TLDR: “Blush” premiered at Oscar-qualifying Aspen Shortsfest last week, original score by me, written and directed by my sister
@_anachavez
When asked “where are you from”, I always say “I was born in LA but grew up in Singapore from 8-18”. Recognizing that it’s a bit longwinded for smalltalk and that I’ve been living in LA for most of my life at this point, I’ve recently begun to wonder if I’ll eventually drop the caveat. I’m arguably more rooted in LA now than I’ve ever been, thanks to many incredible Angelenos who have taken me by the hand since I’ve returned (s/o
@earth__poems ,
@sam_lee.jpg ,
@puure.filth to name a few), and many more incredible friends and artists who have shared life here with me.
All that said, I still don’t think I’ve outgrown the impact of growing up in SG. Even when looking at old photos for this post, I couldn’t help but notice that the Tate pictured pre 2005 (the year we moved) was an energetically different person from the one pictured post. Where I sit in relationship to the two of them now is tricky to place, but I think I hold them both within me.
Because of the significance of this experience, I wasn’t surprised when my sister said she wanted to make a film there. Spiritually, it was the obvious thing to do. Logistically? Not so much. If you spend just a little bit of time thinking about it, it becomes overwhelmingly daunting pretty quick—you’ve got to either fly your whole crew out there or you need to build a crew locally when you live in Los Angeles, you’ve got to cast local actors, who also ideally are in high school and international kids to make it authentic, you’ve got to then figure out the logistics of shooting in a city that is notorious for its rules, regulations, and punitive fines, you’ve got to scout locations, plan the actual shoots, you’ve got to find equipment, write a script, FUNDRAISE.
But she did it, with the help of an incredible team and the support of family and friends. I’m extremely proud of them, and glad I could contribute some music to the project.
Credits in comments, special thanks to our parents
@drmindset and
@inaconradi !
