FILM TITLE: Best Men
DIRECTOR: Tony Wei

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
Tony Wei: I was born in Taiwan and spent half my childhood playing in the street markets of Taipei and the other half roaming the strip malls of New Jersey. I currently live in NYC.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
As a kid, I wanted to be a doctor. I studied Neuroscience in college but realized the dogged pursuit of childhood dreams was a foolish endeavor. How can anyone know at the age of six what they should be as an adult? So I became a filmmaker – my fallback plan.

Did you go to film school? If so, where?
Besides studying Neuroscience at Brown University, I also majored in Art-Semiotics, which is half film theory and half film production. Now I'm getting my MFA in Film at Columbia University.

Please describe your film.
Moments before the wedding, the best man gets one last chance to recapture mutual feelings between him and the groom. As they say, "All the best men are gay…" but some just need a good reminder.

Where did the idea for your film come from?
The writer, Jesse Whitnall, is the originator of the idea. A friendship had been the emotional reference, and we placed it in a wedding to further enhance the narrative arc. But the feeling of missing out on true love is a universal heartache that every individual has experienced.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in making your film?
An eight-hour shoot on a ten-degree winter's evening. All taking place on a windy NYC rooftop of a twenty-story building.

Are you working on a new film yet? If so, give us a brief description.
As Director: 1) The Wayward Winds, envisioned as a '50s melodrama, is about transgenders in a time when homosexuality was a crime, 2) Three Wheels, Inc is about the unlikely partnership that forms between a Chinese rickshaw driver and an American tourist. As Screenwriter: Made in Taiwan, a feature about a Taiwanese boy who dreams of becoming a ballroom dancer.

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:
A Nightmare on Elm Street

The one LGBT film that has had the biggest impact on me is:
Brokeback Mountain, because I'm still irritated and baffled as to why it didn't win best motion pic of the year at the Oscars.

David Kagan

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
My name is David Kagan, and I'm a prop and still life stylist, as well as soon-to-be part time MFA student. I live and play in New York City.

Did you go to film school? If so, where?
I went to NYU, Tisch School of the Arts.

Please describe your film.
The Process is an experimental fairy tale about what one lonely man does to find himself a companion. It's a combination of animation and live action.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in making your film?
I had $10,000 of film equipment stolen from a van, as well as a mag with a whole day's worth of footage. That kind of sucked.

The one LGBT film that has had the biggest impact on me is:..
Tales of the City. It came out on PBS when I was in high school and it kind of ushered me into gay-dom.

The most recent film I saw in a theatre was:
The Lives of Others. AMAZING.