#warren fu

[dailyhudsonwilliams]

Laufey, Hudson Williams, Alysa Liu, Lola Tung and Megan Skiendiel behind the scenes for “Madwoman” (via warrenjfu)

[leodanbrock]

Daft Punk said something to me that blew me away. They said they wanted to do an album as if the internet never existed. I said, "oh, old school!" It was certainly the most rewarding to have been involved in a project that was so monumental to my life. Winning my first Grammy was amazing to me. It's become a great learning experience for me, after Daft Punk. I started playing with much younger artists. No one is my age, I'm 70! Charli XCX, Burna Boy. I just recorded my first k-pop record, and now I've got like five under my belt and they're huge. Life was one way before Random Access Memories and completely different after. — Nile Rodgers

💿📀 Daft Punk — Memory Tapes dir. WARREN FU (2023).

[louisbxne]

Aaliyah's Anime Album Commercial (2001)

[d-criss-news]

Under the Infinite | USA | Sci-Fi | 15 minutes

Director/Writer: Warren Fu Producer: Li-Wei Chu, Jona Ward, Paris Schulman Cast: Darren Criss, Brent Sexton

Marlowe, a suburban salesman, roams a rural highway in search of answers. Plagued by premonitions, he is drawn deep into a nearby field, where he discovers an unsettling sight.

[guy60660]

Warren Fu

[datshitrandom]

Darren Criss | Under the Infinite | Directed by Warren Fu

Marlowe, a suburban salesman, roams a rural highway in search of answers. Plagued by premonitions, he is drawn deep into a nearby field, where he discovers an unsettling sight.

[kutputli]

OK so.... Gold House! And it's involvement with Hudson Williams and Laufey and Madwoman!

So it is very important to note that Gold House is a non-profit. They aren't a business trying to make money off their brand. They are a charitable organisation that is working in the cultural sector to raise the profile of Asian-Americans and build networks and structures that do so. Literally, here's their own words:

Culture isn’t background; it’s infrastructure. It shapes what gets greenlit, who gets funded, which ideas scale, and what becomes possible. When culture leads, opportunity multiplies – not just within our communities, but beyond them.

So when they saw Hudson Williams' rising star and grabbed him as a member, they knew what they were doing. They made him a co-host of their Lunar New Year party along with Yerin Ha and Bowen Yang, and then dressed him in Prabal Gurung who is on Gold House's advisory board. And it is definitely a political choice for Hudson to associate himself with them. Whatever critiques may exist for the limits of such mainstream soft power activism (which are valid), Hudson could have remained in the world of white fangirls who describe him approvingly as 'white-passing'. But he's been surrounding himself with women of colour at every step and clearly, WANTS to help others succeed around him.

I want to pull a bunch of quotes from the Hollywood Reporter article on the Laufey Madwoman music video:

Gold House began working with Laufey and her team after they reached out to Gold House about finding an AAPI director for the video. Laufey and her team gathered a slew of Asian and Asian American talent in front of and behind the camera. That includes executive producers Christine Yi and Maiqi Qin of Gold House, Julie Fong of Partizan Entertainment and Committee of 100 co-founder Oscar Tang, as well as director Warren Fu and DP Andrew Truong. Fu says that Laufey and her identical twin sister, Junia, came to him “with the idea of putting a twist on all-American mid-century iconography with a cast we don’t normally see in that environment.” “I think whether you’re Asian American or of mixed ethnicity, you often feel like you’re between two worlds, and I wanted to capture that feeling in this video,” Fu explains. “I saw a Slim Aarons photo of people playing backgammon by a pool and thought it would be fun if we swapped it for mahjong.” The director says that helped inspire their production designer Evaline Huang to build a visual world that mixed classic mid-century Americana with a Hong Konh twist. “Iced tea and boba, American pastries and dim sum, Chinese lanterns on an Eichler home,” Fu lists. "Growing up, I felt a general lack of representation for people who looked like me in music and media. With the ‘Madwoman’ video, I wanted to be that representation,” the singer says in a statement. In an email exchange with The Hollywood Reporter, Fu adds, “It just felt like such a rare experience to have so many people in front of and behind the camera who share a similar cultural background.” “As an Asian American who grew up with so few role models in music, film or sports, it was exciting to celebrate these talented young artists who are each riding their own wave of success,” he adds, a nod to Laufey, Williams, Tung, Skiendiel and Liu.

Like, look at all that work and intentionality. I'm the last person to say that liberal glitzy representation is the be-all and end-all of activism. I enjoy doing the work of dissecting superficially progressive media and understanding the flaws and lacunae in them. But still. There is merit and value in taking on legacy institutions and forcing a seat at the table, and this video and the work of everyone involved underlines the effort it takes.

It's a fucking good video, too.

[arosetolivefor]