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Clean Slate
TYPE: Narrative Short
GENRE: Comedy
STATUS: Post-Production
LOGLINE
Two Asian nonbinary best friends and actors must make some sacrifices when they go up for the same breakout role.
SYNOPSIS
Joyce and Josephine are BFFs and actors trying to make it big. Casting directors can’t tell them apart because they are both: Asian. Non-binary. Actors. Their friendship is tested when one gets a callback for a life-changing role. How far will they go for the promise of a career breakthrough?
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
Emily (Writer/Director), Josephine (Co-Writer/Actor), Joyce (Co-Writer/Actor), and Yoko (Producer) met through the Asian/Asian-American NYC film community. They soon became friends based on a shared sense of humor. So when Josephine and Joyce approached Emily and Yoko with the idea for CLEAN SLATE, a short comedy set in the collision of two friends and their limited career opportunities as Asian-American actors, we came together with urgency to make it.
While we have worked together in various combinations and admired each others’ work along the way, this is the first time that the four of us are working together. From our first meeting, it was obvious that this was an inevitable (and dare we say, iconic) collaboration of emerging queer Asian/Asian-American artists. Since then, we have been workshopping the script both within our team and also with the support of our generous community members who have attended our table reads.
What has resulted is a script that will shine with Emily’s sharp wit and distinct visual language. We aim to spark nuanced conversation around not only the way that many parts of the film and television industry boil human beings down to categories and looks, but also the way that we are pit against each other because of it.
We highlight the immense differences between the characters of Joyce and Josephine despite how casting directors may describe them. We explore the disgusting yet human desire and desperation that this industry can pull out of all of us, shown absurdly through Josephine’s story and what they’re willing to do to get what they want.
Inspired by films such as OFFICIAL COMPETITION, DO REVENGE, and Vin Diesel’s MULTI-FACIAL, we aim for a calm-at-first-glance yet absurd style in collaboration with our cinematographer. Ultimately, this film is a response to the way that we as artists are made to feel by an industry that sets up one single seat at the table and expects us to say “thank you.”
While Josephine’s character ultimately feels they have to sacrifice their friendship with Joyce for that single seat, the process of making the film aims to be exactly opposite that. With this project and our careers, we want to instead build our own table by working with people that we trust to see who we really are, because we can’t make films alone, and tell our stories the way that they are meant to be told.
We are offering Associate Producer credit for donations of $10,000 or more. It would be an honor to make this film with your support!
KEY CREW
Emily May Jampel - Director
Emily May Jampel (Director) is a director from O?ahu based in New York City. Her films have played at festivals around the world including Palm Springs, Aspen ShortsFest, Outfest, and Champs-Élysées, where she won the Audience Award for Best American Short Film. She was one of the 2023 recipients of NewFest’s New Voices Filmmaker Grant, as announced in The Hollywood Reporter, and her short film Lucky Fish became a viral hit on TikTok and other platforms after premiering on NOWNESS Asia and screening at the PBS Short Film Festival. Prior to directing Emily worked as a Development Executive at the production company The Department of Motion Pictures.
Joyce Keokham - Writer/Actor
Joyce Keokham (Writer/Actor) is a filmmaker and poet. Based in Chinatown, New York, their stories are rooted in community and radical self-love. Their directorial debut WYA WYD “Where You At? What You Doin?” was a recipient of the NYC Women’s Fund 2020 and winner of BRIC Arts Media’s B Free Awards 2021. In addition, Joyce’s work as an actor has screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Locarno Film Festival, and more.
Josephine Chiang - Writer/Actor
Josephine Chiang (Writer/Actor) is a film & television actor and teaching artist based in NYC. They have spent equal parts of their life in Taiwan and the US. Rooting from their ever-evolving relationship with their queerness, upbringing, and exhausting desire to continually fall in love, Josephine brings to life tenacious and vulnerable characters across their work, which have gone on to screen at festivals such as NY Shorts International Film Festival, Nitehawk Shorts Festival, SF Shorts Film Festival, as well as stream on Amazon Prime, Tubi, and more.
Yoko Kohmoto - Producer
Yoko Kohmoto (Producer) is an eldest child of immigrants, a Leo, and a producer-writer based in NYC. Her producing work has been showcased in Tribeca Film Festival, Vimeo Staff Pick, Frameline, American Black Film Festival, and CAAMFest, among others. Her priorities as a producer are to build community, ensure safety, and uplift marginalized voices. In 2024, she started an initiative to create spaces for women and nonbinary artists of color in the film industry. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s from Northwestern University.
Timothy Tau - Executive Producer
Timothy Tau (Executive Producer) is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and law professor at Oklahoma City University School of Law. His short fiction has won accolades from Hyphen magazine, Playboy, ScreenCraft, and the Scholastic Inc. Art & Writing Awards, while his screenplays have been finalists in the Zoetrope Screenplay Contest and Scriptapalooza. Timothy’s short films have been showcased at film festivals worldwide and have earned or been nominated for awards at the HollyShorts, Asians on Film, and Dragon Con film festivals. He is a graduate of the Professional Programs in Screenwriting and TV Writing from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and has taught Screenwriting at The Writer’s Center based in the Washington D.C. / Maryland area.
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