On January 28, the DGA Asian American Committee (AAC) hosted An Evening with Director Henry Chan in the Guild’s Theater Two in Los Angeles. The event featured a special screening of 100 Days, Chan’s first Chinese language film which was shot entirely in Taiwan.
100 Days tells the story of a driven executive who returns to his small Taiwanese village for the burial of his estranged mother. He balks when he learns that local tradition requires him to marry within 100 days so that her spirit can rest in peace. But things take a turn after a typhoon leaves him stranded for three days and he rekindles romance with his free-spirited childhood sweetheart who is engaged to marry someone else. 100 Days premiered at the 2013 Hawaii International Film Festival and was released theatrically nationwide in Taiwan last November.
The screening was introduced with a welcome from AAC Co-Chair Ron Dempsey. After the movie, Chan took the stage with 100 Days’ producer/co-writer Weiko Lin for a discussion about the making of the film and his career. AAC Co-Chair Emeritus Sandy Tung served as moderator of the conversation.
Henry Chan launched his career as an Emmy Award-winning editor, then made his way to the director’s chair. For six years he was the principal director on the sitcom Moesha, and has directed more than 170 episodes of network television for series such as: Whitney, Don’t Trust the B --- in Apartment 23, 10 Things I Hate About You, Scrubs and The King of Queens.
Chan is also the president of the board of Visual Communications that organizes the annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival of which the Guild is a sponsor. A founding Co-Chair of the AAC, he has been a DGA member since 1985.
The DGA Asian American Committee was created as a networking group to provide a forum for interests and issues that concern Asian-American Guild members. Through outreach efforts in the entertainment industry that emphasize career development and skills enhancement, the committee provides a variety of networking opportunities as well as screenings, seminars and discussions with industry professionals. The current AAC Co-Chairs are Kabir Akhtar, Lisa Chu and Ron Dempsey.