Nadine Truong | |
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| Education | University of California, Los Angeles (BA) AFI Conservatory (MFA) |
| Occupation(s) | Film director,screenwriter |
Nadine Truong is a director, writer and photographer. She received herMFA in directing from theAmerican Film Institute Conservatory.
Her directorial credits includeChopsticks (which was premiered at the 2007 Vietnamese International Film Festival),The Muse (a dramatic short produced under theVisual Communications' "Armed with a Camera" Fellowship for Emerging Media Artists) which was also screened at theLos Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and which was nominated for the VC Golden Reel Award for Best Narrative Short Film,One Never Knows,Mine,Sushi,Eggbaby (2009),Shadow Man (2009) andInitiation (2009), which starsDavid Lee McInnis, Christopher Dinh,Tim Chiou,Kathy Uyen and Jerry Ying.[1][2]
Truong is the recipient of The George C. Lin Emerging Filmmaker Award from theSan Diego Asian Film Festival in 2010, for her short filmsShadow Man andEggbaby,[3] and a recipient of a Visual Communications "Armed With A Camera" Fellowship for Emerging Media Artists in 2007, which she used to create the short filmThe Muse.[4] Truong also received a Mary Pickford Scholarship for Excellence in Directing fromThe American Film Institute.[5]
Truong directed her first feature film in 2012 previously titlednightdreamblues but was re-titledSomeone I Used to Know, written by West Liang, and starringBrian Yang, Eddie Mui, Emily Chang, West Liang,Tzi Ma andDiana Lee Inosanto.[6] The film was premiered at the 2013 CAAMFest, formerly known as theSan Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and was described as "a bittersweet drama" that is "a new-millennium remix of such classic eighties' ensemble dramas asThe Breakfast Club andSt. Elmo's Fire."[7] It was also screened at the 2013Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and the 2013Asian American International Film Festival in New York City, drawing further comparisons to the filmsLess than Zero,The Anniversary Party andWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.[8]
In 2013, Truong directed a feature film entitledSenior Project, written by a 16-year-old Hong Kong high school student named Jeremy Lin (not the basketball player).[9] Fabienne Wen and her daughter Ellie Wen (who wrote and producedQuentin Lee'sWhite Frog) produced the film through their banner Itsy Bitsy Productions, along withStephane Gauger (Saigon Electric) and Yaron Kaplan.[10] The film starsRyan Potter (who plays the main character, Mike Fukanaga onNickelodeon'sSupah Ninjas) as the primary protagonist, "Peter",Vanessa Marano (ABC Family'sSwitched at Birth) as "Sam",Meaghan Martin (the main character, Jo, inMean Girls 2, ABC's10 Things I Hate About You) as "Natalia",Sterling Beaumon (Lost,Red Widow) as "Spencer",Kyle Massey (That's So Raven,Cory in the House) as "Andy", theYouTube starLana McKissack as "Jill" and the stand-up comedian and actorMargaret Cho as "Ms. Ghetty".[11]
In 2017, Truong wrote and directed the feature filmI Can I Will I Did about a depressed foster youth named Ben (Mike Faist ofChallengers, Westside Story, Dear Evan Hansen) who is bullied and, as a result, eventually is in a car accident. His recovery process is slow, until he meets Adrienne, a fellow patient at the hospital who breathes hope into his life and introduces him to her grandfather, taekwondo master Kang (Ik Jo Kang). Kang not only teaches him how to walk and has him back on his feet, but also how to take charge of his own life. Ik Jo Kang is also a taekwondo master in real-life. The film won an Audience Award at the 2017Asian American International Film Festival and also Best Feature and Best Supporting Actress (Selenis Leyva) at the 2017 Sunscreen Film Festival.[1]
Truong was born in Germany and now[when?] lives in Los Angeles.[1][2] She received a B.A. degree inanthropology fromUCLA and a MFA in directing at theAmerican Film Institute.[12] Truong is married to the actor and producerBrian Yang.
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