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CAPE Celebrates 15 years
Ritzy dresses and fancy suits danced across the red carpet, looking pretty for photographers, before proceeding to a lavishly adorned night honoring the accomplishments of Asian Pacific Americans in Entertainment.
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photo: Richard Nkansah
CAPE celebrates 15 years
Ritzy dresses and fancy suits danced across the red carpet, looking pretty for photographers, before proceeding to a lavishly adorned night honoring the accomplishments of Asian Pacific Americans in Entertainment.
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Video edited and narrated by LiMin Lam
Camera by Drue Metz
It was no ordinary Hollywood affair as guests filed into the Universal Hilton ballroom that had been stylishly turned into a large dinner gala for the 15th anniversary celebration of CAPE, the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment. At the front was an orchid-framed stage where all attention would turn once the filet mignon and dessert were devoured. It was a night to honor great accomplishments, but unlike most Hollywood nights, this night was to honor the milestones of Asian Pacific Americans who have paved the way for others like them in the media.
As Mad TV's Bobby Lee bluntly puts it, "15 years ago you'd turn on the TV and never see us," but now Asian Americans are spotted both on the big screen and in popular TV shows. With the success of Sandra Oh in Grey's Anatomy and Daniel Dae Kim in Lost, Asian Americans are finally digging their way out of previously pigeon-holed roles -- roles that once projected Asian Americans as choppy-English speakers who, most likely, knew kung-fu.
Recognizing 15 years ago that transforming the perception of Asian Americans in media was neither going to be an overnight accomplishment nor a one-man effort, CAPE founders Fritz Friedman, Wenda Fong, and Chris Lee got together to form what has now become a leading forum for Asian Americans in entertainment. Honored for spearheading CAPE and for their many years of leadership and guidance, Friedman, Fong and Lee were each recipients of the Founders Award at this year's gala. Models themselves for aspiring Asian Americans, Friedman is currently the Senior Vice president of Worldwide Publicity for Sony Pictures; Fong, FOX network's Vice President of Special and Alternative Programming; and Lee, a respected motion picture producer of the recent Superman Returns. Paving the path for others to come, the three founders have helped CAPE expand from what Lee recalls as a small handful of participants in a small Chinese restaurant, to the large network it is now. With chapters in Los Angeles and New York, CAPE provides a supportive network to foster talent within the Asian American community and aims to promote diversity in the media community at large.
Having introduced the larger community to a movie starring an all Asian American cast with 2003's Better Luck Tomorrow, director Justin Lin was honored with CAPE's 2006 New Horizons Award. Since Better Luck Tomorrow, Lin has directed Annapolis and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Taking a step back into the days of Bruce Lee with his upcoming film, Finishing the Game, Lin tells us about his intentions to create three-dimensional Asian American characters. "For me," Lin says, "Asian American film now is about empowerment."
The night also awarded George Takei, a veteran actor well known for his original role as Mr. Sulu in Star Trek, with the 2006 CAPE Pioneer Award. As Takei reminisced on stage about a moment more than four decades ago when he first wrote a check to join the Screen Actors Guild, he reminded everyone that seeing an Asian American on screen used to be a rarity.
But the times are changing according to Maggie Q, star of several Hong Kong blockbusters and who recently appeared in Mission Impossible III. "I think a lot more producers and directors in studios understand now that we're working in a world market, not just in the US, not just to specific audiences," says Maggie Q. "We're catering to a world audience.... So I think with that understanding, you're going to see more Asians in film, in good parts, in leading parts."
To encourage the very scripts that create these leading parts, CAPE also awarded two 2006 CAPE Foundation New Writers Awards to Young Il Kim and Lucy Wang, winners of CAPE's annual feature and television writers contest.
Indeed, as the night concluded, one could only be left with a feeling of awe and respect, a natural response to the remarkable achievements made by Asian Americans determined to carve a place for themselves in Hollywood.
As rewarding as it is challenging, Entourage's Rex Lee said the most important key is to believe in yourself. "As much as I did struggle, I never really got discouraged," he said, "I always thought it was going to happen."
Date Posted: 1/26/2007