The Cowboy gets a call for an open bounty for Ming, who has stolen from a hot head criminal Wolf. The Cowboy wanders the streets of Chinatown looking for Ming, talking to the locals, to deliver Ming to Wolf, and reveal a deeper and darker history of the Cowboy, and his relationship with the Wolf. 

The story plot is at its core a cat and mouse hunt as the narrative backdrop to let the characters and the environment tell the story. To show the richness of Chinatown NY, to allow the audience to dive right into their world because beyond the surface is a deeper and darker past to the characters. 

"I'm really interested in capturing the liveliness and cultural richness that Chinatown creates. Whenever I walk down the streets, it often feels like I've walked into a movie set, every corner you turn there is something new to discover. It was one of the main reasons I wanted to create a story that centers around this special part of Manhattan.

Film References; Fallen Angels, An American Friend, Midnight Cowboy, The Killer, Infernal Affair, As Tears Go By

I love seeing stories break the mold of their genres. I love westerns, and I love movies from Hong Kong, so I wanted to create a film that breaks the mold of both those genres. I think now is the time to create unique and different films that has demographics represented in fun, stylistic, and artistic films. Western and Asian films are becoming more popular and I think now is the time to bring those two together."

~Jaafar Alnabi~

Writer/Director

Taking inspiration from Wong Kar Wai films, where a lot of the beauty of those films comes from the wonderful performances and the beautiful cinematography. You get lost in their worlds, and their story becomes larger than life. To use those methods of storytelling to create a world that feels alive on screen.

Behind The Scenes

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The Team

the current team to help kick off this project.

I'm always looking for talented people to join the production team, and continuing to work on building and expanding the team to make this film happen.

Jaafar Alnabi, is an Iraqi filmmaker living and working in New York. He studied filmmaking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Class of 2016. He has since worked on visual effects for shows and movies on HBO, Netflix, FX, Amazon and more. His last short film Dawn Chorus won Best in Fest(2021) at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival

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“I love creating worlds. Places we’ve never visited before. It’s challenging, and I like to approach filmmaking like a challenge. It means that the story feels worth it to tell. I think now people want to see interesting characters. To see people of color tell fun and exciting stories, and to see Black and Asian actors in interesting roles.”

Sawyer Gaunt is an award winning cinematographer based out of Brooklyn. Over the last six years he has had the opportunity to travel across the country and internationally to work with a wide variety of directors and producers. In addition to commercial work, Sawyer’s primary focus is narrative filmmaking. Having the opportunity to use the camera as a tool for visual storytelling is what he cherishes the most.

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“What really excites me about this project is Jaafar’s vision. It’s concise and directed but is filled with rich details that fill the world with energy and life. I’m looking forward to bringing this to life with this cast and crew.”

Violette Trotter is an American Casting Director, Producer, and Street Scout. As a Casting Director and Street Scout, she has worked on projects for A24, Neon, HBO, Utopia, Amazon Studios, Hulu, Alex Ross Perry, Darren Aronofsky, and Joshua Z Weinstein amongst others. Most recently Sam’s World, which she was casting, premiered at Slamdance, and Tendaberry and Stress Positions which she worked as street scout on, premiered at Sundance. She splits her time between New York, and traveling around the country for her scouting work.

Gideon Hamot is the Principal/Founder of Berkshire Entertainment. He started his career interning under BAFTA-Shortlisted director Kevin Haefelin and his company Kumoshika Productions where he served as production supervisor on the Oscar-qualified short film The Fuse.

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 Before Berkshire he served as the Vice President of Party Crasher films where he worked on the upcoming films Coup! (Dir. Austin Stark) and Chimera (Dir. Steve Pinke). Prior he worked at legendary B-horror house Troma Entertainment where he was responsible for overseeing the company’s production and distribution slate.

Toluwalase Ojo was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. A middle child of three moved to America at nine years old. A blues harmonica player with a background in improv theater. Toluwalase grew up watching the horses on the beach and started riding in 2020. Inspired by Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, and Jim Carey, Toluwalase began his acting career in the short film In or Out(2022). He is also the founder of the non-profit The Brighter Future Foundation. 

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“Knowing the history of African American cowboys and how they were used after the civil war has me excited to portray one in a film where a black cowboy will be embodying the spirit of the American West as well as the trailblazing, sharpshooting, lasso wielding cowboy of American lore.”

Jason Lai, a NYC-born dynamo, soaked up the vibrant energy of martial arts and performance since his early days as a first-gen Chinese American. Fueled by the cinematic prowess of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Donnie Yen, he dreamt of becoming a kung fu hero – a dream kindled by movie marathons at his grandma’s house, where he escaped into the mesmerizing world of Hong Kong and American films.

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Kicking off his martial arts training at 10, Jason delved into sanda and taekwondo, laying the groundwork for his journey. Dance entered the scene at 15, turning pro at 20. Acting followed suit at 25, leading him to notable roles in Marvel’s Iron Fist Season Two and Nora From Queens.

Toluwalase Ojo as The Cowboy

Western themes and Cowboy culture is on the rise in pop culture. Especially with representation of black and brown cowboys in movies, as they made up a majority of cowboys in the real world, but often underrepresented in films during the height of Western film era. With the rise of Asian Hate crimes post Covid, and the effect it had on Chinatown in NY, I wanted to create a film that captures the heart and the charm of Chinatown. This film is an opportunity to have black and Asian representation in a fun and stylistic film, in a melding of two demographics in a fun and exciting film.

Production Timeline/ Budget

Production will take place over 3-4 shooting days in late April/. We aim to shoot 16mm film, this will help in creating a neo-noir style to the film, and a color richness that comes with shooting on film. 

• February-March: Seed & Spark crowdfunding. Cast additional minor roles. 
• April: - Pre-production, finalize cast and crew. Secure filming locations. Wardrobe & props
• Late April/May: Shoot!
• May-June: Film Development, Editing and Post Production
• July-Sept: Festival submissions.
• Sept - Onward: Festival screenings, marketing, screenings.

We need a total of $18,000 to make this film, BUT we only need to raise $15,000 on Seed & Spark to make it happen. If we reach our goal of $15K we can afford locations in Chinatown, production design and all equipment needed to shoot on film. As well to pay for actors and production crew. This is the minimum we need to create a strong high quality looking film. 

Stretch Goals

• If we raise $20k, we can offer to pay our production crew and actors higher rates and invest more into securing the best locations and high quality looking production design for the film.
• If we raise $25k we can offer competitive pay to cast and crew and invest in higher quality post production, and secure funds for festival screenings and marketing.

How You Can Help

With the financial help from your contributors will make this film possible, any amount will help and is greatly appreciated. Thank you for all and any contributions you make.

If you can not donate financially, that's okay! Sharing the Seed & Spark link with friends, family, peers, and movie lovers will help too! 

A sample text you can us

“If you’re a fan of Hong Kong cinema, check out this short film Chinatown Cowboy. A Cantonese neo-noir spaghetti western in the style of Wang Kar Wai. You can learn more and contribute to this funding here…” 

"I've never had a problem with genre because a genre actually is like a uniform - you put yourself into a certain uniform. But if you dress up in a police officer’s uniform, it doesn’t mean that you are an officer; it can mean something else. But this is the starting point, and the best way is to not to fit into this uniform but to make this uniform a part of yourself.”

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Wong Kar Wai

We can’t do this without your help, thank you for supporting us!