Jeff Chiba Stearns: Kelowna Filmmaker Wins Best Animation Award at International Film Festival

Growing up between two cultures can be a challenge.  Whether I was in elementary school, high school or college, I often got asked: "What's your nationality?" or "Where did you come from?" or "What's your ethnic background?"

"I'm a CBC," I would sometimes say, "that's Canadian Born Chinese."  Or sometimes I would reply simply, "Canadian," or "What's it to you?"  But moreoften I inform people, "I'm fifth generation Chinese-Canadian."  I say this because I am proud of my family and ethnic heritage that has a presence in three Canadian centuries from 1888 to 2005.

Jeff Chiba Stearns grew up in Kelowna with Japanese and European/British heritage.  He created a wonderful animation film titled "What Are You Really?" that captures the struggles of dealing with racial identities, looks and cultural heritage.  He does this in a very fun way.  I recommend watching the film, and I hope to have Jeff and his film as a featured guest at the next Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner - January 22, 2006.

Below are excerpts from Jeff's press release.

October 12, 2005

Kelowna Filmmaker wins the Best Animation Award at the 2005 Los Angeles ARPA International Film Festival for his animated film, "What Are You Anways?" about life growing up in Kelowna being half-Japanese.

Jeff Chiba Stearns was in Hollywood last week attending the 2005 8th Annual Los Angeles ARPA International Film Festival where his short animated film, "What Are You Anyways?" screened.  The festival took place at the prestigious Arclight Theatre on Sunset Blvd from October 3rd to the 6th with an Awards Gala on October 7th.  The Awards Gala was held at the legendary Hollywood Hotel Roosevelt on Hollywood Blvd.  Jeff was nominated as part of a competition with five other animated films and the jury awarded Jeff the Best Animation Award at the Awards Gala Event. 

"I'm thrilled and honored to have received the Best Animation Award at this year's Los Angeles ARPA International Film Festival.  It is a great opportunity to receive such international recognition of my work.  I can only hope that this will only be the start of the success my film will encounter on a world stage," Jeff said after receiving the award.  He also mentioned, "It was also pretty cool getting to sit with Danica Mckellar, 'Winnie Cooper' from the hit TV show the Wonder Years, who also had a film up for nomination during the awards ceremony.  I grew up with that show and she was really happy to see me win the award."  

"What Are You Anyways?" has been having incredible success on the film festival circuit having screened at over 15 international film festivals so far after less than a year of release.  Some notable international film festivals include the Maui, San Diego Asian, Chicago Children's International, Toronto Reel Asian, Vancouver Asian, Newport Beach, Delray Beach, and Dallas Asian Film Festivals.  After winning the award at the ARPA Film Festival, Jeff was approached with an offer from Norooz Productions, an LA based animation studio, to possibly develop and have Jeff direct a half hour big budget animation special based on Jeff's film, "What Are You Anyways?" 

"What Are You Anyways?" has broadcast nationally on the CBC twice so far and Jeff has also secured distribution of his film with the National Film Board of Canada to distribute it across Canada and beyond.  Kelowna residents and anyone else who is interested on how they can obtain DVD copies of "What Are You Anyways?"  can order them by emailing Jeff at meditatingbunny@hotmail.com  Info and a trailer for the film are available at www.meditatingbunny.com   Jeff is currently the classical animation instructor at the Centre for Arts and Technology in Kelowna. 

INFO ON THE ARPA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - http://www.affma.org

FILM COMMISION HQ wrote this about the ARPA International Film Festival:

"The Arpa International Film Festival is one of the most dynamic and, in a world increasingly dependent upon cultural understanding, perhaps the most important niche festivals of our time.

The Arpa International Film Festival is dedicated to cultivating cultural understanding and global empathy, creating a dynamic forum for international cinema with a special focus on the work of filmmakers who explore the issues of Diaspora, exile, and cross- and multi-culturalism. And it celebrates the ideals of independent thought, artistic vision, cultural diversity and social understanding."             

http://www.filmcommissionhq.com/event.jsp?id=670

To watch "What Are You Anyways?" online please go to:

http://zed.cbc.ca/go?POS=2&CONTENT_ID=163999&c=contentPage&FILTER_KEY=395526

Jeff can be contacted at:
stearnsjeff@hotmail.com Website. www.meditatingbunny.com

ZeD profile:

"What Are You Anyways?" Synopsis

Follow the adventures of the Super Nip as filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns explores his cultural backgrounds growing up a mix of Japanese and Caucasian in a small white-bred Canadian city. This short classically animated film looks at particular periods in Jeff’s life where he battled with finding an identity being a half minority - from his childhood origins to the epic showdown against the monster truck drivin’ redneck crew. "What Are You Anyways?" is a humorous yet serious story of struggle and love and finding one’s identity through the trials and tribulations of growing up.