The Film

MEMORY OF A BUTTERFLY is a love story between two young women set against the backdrop of Chinese Opera, specifically at a rehearsal space in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Mei is a Chinese American, seen only in her Chinese Opera makeup; she seems to exist in a timeless space. Nina is Caucasian, a modern California girl. Together, they feel they can take on the world; separate, they feel lost and aimless.

The visual style of this 10-minute short film, written and directed by Tin Lee and colorfully photographed by cinematographer Jason Joseffer, evokes a sense of memory and loss (check out our trailer, above), and serves as the template for a feature-length film currently in development. But first thing’s first: MEMORY OF A BUTERFLY will thrive on the festival circuit before eventually being released for purchase on iTunes and MUBI, among others.

Director's Statement

As a child, I attended a lot of Chinese opera performances with my aunt in Hong Kong. My aunt has always been a Chinese Opera enthusiast and still performs opera plays as a hobby today. Like most children, I dismissed the ancient art as monotonous plays and ghastly noise. After relocating to the Bay Area to attend college, it was not until I returned to Hong Kong and attended a performance put on by my aunt and her amateur Cantonese Opera
group did I begin to appreciate the aesthetics and subtleties of Chinese Opera and the discipline that it requires. Subtlety, the ability to illicit the grandest emotions and convey the deepest message by the smallest gestures or images, have always been what I strive for arts. Combining the medium of film and the ancient art of Chinese Opera seems to me is a perfect union.

MEMORY OF A BUTTERFLY is based on a feature script that I completed. By telling the girls' love story in the grand melodramatic tradition of Chinese Opera plays, I hope to not only help to promote the art of Chinese
Opera to a wider audience but also excite and touch all of us who have been young and in love.

Principle Cast:

Nancy Ma – Mei

Michelle Marquette-Nina

Principle Crew:

Tin Lee – Writer-Director
G. Allen Johnson – Producer
Jason Joseffer – Cinematographer
Dan Jueneman -- Gaffer
Editing, location sound – Jessica Sison
Location sound – Wayne Brogdon
Choreography -- C-One Tang, Andrea Schmidt
Andrea Schmidt – P.A.
Sound design/mixer – Andy Wiskes

Filmmakers' Bio

TIN LEE, WRITER-DIRECTOR
Tin Lee is a writer and director based in San Francisco. Born in Hong Kong, she moved to San Francisco in 2001 to study at San Francisco State University where she received a B.A. in Film Production. She went on to manage several independent movie theaters and help organize and coordinate numerous Asian and Asian American film festivals in the city.
Her short film “Coming In From The Cold” has screened at the 2009 Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, London Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Grenoble Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in France.

G. ALLEN JOHNSON, PRODUCER
G. Allen Johnson has been a journalist for 25 years, the past 15 with the San Francisco Chronicle. He has directed three films, a feature, “The Waiter” (1997), and two shorts, “Learning to Fly” and the upcoming “Sore Knuckles.” He also has produced four other short films and two upcoming feature-length documentaries: “Cowboys,” about the first unified national college basketball championship played in 1943 at the height of World War
II, and “Revolution Revisited,” a look back at the fall of Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos and the rise of People Power.

JESSICA SISON, EDITOR/LOCATION SOUND
Jessica Sison has worked as a producer, director and editor specializing in documentaries and narrative films based on true events. Her diverse work has screened in film festivals all over the world, including Tribeca, Slamdance, SXSW, and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival ; and her broadcast work has aired on Showtime, PBS, the Oxygen Channel, the WB, ImaginAsian, and The Filipino Channel.In 2007, she made her short documentary directorial debut with the award-winning “My Mother Said (Kuna Ni Nanang)” about her 99-year-old grandmother.  Jessica is currently producing and editing “Revolution Revisited,” directed by Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Kim Komenich, about the People Power revolution in the Philippines.

ANDY WISKES, SOUND DESIGN/MIXER
Andy Wiskes latest sound work was for George Lucas in the new film "Red Tails." Over his four-decade career, Andy has worked with Phil Kaufman on "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Right Stuff," Robert Zemeckis on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and on the San Francisco-shot 2009 award-winning independent film "Tenderloin."

What We Need & What You Get

MEMORY OF A BUTTERFLY is completely shot and edited (picture locked). But key finishing funds are needed, mainly for:

1) commissioning the Chinese Opera score (approx. $500),

2) sound editing and sound mixing; we strongly feel that the technical specs of this film should be top notch, and we have a good deal in place with a veteran Hollywood and independent film sound editor and mixer (approx. $1,500),

 3) color correction, a standard grading process that will allow Jason Joseffer’s carefully composed shots to pop off the screen (approx. $500),

4) Festival submission fees (approx. $500)

TOTAL: $3,000

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