There are so many great Asian Pacific Islander American stories out there that need to be told and the story of Canyon Sam is one of them. For those of you who don’t know, Canyon Sam is an accomplished performance artist, published author and passionate activist. Canyon’s book Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History received PEN America Center’s Open Book Award in 2010 and she is also one of the first Asian American lesbian activists in the world.
In the hands of Asian American director Quentin Lee (whom I would argue is one of the most prolific Asian American directors ever), the story of Canyon Sam can finally be told. Quentin said this about his newest project,
As a filmmaker, I immediately found Canyon’s life and works compelling because of her intersecting cultural, ethnic and sexual identities. Canyon has made significant contribution to both Asian American and LGBT culture and history but few people have heard of her. So I started making a documentary with Canyon.
One of the great things about our time is the fact that we can help make these movies a reality. These types of projects are exactly the types of films crowd funding sites like Kickstarter were made for. Help Quentin raise $3,800 to cover post-production costs such as color correction, sound mix, music licensing, digital outputs and festival expenses. A Woman Named Canyon Sam is scheduled to world premiere at the Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival in May.
To donate to his project or to find out more, go the official A Woman Named Canyon Sam Kickstarter page.
