Queens World Film Festival 2019 – Thousand Pieces of Gold
Set in a mining town in the 1880s, Thousand Pieces of Gold was developed by the Sundance Institute and premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1990. It won immediate acclaim for its portrayal of the real-life story of Lalu (Rosalind Chao), a young Chinese woman whose desperately poor parents sell her into slavery. She is trafficked to a nefarious saloonkeeper in Idaho’s gold country. Eventually, Charlie, a man of a different ilk, played by Chris Cooper, wins her in a poker game and slowly gains her trust.
Interview with Director/Producer Nancy Kelly
Watch Thousand Pieces of Gold on Prime Video, Vudu, Kanopy and iTunes
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I discovered Ruthanne Lum McCunn’s novel "Thousand Pieces of Gold" while touring with my documentary Cowgirls, and immediately saw it as a dramatic feature because it portrays the real-life story of Lalu (Rosalind Chao), a young Chinese woman whose desperately poor parents sell her into slavery. She is trafficked to a nefarious saloonkeeper in Idaho’s gold country. Eventually, Charlie, a man of a different ilk, played by Chris Cooper, wins her in a poker game and slowly gains her trust.
With Kenji Yamamoto, my husband and filmmaking partner, I spent six years financing the film with support from American Playhouse Theatrical Films, CPB, Film Four International and private investors.
We shot Thousand Pieces of Gold on 35mm film and it was fading into obscurity - people could only see our film online and on pirated DVDs that looked awful. But Sandra Schulberg, a visionary in the independent film world, created IndieCollect, a non-profit organization that saves and restores American independent films so they can be seen in state-of-the-art digital formats. With their Kinetta archival scanner, we’ve been able to make a 4K restoration of TPOG and now, new audiences can see it as I originally intended it – with amazing golden light in the nighttime interiors, a painfully gritty gold rush town and stunning vistas in the Rocky Mountains.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Come see it because Rosalind Chao (Joy Luck Club) and Chris Cooper (Lone Star and American Beauty) give stunning performances and Director of Photography Bobby Bukowski captures the magnificent frontier landscapes.
See it because a dazzling new 4K restoration of Thousand Pieces of Gold premieres at the Queens World Film Festival, Museum of the Moving Image, March 26, 2019.
See it because Thousand Pieces of Gold is a triumph over the film industry's staid mores. In the eyes of decision makers in that industry, the film's unique qualities: a Chinese woman (Rosalind Chao) in the lead; directed by a woman (Nancy Kelly) and produced by a Japanese American man (Kenji Yamamoto) were negatives. They warned Nancy and Kenji they would never get the film made, but they raised the money themselves and Thousand Pieces of Gold is a reality.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Way ahead of its time, the film resonates even more powerfully today in the era of #MeToo. Dealing with immigration, sex trafficking and forced marriage, this marvellous film is startlingly contemporary.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times:
Independent in the best sense of the word, Thousand Pieces of Gold gives us the Old West through a piece of candle-lit silk, hardship diffused through tears and smoke. The landscapes are clear, the action wedded to emotion. This is classic Western filmmaking: the lucid lyricism of a John Ford, a Budd Boetticher, a George Stevens. But, since Kelly is dealing with different kinds of conflicts, the film always seems to be opening up a new world.
Judy Stone, San Francisco Chronicle:
Kelly’s astute direction is all the more noteworthy because her only previous films were the documentaries Cowgirls and A Cowhand’s Song. Anne Makepeace’s script deftly touches on the loneliness of the raucous miners even as their anti-Chinese bigotry spills over into violence. The jewel in the crown is Rosalind Chao’s stunning performance as Lalu Nathoy.
Stephen Holden, The New York Times:
Even in moments of terrible anguish, Rosalind Chao projects the character’s steely will.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times:
Angry and romantic, Thousand Pieces of Gold tells a powerful, poignant tale.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Thousand Pieces of Gold is more resonant now than it was when we first released it. We want new audiences to discover the film.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Distributors, film festival directors, journalists.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
How can we make more films with women in lead roles? How can we make more films directed by women? How can we make more films about Asians Americans?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Nancy Kelly: writing When We Were Cowgirls, a feature-length screenplay.
Kenji Yamamoto: directing Hacker House, a feature documentary.
Interview: March 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Thousand Pieces of Gold
Set in a mining town in the 1880s, Thousand Pieces of Gold was developed by the Sundance Institute and premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1990. It won immediate acclaim for its portrayal of the real-life story of Lalu (Rosalind Chao), a young Chinese woman whose desperately poor parents sell her into slavery. She is trafficked to a nefarious saloonkeeper in Idaho’s gold country. Eventually, Charlie, a man of a different ilk, played by Chris Cooper, wins her in a poker game and slowly gains her trust.
Length: 1:45:00
Director: Nany Kelly
Producer: Kenji Yamamoto
Writer: Anne Makepeace
About the writer, director and producer:
A native of North Adams, Massachusetts, NANCY KELLY is self-taught. As a public health educator, she was hired to produce five short dramas about how to drink responsibly. Having fallen in love with filmmaking, she quit her job and moved to the high desert on the California/Nevada border. Though she had never ridden a horse or made a documentary, she learned to do both, making her living as a ranch hand while she shot A Cowhand’s Song and Cowgirls. Both films won awards. Kelly discovered Ruthanne Lum McCunn’s novel Thousand Pieces of Gold while touring with Cowgirls, and immediately saw it as a narrative feature. She and Kenji Yamamoto, her husband and filmmaking partner, spent six years financing the film with support from American Playhouse Theatrical Films, CPB, Film Four International and private investors.
ANNE MAKEPEACE has been a writer, producer, and director of award-winning independent films for more than three decades. Many of her films premiered at Sundance. Her new film, Tribal Justice, won Best Documentary prizes at many festivals. Many of her films aired on the acclaimed PBS documentary series, POV. She won a National Prime Time Emmy for her American Masters/PBS documentary Robert Capa: In Love and War, and was nominated for an Emmy for Rain in a Dry Land. makepeaceproductions.com
KENJI YAMAMOTO and NANCY KELLY have been partnered in life and work since 1980 when they decided to make a movie based on the novel, Thousand Pieces of Gold. Yamamoto served as producer and editor of the film. He is currently making his directorial debut with Hacker House, about a Spanish entrepreneur who risks everything on a Silicon Valley incubation hive where he plays “father” to dozens of nascent entrepreneurs while neglecting his own children back home in Madrid. A California native, Kenji Yamamoto studied painting, photography and filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute and later made narratives and documentaries, mainly about people on the fringes of society. He participated in the Sundance Institute Documentary Editing Lab with Jennifer Maytorena’s New Muslim Cool and won an artist-in-residence fellowship at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
Key cast: Rosalind Chao, Chris Cooper, Michael Paul Chan, Dennis Dun
Looking for: distributors, film festival directors, journalists, buyers
Facebook: Nancy Kelly
Twitter: @4KellyYamamoto
Website: kelly-yamamoto.com
Other: IMDB
Made in association with: 4K Digital Restoration: IndieCollect. Financiers: American Playhouse Theatrical Films, Maverick Films, TPOG Partners, Film Four International
Funders: Funded through investment
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Queens World Film Festival/New York City/March 26, 2019, 7PM