We have author PM Wells today discussing the documentary MY SHANGHAI. This is something near and dear to Pipeman’s heart. We have a goal of getting the documentary done by the end of the year before the subject’s 94th Brithday.
We are running a Kickstarter campaign during the month of May to raise $20,000 for post-production services, so we are asking for everyone’s help.
Check it out!
PH Wells
FIRST STRAW FILMS
firststrawfilms.com • myshanghaifilm.com
503.267.5293
Like us on Facebook! facebook.com/MyShanghaiFilm
The drive is live! http://kck.st/122duL9
• • • • •
About MY SHANGHAI
MY SHANGHAI (Documentary) Imprisoned by the Japanese in World War II, a California woman unleashes her wit and wisdom on love, loss, art, and the art of survival.
On Memorial Day, 2011, Virginia McCutcheon was featured on the front page of the San Luis Obispo Tribune. The headline read: “POW of the Japanese.” She became an instant local celebrity as one of the last surviving internees of Lunghwa Camp in China during World War II. This is the same camp J.G. Ballard wrote about in “Empire of the Sun.” The camp experience is the center of the documentary, but Shanghai, “the Paris of the Orient,” is where it all began. In interviews over several days in the past year, Virginia, now age 93, opens up about her life, her family, her loves and losses, more than she ever thought she could.
Virginia is British and has lived all over the world, even in postwar Japan. She still tears up when she remembers the American bombers flying over the camp, signalling that the end of the war was at hand, and the GIs who came to free them. She met her husband-to-be in camp, an unlikely place for romance. They married soon after the war and eventually moved to California. Today Virginia is still the strong center of her family and is able to help them through their own trials. You’ll meet them in the film as well.
MY SHANGHAI is in postproduction. Location filming and family interviews were shot in June, 2012 and April, 2013 in California. P.H. Wells and co-writer Joan Macbeth are shaping a script for an hour-long documentary intended for film festivals, cable and public TV, DVDs and streaming.
About THE FILMMAKERS
On the way to marketing her scripts to Hollywood, P.H. Wells discovered documentary storytelling and a love of editing. She created First Straw Films in 2011 to tell the uncommon stories of people we meet every day. Credits include A Rendezvous (2012) and Les Voyageurs Sans Trace (in production by NW Documentary).
Joining her as Associate Producer and Co-Writer is award-winning screenwriter Joan Macbeth. Currently Joan is adapting Jennie Shortridge’s novel, When She Flew, for LA producer Michael Gruskoff (My Favorite Year, Young Frankenstein). Behind the camera, Ron Macbeth was co-founder of IT Online, one of the first Internet casting websites, and Interface Productions in Vancouver, B.C.
Texas native Jonathan Geer will compose the original score for MY SHANGHAI. Jonathan’s music has been heard on American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Access Hollywood and many other shows. He has has composed soundtracks for games on Mac, PC, Nintendo DS and iPhone/iPad, and performs regularly with the Austin Piazzolla Quintet and Waterloo Trio.