IN DEVELOPMENT
Finding the Balance
Finding the Balance
The second life of Băng Thị Bế
Genre: Docu-drama
Collaborators: Băng Thị Bế
Left with a rare and devastating disability following a motorcycle accident. a young dentist teaches herself to dance on one leg and inspires a nation by using her unique talent to win a prestigious beauty contest.
Healing through dance
I came across Băng Thị Bế's YouTube channel while doing background research for Hangman.
In spite of her disability, Băng is fiercely independent. She never mourns the past and is only willing to share her own difficulties if it will help others. Her Youtube channel chronicles the adventures of a pretty young lady doing normal everyday things that young ladies do: traveling, shopping, cooking, biking, gardening, and walking her dog.
Băng had even taught herself how to dance as a way to heal her body and her spirit. She makes it look so easy and effortless...but it wasn't. I know because I learned Vietnamese to find out how she did it.
Happiness is a choice
I hired a private tutor to teach me how to read and write in Vietnamese so that I could study the television interviews Băng had given about her life. I learned that she had made very many difficult choices in order to become the person she is.
She chose to be grateful for her "second life" at a time when this life brought nothing but pain and uncertainty. She chose to regain her independence before her wounds had even begun to heal. She chose to quit mourning the loss of the person she used to be. She chose to express the unconventional beauty of her new body even when others disapproved. She chose to help others even after her own society had all but abandoned her. By choosing to be happy in the very moments she had every reason not to be, Băng proved to me that happiness is a choice and not an outcome.
Sync-locked
Sync-locked
Genre: Sci-Fi Horror
Collaborators: Durga Myakala
While investigating the mysterious death of a notorious computer hacker, Detective Riley Kavanaugh discovers traces of a deadly phone app capable of dissolving it's user's brain. Racing against the clock, she must trace the malicious code back to it's source and neutralize it before it goes viral.