The Great China Baseball Hunt
2019
The search for the ballplayer who will change everything. This is the story of Major League Baseball’s expensive push - akin to that of other American industries - to gain a foothold in the massive consumer market in China. Guiyuan “Itchy” Xu is a likable, determined 20-year-old, trying to become the first mainland-Chinese baseball player to make it to the American big leagues. He’s the first to graduate from MLB’s Development Centers/Baseball Academies in China and be drafted by a Major League Baseball club. Simon Huang travels all over China on scouting trips to the interior where baseball is alien to local culture. Unlike most Baseball Scouts, Simon has a different way of evaluating preadolescent athletes. The players who sign are offered a free high-quality education.
Through personal stories, we learn about how baseball is changing lives as well as helping to forge a new Chinese identity.
2015
My father fled the Cultural Revolution in 1966. After risking his life to get to America, he started our family in Boston. But when his restaurant went bankrupt and my mom got sick, he began to feel like he’d failed at the American Dream.
A story of migration is passed down from father to son, as we retrace the precarious steps he took in search of a better life. Ultimately asking the question, what does it mean to be both Chinese and American?
Kokoyakyu: High-School Baseball
2006
Taking Western viewers inside a never-before-seen world, "Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball" follows two schools of the 4,000 in Japan striving to make it to the National Championships at Koshien Stadium. Much more just than a game, this martial arts baseball has a deeper purpose: the forging of the spirit. Through the stories of two schools, the film brings audiences inside this closed world where an American game has become a Japanese discipline.
Take Me To The River
2004
Take Me To The River is a documentary film of the Maha Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival and pilgrimage which was the largest gathering in the history of the world. The film documents the event by immersing you in the midst of the celebration. Experience a roller coaster of emotions as obscurity and clarity flow across the crowded and dusty flood plain of Ganges and Yamuna Rivers.
Scratching Windows
2001
A glance into the underground world of NYC Graffiti in 1999.
(This was my thesis film at SVA '98)