We are a female-led creative team that strives to bring together our diverse Asian and cultural backgrounds to tell authentic and bold stories of our community. Our goal is to challenge stereotypical depictions of femme identities and to create films that envision a reality of agency and solidarity

All the footage in the video - stills, video, BTS, unique assets and video footage from the prep and production of the film. 

Photo on set by Tiong, graphics by Ruth Kim and Vivian Zhang.

An action fantasy short film following a ragtag group of fems in the streets of Chinatown who band together to fight off a rival gang and protect their community.

DON’T is a 14-minute narrative short film that celebrates women, genderqueer identities, and Asian Culture. Led by a female writer/director, our project’s empowering narrative centers on a female main character and depicts the triumphs of female solidarity and ambition. 

The film examines social issues surrounding low-income communities and their relation to corrupt institutions of power. Our story delves into how authoritative institutions fail us, how difficult circumstances shape a person, and the value of standing up for one’s community. Our project also contributes to the current greater conversation surrounding anti-Asian hate crimes and safety for the Asian community. Now more than ever, our team is inspired to tell this story so that it can serve as a force of inspiration for our community and peers. 

WHY US? AND WHY THIS FILM?!

Many of us didn't see the faces, visuals, plot, or even vibe of the kind of story we wanted to tell in the media around us growing up - and now, still. A lot of us on the team were sold on the project as soon as Sally so much as gave us half the log line. And so we're relying on ourselves - with your help - to realize this kind of project instead of waiting for mainstream media to tell us we're important enough to have our stories told.

DON’T has been in pre-production development for the past year. From scriptwriting, production design, costume design, and directing; our director, Sally, has had a hand in every element of this film to create its bespoke and unique vision. This lengthy pre-production process was necessary in order to ensure that the greatest care and attention to detail was given to the film's complex range of needs. 

Language + Translation
Representation is key. Because the script is in five languages, and each character speaks their heritage language, actors are often speaking one language without necessarily understanding the responding dialogue. This meant that translation and in-depth rehearsals were needed with our actors to make sure dialogue and timing were nailed for our tricky one-take scenes. 

Actors training for their combat scene 

Combat
DON’T has fast-paced action that requires choreography and training for our fight scenes. Our Combat Shoot Day is scheduled as one of the last three days on our production calendar. It is our biggest day as most of our resources were allocated to it in preparation. With our incredible team of choreographers, stunt coordinators, and combat experts on board; we are excited to finally capture our hard work combat prep.  

See our first look previs of our combat here <3

Created by Alex Au. Performers: Tariq Al Monseur, Jackie Kim, Tim Wang, Alex Au

 

 

FOR THE 2ND BLOCK OF SHOOTING

Past the pre-production phase, we have completed our first 3 days of shooting and require 3 more shoot days to get us through to the finish line (this is where you kind folks come in!).  This includes our Combat day!

Once we complete our last days of shooting, we will then take the film to post-production, which we estimate will take up to 2 months. This post-production phase consists of sound design, color + grading, VFX, clean up and editing which will be completed at a Post house. 

Photo on set by Tiong

Our film has had the amazing support and encouragement of both local and international companies that have helped bring our vision to life. We are deeply grateful for these partnerships that motivate us to tell this story.  While our film needs monetary support, we are open to other forms of donation and partnerships. Please reach out if you have any ideas of how you/your company could help us, every contribution to this project matters! 

Sponsors include: Panavision, Kodak, Studio, Asian owned clothing, jewelry brands, and catering companies.

The money we raise through this crowdfunding campaign will go directly to production expenses to fund the last 3 days of shooting for the film. We are extremely lucky to have elements like camera, film, and our main stage donated by our generous sponsors! The funds raised will contribute to the following big-ticket expenses on our shoot days:

Beyond our initial 14K goal for this crowdfund, we have big plans and dreams for what we can achieve past our target amount! We need to get more funds into our post which is another $6k - so every dollar raised (even past our set goal) will help contribute to getting this project into the world. Additional funds raised will go to our post-production budget and help with getting DON’T through Color, VFX, Edit and cleanup in a timely manner. We want to see DON’T release in 2023!

We're excited to share our talented cast for DON'T.

Meet our mix of diverse crew with experience in film, fashion and short form narrative.

Learn more about the incredible filmmakers in the Teams tab!

The story of DON’T was inspired by my experiences and observations as an Asian female living in both Vietnam and New York. Every year when visiting my grandma in Vietnam, I would buy her a gold ring so she could sell it in exchange for medicine or a doctor's visit whenever she needed it. These harsh realities and hardships of my grandmother's hometown in District 4 Saigon are not uncommon. The last time I saw her before Covid, someone had stolen a ring right off of her finger during an afternoon nap. Deeply affected by this, I would ask myself, “Who would steal an old woman's ring?”  These emotions were further echoed when the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes spiked in the United States in 2021. Channeling feelings of anger and helplessness, I envisioned a fantastical world where femme heroines emerged from the shadows to fight these injustices. 

As someone who has and continues to experience the pain our AAPI community is persevering through, I am compelled to tell this story. This is a deeply personal and important project for myself and my team, and we are all fully invested in this film and what it represents to our greater community and beyond.

DONATE + PLEDGE
You can help this project by pledging your contribution. Every dollar contributed to this project matters deeply to us! We need to collect 80% of our crowdfunding goal in order to keep the funds raised. We have some fun incentives that you can select, or you can enter any amount that fits within your budget. 

FOLLOW + SHARE
Please follow our campaign! It's 100% FREE!  Seed&Spark rewards us with the audience we build through their platform. If you follow us, it improves our campaign exposure with the algorithm and helps us receive perks from Seed&Spark such as festival fee waivers, etc.  

If you do not have the monetary funds to support, sharing our campaign through social media is also an incredibly helpful way to help support our project. Word of mouth and hype can go a long way.  Also follow our film's Instagram page!  @Dont_Film

Ooof…if you have made it this far…THANK YOU.
Your time and interest in our project is invaluable and we are forever grateful for it!

Thank you again - Sally + the DON’T team.