This is a story about a biracial Asian American boy and a white girl growing up in a small Midwest town in 1986. They like each other. But they kind of know that they aren’t supposed to.

This is a story about an immigrant mother from Thailand who has settled in the Midwest to raise a child who is growing up American. She wants what’s best for him but also worries about him embracing a culture that doesn’t accept them.

This is a story about a white man who has status and resources. But he’s still a product of a world built around him which means he’s as much a victim of this world even as he benefits from it.

This is a story about growing up biracial in a world where attitudes about race mixing had scarcely changed. It’s about how someone finds belonging when they belong to more than one culture and, sometimes, it seems, none at all.

It’s about how the community you grow up in shapes who you are and how you perceive yourself.

Hey, I’m Levi. I’m the director. I’m also the writer. And the titular character of Luke is loosely based on me.

When I wrote this I had specific goals for this film. I wanted to create a proof of concept short film that I could use to create interest for a feature film. I wanted to highlight a story and context that I don’t often see reflected in popular media or, even, in alternative media (whatever that means). What’s it like to grow up biracial? Who are you when your parents are from vastly different worlds? I don’t see this story at all. I spent the last few decades figuring it out. More importantly, I saved up a lot of cash by avoiding therapy all my life. So, I figured it was time to tell this story.

At the risk of sounding pretentious (which I can totally do if that’s what you want!) it’s a very strange thing to write about yourself. The memories you have of yourself are less memories of what happened but pockets of images and emotions that you string together with a story that you build about yourself. As you move through your life that story gets little subconscious adjustments.

In the end, I decided I couldn’t write a story about myself. So, I wrote a story about a kid kind of like me with a family kind of like mine in a town kind of like where I grew up. And in doing so I discovered a deeper understanding of where I grew up and the people I grew up with.

With that in mind, I didn’t want to make the story about racism or sexism or anything like that. I wanted the story to be simple, as all good stories are, and place real people who have normal wants and needs and place them in the context of an abnormal society.

In going through the process of creating this short film I discovered even more viscerally that this story is still happening. There is much of our culture that has resisted change over the last nearly four decades. And though the story takes place at a time when I was young it is just as relevant today.

It’s me again. The director. The one thing that I hate most about shows with kids in it is that those characters are either written solely as props for adults or they are written in a way that reveals the writers have no meaningful interactions with the children in their lives.

Children are much more intelligent than our culture gives them credit for. They just don’t know stuff. But we like to conflate ignorance with disability. We do children a complete disservice by assuming that they are incapable of understanding the world around them. I suspect it has more to say about how adults feel about the world we create and participate in than it says about kids.

Kids are smart and independent and always fumbling their way to adulthood. And the one thing I’ve learned directing these talented kids is that you often just need to point them in the right direction and then get out of the way. And they are watching you.

Hi. It me.

My mother was an immigrant from Thailand. I grew up with the food and the language and elements of the culture. The one thing I remember most about being Thai is that no one knew anything about Thailand. Most people asked us if we were from China or Japan. Not much has changed aside from people are more familiar with the cuisine. Sort of.

One of the themes I want to focus on is that Asian Americans come from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds and we are unified through our experience as immigrants in America.

Considering the rise in violence towards anyone who looks remotely Asian since the rise of Covid-19, I wanted to emphasize the uniqueness and diversity within Asian American communities. With that in mind, I was determined to find a Thai actress for this film. Authenticity is very important to me in this portrayal. Anything else would have been a caricature of a Thai person.

DUN DA DUN DAAAAA! DUN DUN DAAAAAAH!

WE WOULDN'T LEAVE A PROJECT LIKE THIS IN THE HANDS OF A BUNCH OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO BORROWED THEIR PARENTS’ POTATO PHONE! WE HIRED THE PROFESSIONALS! CHECK OUT OUR TEAM TAB AND SQUINT AT THE GLORY OF OUR CREW OF SEASONED LEATHERY SUN-BAKED FILMMAKERS!

We got this thing in the can!

The timing for this short was too critical for us to wait. We have kids who have to go to school (not to mention that when you find talented kids who are 11 years old, waiting six months for financing could mean they might not look the same from the time you found them!) We have amazing professional filmmakers who have other projects they have to go back to. They’ve taken time out of their busy schedule to commit to this project and I am forever grateful for that. So we put this thing together with credit cards and a dream (What? In this economy?!)

But that’s where the hard part begins! We have to turn all of these disjointed angles and scenes and dialogue into a movie.

And that’s where you come in!

FOLLOW

Stay up to date on our post-production process. I'll even post about what our production team and actors are doing since the film wrapped. 

Also, Seed&Spark rewards us for building our audience. The more followers we get, the more we unlock products, services, and festival fee waivers courtesy of Seed&Spark!

LOANS & DONATIONS

On the next page is our list of post-production necessities to get this film ready for festivals and show people that it's worth bringing everyone back to do a feature film (and hopefully before the kid who plays Luke's voice drops)!

CONTRIBUTIONS & FISCAL SPONSORSHIP

We have a fiscal sponsor by way of New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT) so all contributions and pledges to this project will be tax deductible. But if you are unable to contribute we totally get it. Read on!

SHARE

The only way we will reach our crowdfunding goal is if we reach beyond our networks. If you would like to support more stories about Asian-American and biracial kids growing up in America please share this campaign through your social media, email, word-of-mouth, or whatever way you can! We can't do this without you!

Feel free to copy and paste these!

Help filmmaker @levithewilson by supporting his coming of age tale about a young biracial Thai-American growing up in a small Midwest town in the 80s. Follow them on @seedandspark: https://tinyurl.com/yckm5ucd

I'm following the sweetest story about a first crush written and directed by @levithewilson and produced by @thelisahammer. To support this AAPI short film join them on @seedandspark: https://tinyurl.com/yckm5ucd

I'm so excited to see the short film LUKE & EMMA AND A GAS STATION ON FRANKLIN AVE by director/writer @levithewilson, shot in White Plain, NY over the summer! Support them on @seedandspark: https://tinyurl.com/yckm5ucd