Short Stack 2006 with My Life...Disoriented

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(San Francisco)—Independent Lens will air another installment in the popular December short film showcase, SHORT STACK 2006, featuring the grand prize-winners of the first annual Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival. In addition, MY LIFE...DISORIENTED, a half-hour comedy/drama by award-winning feature director Eric Byler (Charlotte Sometimes, Americanese) looks at the life of two Asian American sisters learning to adjust to life in a new high school. 

SHORT STACK 2006 with MY LIFE...DISORIENTED will have its broadcast premiere on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Terrence Howard, on Tuesday, December 26, 2006, at 10pm (check local listings). SHORT STACK 2006 Someday Flowers Bloom (Mai Heiselmann) Paris, 1951 (Jasmin Gordon) The Zit (Mike Blum) SHORT STACK 2006 is pleased to present the grand prize-winners of the first annual Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival, along with Mike Blum's animated film THE ZIT, a very funny take on every teenager's worst nightmare. 

Independent Lens, "the film festival in your living room," now brings you "a film festival at your fingertips." A jury of independent filmmakers, interactive producers and industry executives reviewed all entries, in consultation with the Independent Lens curatorial staff, selected the winners, with the grand prize decision ending in a tie. The grand prize-winners are: SOMEDAY FLOWERS BLOOM (Mai Heiselmann), about unexpected love, country music and bicycles; and PARIS, 1951 (Jasmin Gordon) in which a long buried secret brings a daughter, mother and grandmother to the unpredictable intersection of memory and identity. 

The grand prize-winners of the first Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival both received $2500 as well a national television premiere on the PBS series. Eight other winners will be streamed online in early December, and each received $1,000. The online winners will be announced at a later date. 

The site will also feature an opportunity for viewers to select one of the online shorts for an Audience Award. MY LIFE...DISORIENTED (Eric Byler, Claire Yorita, Di Quon and Liza Suh) Life gets turned upside down for Bay Area teens Kimberlee (Di Quon from Maid in Manhattan) and Aimee (Karin Anna Cheung from Better Luck Tomorrow) when their father loses his job and relocates the family to Bakersfield. Suddenly, Kimberlee and Aimee are two of only a handful of Asian American kids at their school. Kimberlee quickly makes friends with a street-smart outcast named Tisa (Amanda Fuller), but the new friendship is strained when three "popular" girls take Kimberlee under their wing. Meanwhile, Aimee puts on a brave face for the sake of the family, but shares the cause of her secret suffering with her peculiar, mixed-race cousin, Phil (Phil Young). The cast includes Tamlyna Tomita (The Joy Luck Club), Dennis Dun (Big Trouble in Little China) and Autumn Reeser (The O.C.). 

A Five Dollar Martini Production, the film is directed by Eric Byler, written by Claire Yorita Lee, and produced by Byler, Lee, Quon and Liza Suh. The SHORT STACK companion website (www.pbs.org/independentlens/shortstack2006) features detailed information on the films and the filmmakers, a Talkback section for viewers to share their ideas and opinions, and links to the Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival site where users can view and download the two grand prize-winning shorts and eight online-only winners. 

CONTACT

Mary Lugo, 770-623-8190, lugo@negia.net
Cara White, 843-881-1480, cara.white@mac.com