In celebration of the Lunar New Year, earlier this month the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center presented Night of the Dragon, a mini film festival featuring short films by Asian American filmmakers Jiaxin Wei and School of Theatre, Film & Television alumni Andy Zhao (BFA ’22), Sara Luu (BFA ’18) and Nolan Veneklasen (BFA ’19).
Veneklasen’s newest film Young Lions screened for the first time at the event.
Young Lions documents the cultural center’s longstanding lion dance program and the challenges the program has faced in recent years. The topic is personal for Veneklasen – he and his brother and sister grew up participating in the program.
“It’s a subculture of dancers in the Chinese community in Tucson, Arizona, that is not practiced very much. Preserving the culture and keeping that tradition alive is something I really cared about,” said Veneklasen in an interview for the Ariona Daily Star. “We think the lion dance is a doorway into understanding and experiencing Chinese culture for everyone.”
Veneklasen spent 18 months filming the program’s resurrection and received a $5,000 grant from the Southwest Folklife Alliance for the film. Sara Luu is the film’s producer.
This is not the first time Veneklasen has shone a light on the lion dance tradition. His senior thesis film Pride of the Lion, which debuted at I Dream in Widescreen 2019, follows a Chinese-American teenager who must choose between fitting in and defending his culture when a bully zeroes in on his little brother. Watch the film on the School’s YouTube channel.
In addition to the Young Lions premiere, Night of the Dragon featured Andy Zhao’s senior thesis film Eyes on Me, the darkly evocative Goodnight Mom from Sara Luu, and Qin-zi and Qin by Jiaxin Wei. School of Theatre, Film & Television Associate Director Yuri Makino introduced the filmmakers.