Synopsis & Film Details
Fresno natives Abel and Burlee Vang, recipients of a Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, will take the stage to show clips from their films and to talk about their award-winning screenplay, The Tiger’s Child. The drama, now in development, tells the story of a 12-year-old Hmong boy whose father is suddenly killed after being coerced into the CIA’s Secret Army in Laos. The boy must decide whether or not to follow in his father’s footsteps in order to provide for his 5-year-old brother.
Abel Vang, pictured left, earned his MFA in film production from USC. His first feature film, Nyab siab zoo (The Good-hearted Daughter), is one of the first Hmong-language movies to begin circulating in American film festivals. Burlee Vang, pictured right, earned his MFA in creative writing from Fresno State, and he co-founded the Hmong American Writers Circle. His first collection of poems, The Dead I Know: Incantation for Rebirth, was published in 2010.
John Moses, the Filmworks program director and a professor of film studies at Fresno City College, will be the moderator.