youme, Hai, Khanh, and her family, but had no luck with any of the subjects peopling Hai's scrapbook photographs shown in the documentary. Fearful of being sued (for what little money I have), I read up on this issue and found that we are safe from using these photographs still.

The law that pertains to this issue is the "right of publicity," which isn't a federal but a state law. In Illinois, according to rightofpublicity.com, section 1075/10 states that "the right to control and to choose whether and how to use an individual’s identity for commercial purposes is recognized as each individual’s right of publicity."

The key phrase here is "commercial purposes." Section 5 of the act defines "commercial purposes as "the public use or holding out of an individual’s identity (i) on or in connection with the offering for sale or sale of a product, merchandise, goods, or services; (ii) for purposes of advertising or promoting products, merchandise, goods, or services; or (iii) for the purpose of fundraising.
"Identity" means any attribute of an individual that serves to identify that individual to an ordinary, reasonable viewer or listener, including but not limited to (i) name, (ii) signature, (iii) photograph, (iv) image, (v) likeness, or (vi) voice."

Now, because Nuoc is not involved in selling, offering, or endorsing any products or services, the film is far from having a commercial purpose.

To further distance Nuoc from anything that Act 1075 covers, I will list what the act DOES NOT cover:

"(1) use of an individual’s identity in an attempt to portray, describe, or impersonate that individual in a live performance, a single and original work of fine art, play, book, article, musical work, film, radio, television, or other audio, visual, or audio-visual work, provided that the performance, work, play, book, article, or film does not constitute in and of itself a commercial advertisement for a product, merchandise, goods, or services;
(2) use of an individual’s identity for non-commercial purposes, including any news, public affairs, or sports broadcast or account, or any political campaign;"

This reading of the actual Illinois common law for rights of publicity defines Nuoc as exempt from any individual attempting to sue us for commercially exploiting their image. Not mentioning any of their names also helps our cause, as the story is really about Hai and Khanh. The full law can be found here: http://rightofpublicity.com/statutes/illinios

Also, a press release by Center for Social Media, an organization that helps in particular documentary filmmakers, states that "For most documentary projects, filmmakers don’t have to be concerned about the
so-called “right of publicity” that exists under some state laws. The cases (and
sometimes the statutes themselves) make it clear that the right bars only the
commercial exploitation of celebrities’ “persona,” and First Amendment-
protected expressive uses are specifically exempted."

Their website is: http://centerforsocialmedia.org/ and the press release can be downloaded here: http://centerforsocialmedia.org/sites/default/files/free_use_1.pdf

I'm still doing some research regarding that Vietnamese song that is used at the beginning of the documentary and will update you guys more.

Enjoy the weekend!