The Staffa Corner
Greg Staffa created The Staffa Corner Podcast to provide listeners with a Staffatarian look at entertainment and life. Focusing on honest conversation, Staffa’s podcast is an appreciation of those he finds interesting in and out of television and film.The journey taken by Staffa in the industry started more than 8 years ago writing for Your Entertainment Corner. Motivated by the desire to become more knowledgeable in his field, he leveraged his learned and acquired knowledge and skills and earned himself the opportunity to interview celebrities such as Pierce Brosnan, Ethan Hawke, Martin Freeman and Seth Rogan among others. Setting up his own in home studio, Staffa is branching out into podcasting while continuing to write for YEC. An unsung hero recognized by The St. Cloud Times in 2013, and a Staffatarian to the core, Staffa spent several months in 2010 on a 48-state road trip transforming the perception of homelessness. During this time, he handed out over 1,000 pairs of socks and hundreds of cups of coffee to the homeless, before he finally settling down in St Cloud Minnesota. By July 2020 Staffa’s journey came full circle having bought a home. To his credit, he still finds time to help others. Staffa is able to build and maintain incredible working relationships, an attribute that has contributed greatly to his success. Consequently, actors, writers and directors among other TV/film stars are always open to guest. He has covered red carpet premieres for films like Stuber and Booksmart among other star studded TV premieres.
The Staffa Corner
From Short Films To Big Dreams: Nuk Suwanchote On Craft, Culture, And Grit
A camera, a tight-knit family, and an endless appetite for story, that’s where Nuk Suwanchote's filmmaking journey begins. From immigrant roots and long hours spent immersed in movies to building a career across live events, commercials, and narrative projects, Nuk shares how curiosity, craft, and community shaped his voice. The heart of our talk centers on the hard truths of the industry: the hidden chasm between short films and features, the new pressures of streaming and AI, and the extra weight many filmmakers of color carry as they navigate representation and expectation.
We dig into An Old Friend, a whimsical, emotional short about an imaginary friend who returns to find his “child” is now a 90-year-old man on his deathbed. With Tom Skerritt and Jason Faunt bringing depth and warmth, Nook channels the spirit of Big Fish while carving out a story that feels universal and deeply personal at once. He breaks down the poster’s inspiration, the film’s tone, and how he frames magical realism to reach audiences beyond any single identity label.
We also spotlight Thai Guys, an Asian American sketch comedy series that flips stereotypes through cinematic sketches in the vein of SNL and Key & Peele. Nuk explains why comedy is the best delivery system for social truth, how demand for Asian-led stories outpaces supply, and what it would look like to greenlight smarter if he ran a studio.
Join us for a candid, energizing conversation packed with craft insights, festival wisdom, and a resilient philosophy: keep making, keep learning, keep going. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review. What part should we explore next?
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You're listening to the Staffa Corner Podcast, a Staffatarian look at entertainment and life with your host, Greg Staffa. My guest this episode is Emmy Award-winning Thai American filmmaker Nook Schuanchot. Thank you for joining us today. Hello, it's my pleasure to be here. So you are known for your short films like Children of War and The Hotfoot. But we're here to talk especially today about a new short that is making the film festival circuit called An Old Friend. But tell us a little bit about first, what about your upbringing? What got you started in filmmaking?
SPEAKER_00:My parents brought me and my brothers here from Thailand when I was two years old. And it was fairly difficult for them to adjust having a different language, different culture. So they worked very difficult manual labor jobs. And while they did that, we were at home watching film and television. We didn't have sports, we didn't have daycare, we didn't have programs and stuff. And so me and my brothers, we were absolutely just enamored with films uh and TV shows. It felt like we were transported to a different world. I mean, all I can remember is watching uh, you know, all sorts of movies, Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter. And it just felt so integral to my upbringing that when my mom had given us a digital camera, uh, I was taking photos and videos. And my older brother was like, you know, you can like make movies that we watch with that camera. And I was like, are you serious right now? And I started making little home videos. And that was when I was 11 years old. And ever since then, I never stopped making films. And when I graduated high school, went to college, I was like, hey, this is probably what I'm I'm gonna do with my life. And it was the one thing that we had done for so many years that it was what we were good at. And so we did, you know, live events, small business commercials, and moved over to agency work, TV commercials, and just more recently narrative stuff, uh, feature documentaries, feature TVs, a couple feature narratives as well. And so that's basically been the journey as of late, um, but it's been a long one that I've thoroughly enjoyed.
SPEAKER_01:And I I don't mean to put words in your mouth or anything like that, but one of the things I've found is a lot of young people that discover acting and filmmaking come from a home where they don't necessarily feel like they fit in to the surrounding area, whether it be culturally or just the way that they were born or the way that they view life, and they found that acting and filmmaking can be kind of escape from their own reality. Was that a part of it, or was it just the joy of you and your brother having a little bit of fun and that developed into something?
SPEAKER_00:So I absolutely totally agree with what you're saying. Filmmaking is its own community, its own culture that kind of transcends color, um, geography. And we absolutely develop this community culture in the Seattle area that helped escape kind of the confines of you know discrimination, race, and and and other things like that. Because I feel as though I didn't know it in the beginning, but I started to encounter it as the journey came along that filmmakers, or at least us as filmmakers, we were a little different than the other kids. And it didn't necessarily have to do with just the fact that we're filmmakers, it was the fact to do with the race, the culture, the um how we looked. And we quickly realized that there wasn't a lot of people like us on screen, and that actually was a hurdle that we encountered very early on, but then also became a motivation basically right off the bat, right? Like, oh, there's no Thai Americans on screen. There's very few Asian Americans, especially males, on in Hollywood back then and even now, uh, which is fascinating. And so we were like, okay, well, let's overcome that. That's uh what we need to address. And so it quickly became part of our mission. But it's funny because in the beginning we didn't recognize it uh purely because we were enjoying it so much, but now more than ever, we recognize that it is uh an aspect of filmmaking that makes it both difficult and gives us something to overcome. So I I there's a uh beauty in that in adversity, and that definitely is uh very true.
SPEAKER_01:And is that an unfair burden that we put on filmmakers like yourself? I mean, Steven Spielberg doesn't have to worry about representing his culture or representing his heritage, he just is enjoying making films that he he loves. And there should be a point where you're making films. I mean, I saw the trailer for an old friend, and that doesn't say I mean that doesn't scream anything cultural. It just it's it's a it looks like a fun, you know, family you know short. So is that an unfair burden that we put on you where you have to represent your culture as well as making these films where you should just be able to make the films that you're passionate about? Or is it something that you welcome to be able to you know incorporate your heritage into some of the filmmaking that you do?
SPEAKER_00:I think it could be seen in more ways than one. However, I very much appreciate you recognizing that uh entirely. I welcome adversity. I was an athlete in college. Uh, I went to nationals, internationals for weightlifting, and it was always very, very difficult. But that was part of the challenge. That's what you signed up for. However, I do believe in this case, being a person of color and a certain culture and needing to represent that or at least address it uh feels like it is a weight that others don't have to carry. For some people, uh, I think it would be difficult and feels unfair. Uh, however, for myself, I welcomed it because I felt like it was a challenge that I wanted to overcome. And I found it more like, okay, well, if it's a difficult thing we have to deal with, uh challenge accepted, let's do this, let's overcome this, let's represent. Uh, I find it it makes it more worthwhile. However, I actually work with a lot of black filmmakers, uh, and it's never, almost never, not addressed that we're working on a black film for black communities, for black filmmakers, and they embrace it like I embrace being Thai. However, like you said, I also find that it's not something that they can ignore, you know. Um, and it is does feel unfair for black filmmakers to be uh for me to notice that it feels like black filmmakers have to address that. And like you said, an old friend is not cultural in any in any large way. It is just a film, family film that's a drama and a fantasy as well, because I wanted to showcase our ability to tell stories, a universal story, uh any culture and or society can appreciate. So while having to address my own culture and represent, I did it separately uh in a uh Asian American sketch comedy show called Tie Guys. So in I was doing that in tandem. So I was able to not quite put so much effort uh in an old friend while doing that.
SPEAKER_01:And that's something that's the project that you have coming up. We'll get a little bit more into Tie Guys in a bit here. I don't want to keep on harping or sounding negative because I don't I don't mean for the questions to be negative, but one of the things that I've found in attending, like I've gone to South by Southwest about seven years now, and one of the things that I have found is they do a great job at promoting women directors and minority directors for these film festivals, but there seems to be this feeling that they do great, they win awards. You've won some awards with some of the shorts that you've done. How do you go then making that next steep and next step into something more featured films? Is there something that you feel like a wall, or is it your journey? You're not ready to go there yet? It what's the what's the path and why are we seeing more of these award-winning filmmakers that are winning these shorts taking that leap into major, you know, uh major films?
SPEAKER_00:You know, I think that's a great question. Uh, I could talk really long about it, but the reality is a short film to me, it feels like an indicator whether you can produce films well, period. And so there's this innate wall or barrier between short films and feature films because a feature film is so large in comparison to a short film. I remember my buddy told me this quote, and I uh I was like, oh man, that's uh that's very fascinating. He said, Nuke, uh I've made so many shorts that are like 10, 15 minutes long, and I got support, investors, and enough funding to make a feature. And so I was like, okay, why not make a feature? It's like six shorts, right? It's like six times harder. And he said, No, Nuke, it is like a hundred times harder. And I was like, oh, wow, really? And he said, Yeah. And so that is the ceiling that you have to break through if you're a short film filmmaker and want to be a feature-length filmmaker. I kind of recognized this when we were going through the film festival circuit that not everybody breaks into features because it is just a next level commitment, right? You can make a short film and do really well, even if you haven't done film for very long, if you get the right, the right crew to help you for a couple days, a week, uh, maybe even a weekend. But that is not going to be happening for a feature. For a feature, you're going to have to be committed for a long time. You have to figure out marketing, distribution, having not necessarily celebrities, but people with a name attached is very significant to being able to make the film successful if you're going to sell it. And there's just so much more to it. However, I think uh film festival circuits and doing well in a short film, uh winning awards is a part of getting to the next level, taking the next step. So I feel like it's important to get to the next level. However, getting to the next level is not guaranteed from making the short film. And yeah, that's a really great question. Because I always recognize that too, as we were watching films. Are these guys going to make more shorts or are going to they're going to make a feature? And that is something me and my group of talented artists uh plan on doing. We're already in the midst of it. Tie Guys, which is a TV show, is kind of like the next step of that, right? Because it's like TV uh is like shorter than films, so it's like a bunch of short films. And yeah, it's it's been a very pretty, fairly smooth transition.
SPEAKER_01:Sure. And last question along this kind of line is you're it's it's safe to say that you're an up-and-coming filmmaker, you're you're still relatively new into this, uh, you're winning some awards with your shorts, you have a a wide future ahead of you. I remember, I believe it was Matt Damon had an interview where he talked about how in the days of like VHS and and and DVDs, he could make a film like We Bought a Zoo, and it wouldn't necessarily do great in the theaters, but the DVDs would live on and they would make money that way, which allowed him then to do like a born film, which would make you know bunches of money. And so the DVD releases and the the VHS tapes allowed smaller films to be somewhat profitable over time. As a young and upcoming filmmaker, is there a worry now that now that everything is going to streaming and there's so many different platforms to have the media, but there isn't that revenue stream like DVDs and stuff like that that you could have counted on? Is there a fear that some of these smaller directors just might be swollen up?
SPEAKER_00:I absolutely believe there is a fear, and I can agree with everything you're saying in that streaming, social media, all of these new avenues for filmmaking tend to make it more difficult and competitive for up-and-coming young filmmakers to succeed. Um, just going to be honest in that we're all concerned about the future in so many ways. There's AI, you know, there's more filmmakers, it's more competitive. Um, there was a quote uh about Hollywood, and it was that they Hollywood lost 40,000 job jobs. And I was like, man, if you thought it was competitive, then now there's 40,000 more people in uh that you're competing against in the same industry that was already difficult. And however, like I said, I tend to welcome adversity because I think that's a show of a character, and this is the circumstances that we are given. This is the world that we live in. AI is here no matter what you know think or hope. And you have to recognize that and deal with it no matter what, like like I did in sports. Okay, what this is what's in front of me. This is what I have to deal with. It you can't hope or wish it away. So you have to face it for face value. And the beauty of it is that it is more competitive. There's more noise you're gonna have to cut through. It is more difficult to be heard, it's more difficult to make money. Uh, the expectation for films is so much higher. Doing well in a short film won't guarantee your success, which is in this case is a reality. We didn't get a huge deal or anything like that. I didn't get a huge sales rep or an agent uh I heard from other filmmakers who didn't quite do even as much as we did. However, you also have to recognize the pros to these cons. Well, there's AI. We have to learn how to use it. There's more accessibility technology. Well, that's a there's a beauty to that as well. We we use it and have access to that technology, embrace it. And so despite it being harder, we also have to recognize in ways that it it's it's easier and just have to deal with the circumstances that we have, you know. Who knows how much longer, uh how much time we have left thanks to AI and all the crazy things that are going on in this world. I now just realize, okay, well, now I just gotta run even faster. Uh and that's the only thing I can do.
SPEAKER_01:I think short films to many is kind of blown off. They're kind of brushed aside as cute little projects, but they're not taken seriously. And I think over the last few years, as more cities are embracing like film festivals and starting their own little things, I think short films are becoming more and more popular. Uh, as a young director, is a short film route one that you would suggest? I mean, you kind of compared it to the feature films where it's almost like you have to show that you can build a house before you can show that you can build a skyscraper. Is the the short film route the route that you would suggest to other people? What advice would you have in in when a director is looking for his path? Is short film the way to do it?
SPEAKER_00:I do believe short films is the way to go. I think a short film is a perfect calling card for an artist, uh filmmaker, an actor. In my opinion, um my thought process is like, well, what else are you gonna do? You're gonna just jump straight into a feature. If you've never made a feature and mortgage your house, risk everything, years of your life. You're not, you don't know how to write, you don't know how to act, you don't know how to direct. You should do the short film route to learn how to walk before you run. And that's how I see it. Even if people think, oh, that's cute. I don't take necessarily take it serious. Well, as the artist, as an athlete, you want to do amateur boxing before you go straight into professional boxing, or you're just gonna get destroyed, honestly. And success is continuing to be on the journey, in my opinion. Success is continuing to compete, to produce, to make films. That's the win. The journey is the win. Then continuing that journey is what matters. And continuing to make films after you've made your first one, your second one, your third one, your fourth one, your fifth one, sixth, twentieth, to me is success. You continue to win. And in time, you should, if you want to graduate to feature-length films or television. And I don't think there's any way to get started without risking everything uh unless you have uh, you know, a good circumstance in life, which most people don't, you don't want to risk everything jumping into TV or features. I've seen people do that before where they've uh dropped uh$100,000 on a feature and they had never made a film before and it doesn't do well, and it's just a you know big. Jammerrage the money. And I was like, oh man, that's such a risk. Uh yeah, feature a short may not yield the reward or the outcomes that you may hope uh financially, but at least it indicates you can do it, at least you're continuing to do it, at least other people meet up with you, talk to you, you know, see that you're capable. And I would say short films absolutely have allowed me to work at the next level in filmmaking. Uh, I have shot, I think, about three features at this point. Three of them as DP, one of them as kind of like a co-director uh situation. And I don't, there's no way you could deny that me making my short films got me in those positions. So I think it's a necessary step to feature in television.
SPEAKER_01:You have old friend out now, which is making the rounds. Tell us a little bit about that. It looks kind of like a whimsical fantasy. I thought the poster drew from a film, and I'm curious to see where you drew the poster from and if it would matches what I'm thinking. But where did you get the idea for the poster? And tell us a little bit about the film.
SPEAKER_00:An old friend is about an imaginary friend who finds out his sole purpose is to bring happiness to his child, only to find out his child is a 90-year-old man on his deathbed. That 90-year-old man is Tom Scared from Top Gun, and the imaginary friend is the Red Power Ranger from Power Ranger's Time Force, Jason Faunt. And the poster and the inspiration or the vibe that I was trying to emulate was of a, in my opinion, underrated early 2000s, late 2000s film called Big Fish. I absolutely love that film. I thought it was so whimsical, yet it hit the heart so deeply that I was like, wow, this is incredible. Like my whole life can flash before my eyes, but it's a whole adventure and it can be be seen a certain way. And it it can be larger than life if I choose for it to be. And so an old friend is kind of like a love letter to Big Fish. Um, but there's also more inspirations to it, but that's the one that stood out to me the most. And when we were designing the poster with my buddy RJ Hansen, I was like, hey man, take a look at Big Fish. That's the vibe we're going. Although we were lit listening to Little Miss Sunshine uh soundtrack as inspiration. Big Fish narratively was where we were coming from.
SPEAKER_01:All right, that is what I was assuming, but I didn't want to say it until you said it. I'm a big fish fan. In fact, the set is still there. The set for the the town community is still there. You can go see it. It's a really weird situation. Just a quick side note: you go to this island that's well, there's a bridge that goes to this island. You have to pick up a phone, and the person answers it, he gives you the security code and says five dollars. And there's a camera, and you put your five dollars in the thing, and he gives you the security code. So you go through, and there's no one there on this island except a bunch of goats, and the town is still there, it's like falling apart and everything like that. But it's basically just you on the set of big fish, the little archway where all the shoes are that's still there, the whole community is there, it's all falling apart. But it's kind of if you're a fan of the film, something to check out. But I saw the poster, I thought that's big fish, it was inspired by big fish. I'm gonna ask him, but I'm not gonna tell him what I think it is. I want to see if that was with you. Um, we do have Jason coming up next on this episode. So is there anything I should ask Jason that uh not gotcha, but is there anything you suggest I should ask Jason?
SPEAKER_00:I think you're going to get him to talk about this no matter how you or or what, but he will talk about the inspiration for his role, and it is very deep and is straight from the heart and is very genuine. So, you know, you you I think a good question would be to ask about his inspiration for his character and his performance, but uh I'm pretty sure he'll uh he'll talk about it uh regardless because he he talks about it every single interview, rightfully so. It is very, very good um inspiration. Yeah, yeah. Um I would uh I something now that you ask me, now that you ask me, I would I would be curious to ask him, or if you would ask him, is is there any other film film that was an inspiration for his performance? Because he does an incredible performance in the film.
SPEAKER_01:Nice. I will ask him that. So the next do you have coming up is the, as you mentioned, the the project Tie Guys. Tell us a little bit about that, what whatever you're able to give away or to talk about.
SPEAKER_00:Tie Guys is an Asian American sketch comedy show that flips cultural stereotypes on their silly little heads. Uh, it is in the vein of SNL, mad TV, Ian Peel, in that we do cinematic sketch comedies. So what's funny is we talked about short films. It feels like a bunch of short films in a TV format, and they're anthological, so they don't necessarily have anything to do with each other. However, they hit the nail on the head when it comes to cultural stereotypes, you know, our different societies, how people see each other, especially Asian Americans in uh in America, obviously. But we hit on and pay homage to all sorts of films while addressing social commentary in different ways through entertainment and comedy, because that's the best way to do it. If you were to, when you lecture people directly, they tend to have a difficult time absorbing the message. Uh but when you do it in an entertaining, comedic way, they're able to absorb the message while enjoying it, while laughing, and almost like absorb it directly to the heart and to the brain. And so that's why we decided to do Thai Guys, because we had so much to say, but we didn't want to just lecture like a professor. Uh, and we wanted everybody to have uh some sort of introspective on what it's like to be a person of color in America, specifically due the point of view of an Asian American person. That's myself and my brother and a couple of the other uh cast uh crew. Uh we double up as cast and crew because our experience is not one without adversity, and and one with uh probably a little bit more adversity than uh others. I I I mentioned, I touched upon uh black filmmakers, uh African American filmmakers have their own hurdles to overcome, and theirs is very, very extreme. It's a lot. It's not just something that you brush off and you don't mention. It is something everyone has to deal with. And being Asian American, it's not quite as in your face poignant. Uh however, it it is fascinating because it's so bizarre, I'd say. And that it lends to the charm of it that people love Asian-centric uh content, whether that's TV, that's movies, that's music, there's so much, but yet there's such a deficit in supply in America. It's like, yo, what is going on here? Right? It is the demand is so high. Uh Squid Game was the number one TV show in every country around the world. It was one of the first times that happened from Netflix. And you can't ignore that. K-pop Demon Hunters, same thing this year, absolutely killed it. Demon Slayer absolutely killed it, and it's clear that you know there's a demand for it. Yet, for whatever reason in Hollywood, there's a huge lack of supply of it. So then I was like, yo, like that's it's it's adversity and it's unfair. But let's address it, let's attack that, attack it from that angle. And there's a uh a charm to it, I think, because there's such a lack of supply that makes what we are gonna provide unique and stand out.
SPEAKER_01:Is it and you kind of hinted that you don't know the answer, so it's a little bit unfair question, but is it the lack of quality put out there that there aren't more people like you, or there aren't more people creating film like Crazy Rich Asians did really well? Is it the lack of pumping out enough quality out there that people are demanding it? Or do you think it's more of a racial thing? Is it more of a uh dollars and cents thing? Is it is there and again, I don't want to put you too much on the spot because I know you said you know who knows why, but I think some of that was facetious. Is it you know, is it supply versus demand? Is it just not enough there? Is it that you feel like it's just not being accepted? I mean, clearly it's being accepted if they're doing that well in Squid Games and Crazy. I mean, it wasn't just Asians that saw those things. It what is some of the underlying problems that that if you were the head of a studio, what would you do to create less of a log jam?
SPEAKER_00:What's fascinating is it's a combination of all that. It absolutely has to do with racial circumstances, but it also has to do with the amount of talent. And not that there's a lack of amount of talent, but there's those two things mainly that are uh causing these issues. As we all know, Asians, Asian Americans, they tend to want their children to be doctors, lawyers, um, business owners, entrepreneurs, work in the engineer tech field. And so there isn't as many filmmakers that are Asian because of that, right? There is an abundance of a certain demographic uh in football and in Asians, there's next to none, right? But that's because there's this cultural lack of supply, uh, which is one point. But then the second point that that combats the two into this crazy concoction is that there is a racial aspect to filmmaking visually, where when you write a story or you make a film, you envision your character a certain kind of way. And because there's a lack of Asian filmmakers, Asian Americans at the least, um, here, the stories that are being written or that are being filmed or that being told uh do not have Asian Americans in mind, and it is absolutely a racial, you know, not what's the word? There's absolutely a racial aspect to casting and filmmaking where filmmakers, when they envision a story, they want them to look a certain kind of a way, be a certain race. And the reality is most of the time it's not Asian appearing individuals. That's just the truth. And so, on top of, hey, these stories don't necessarily feature or highlight Asians, and there's not a lot of Asians making films in America. Uh, you now have this crazy mixture of low supply and low demand in the casting aspect of filmmaking, despite the huge demand of the overall product itself. People want more Asian-centric TV, Asian-centric movies. Changqi did in one of one of the last successful Marvel films, more successful. As you mentioned, Crazy Rich Asians did really, really well. However, not that many projects are being made because of those reasons, in my opinion. And so it kind of gives me room or an opportunity to fill that demand. Although I would say it's not something that is uh easily ignored while filmmaking because or in acting as well, when I audition, there are no roles designed for me, or people are looking out directly for a person of my demographic or visuals. So I almost know I'm not gonna get those auditions. And uh, I think I've only done like two auditions where like I knew I could do well or compete, but then when I do the auditions, you're competing against hundreds of other people. Actually, I auditioned for Shang-Chi, and there's thousands of other people, and the likeness that you'll get it is so slim, and the opportunity was so rare. That's why I decided to do Thai Guys and do it myself.
SPEAKER_01:It's just weird because Hollywood, above everything, has always focused itself on the money, and you would think with like Crazy Rich Asians and all the other stuff that you mentioned being successful with Squid Games, that someone would kind of have the light bulb moment going, Wow, there's a market for this somewhere. And you would think that regards of any racial or or you know any biases or stuff like that, and I I don't really think it's biases because you can't have crazy rich agents doing as well as they do, and squid games do really well as they do, and then go, well, there's a racial element that holds us back. I I think some of it is if you put quality out there, you know, it'll find a way through any kind of racial. I I'm not gonna there's an element there, but I think a lot of it is just quality versus, but I think Hollywood, who loves to look for the money, you would think someone would have that that moment where they go, Well, wait a minute, you know, these are doing very successful, why aren't we doing more of these and exploring that that market? So it's kind of weird to hear that they're not, and so it's kind of frustrating. If Steven Spielberg goes and sees an old friend, he went to a film festival, saw an old friend, and said, Wow, nook, I really like your your vision and stuff like that. I want to give you Steven Spielberg money. Let's tell a story that's important to you. What kind of film, not a short, but what kind of feature film with the Steven Spielberg money? Is there a story that you would love to be able to tell?
SPEAKER_00:That's a very good question that I've not been asked. So thank you very much, Greg, for asking that. Um, you've asked a lot of great questions, and I really, really appreciate that. There is a film, a feature that I would like to make that is about family, and it's about a revenge story that's action drama, and it is in the same vein as uh kick ass, uh, which is in 2007 film, I believe 2007, or maybe 2009, but it's about a lazy but talented young man who's becoming an adult but not sure where he wants to go with his life. And his parents uh have a restaurant, and through many circumstances, which is part of the film, uh, his parents are murdered, and he has to wrestle with grief, uh revenge, and the way he deals with it is by becoming a vigilante, and he connects with other rag tag people uh cultural and just general misfits uh through grief. And there is a cultural angle to it as well, but that's not necessarily the center focus, it really is like an old friend where it is a universal story in terms of relationships. It's about the relationship between not unlike old friend, the a child and their parent, right? And that sort of cause and effect on their character. And that is not the first feature I'd like to make, but that's the feature I'm most passionate about at the moment and I'm most excited about, and I definitely will make it uh in the future, so uh watch out for it. But we are still in the writing processes of it, but it also is a very real film in that these are struggles that people uh go through. Um, for example, a these two girls, this was on the news, the national news, a a I guess just like a racist guy, he um picked a an individual at random and stabbed him in the heart just because he's like, oh uh Asians, go back to where you come from. And he killed the guy for no for for just randomly. And the family, the fallout they had to endure was just astronomical, right? Like my life's been changed not by my own doing, and now I have to wrestle with this uh all these things, these circumstances, and uh the trajectories just absolutely thrown off. And you know, to the testament of the human spirit, I was like, man, how do these people doing it? You know, how you how do you how do you deal with that? And so many people have to be so strong uh in life, and you lose your parents at a certain time, no matter what. And that's so much to deal with. It's something I fear, and something that happened happens in um to to it happened to Jason, and he'll he'll speak on that as well. And it it's life-changing, you know. Um, when I lost a close family member of mine who I love very much, I thought, man, how am I gonna get through this? And in a weird way, my response is well, you know, you kind of die a little bit inside, and you uh are reborn a different person, and that's just how it is. Um, so yeah, it kind of explores that.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry, it's a long winded answer. No, perfect. So wrapping things up and again, I appreciate you for coming on. We have Old Fred making the the Film Festival Circuit. We have Thai guys, which is your upcoming project that people can look for in the near future. My final question is you know, we have whenever anyone introduces you, you know, it's Nook, the Emmy Award-winning, you know, Thai American filmmaker. We we cite your previous projects, it's it's everything that you've done. It's you know, Nook and his upcoming project Thai guys, it's Nook, you're talking about old friends. But when you get up in the morning and you go into the bathroom, splash a little water on your face, and look in the mirror for the first time, who is it that you see?
SPEAKER_00:I see someone who just won't give up no matter what, and just wants to reach for his dreams and push for a bright future no matter what's standing in front of him, right? Uh I kind of touched upon this when you asked me about filmmaking and versy and all that. And I remember in high school, the last thing I had said to my class, because I made a film about being about my four years in high school, and I told everyone, hey, if you take anything from what I have to say, it's that just keep persevering, right? No matter what, no matter what's in front of me, I'll get through it. I'll find a way and I'll adapt. That is how I get up and and and I operate. Okay, okay, we got to get these things done. How are we gonna do it? There's a way and we're gonna figure it out. And that's how we get anywhere, I think. But at the same time, I also have an incredible support system. I have incredible family that loves and supports me. I have great friends that are also the crew and the cast to a lot of our projects. And I feel like I could do anything I put my mind to it gratefully because of those circumstances. Uh, with a good support system, you can do anything. And that's probably why I think that way. You know, because I've such great people around me as you know, Chris, the the the Thai guys, Min, Nutt, Kevin, Da Vinci, Brandon, Irina, Aaron, all these people uh help me believe I could do anything. So yeah, I am a reflection of the people around me.
SPEAKER_01:Well said. Well, again, you know, old friend is making the circuit. So look for that, hopefully eventually on some kind of streaming platform or somewhere out there. And keep an eye out for uh his project tie guys. Uh Nook, thank you so much for coming on. I look forward to seeing what the future has for you and hopefully see you doing future someday, maybe. Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_00:I very much appreciate your questions, Greg. I thought they were very, very good. And thank you for the chance for to share my experience and my story. Thank you.
