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About this submission
“The first Asian-American President of the United States poops his pants at a world-leader conference.” Even though this log-line for my film might seem too shallow to make a meaningful statement about racism in America, that is what I, as a Malaysian-American filmmaker, set out to achieve. Taking this approach allowed me to convey cinematically the evolving horrors of discrimination in a way that emulated how racist jokes in American media tend to evolve: from something that’s seen as light-hearted and shallow to something that cuts even deeper than any one of us might realize until it’s too late.
Creator
Bryan Yanbing Lee is a 23 year old Malaysian-American filmmaker. His unique, genre-subversive short films which he wrote and directed has won awards and distinctions at festivals including the Flicker’s Rhode Island International Film Festival, Blackbird Film Festival and the Houston Comedy Film Festival, where he was the Best Dark Comedy Award Winner at the age of 21.
Most recently, his NYU Undergraduate thesis short film, the politically-charged and darkly comedic “The American” has been selected to premiere at the prestigious and Oscar-qualifying Cinequest Film Festival 2025, as well as being an Official Selection of the Beverly Hills Film Festival. (As the film has only just started its festival circuit, there may be more selections to come.)
Furthermore, as an emerging Asian-American filmmaking talent and voice, his work has been featured on publications such as Forbes, Rice and Spice Magazine as well as going viral on YouTube, X and other online platforms to over hundreds of thousands of views and acclaim.
Outside of the film-festival circuit, Bryan has also been involved with other creative and artistic avenues, from collaborating with musicians such as Panthurr (best known for his collaborations with YouTuber Casey Neistat), to working as creative marketing director for start-ups such as Volay Brands. Along with his personal passion projects, he has also worked as a creative director and script analyst with production companies such as Fair Harbor Productions and Mark Victor Productions.
With his goal to eventually become a writer-director of feature films, Bryan has managed to find ways to keep himself busy and creative with storytelling in any capacity available to him. He aims to tell stories that transcend what Asian-American storytelling can be through his subversive work, and to hopefully one day make Malaysia proud.
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