WHAT IS HOTPOPTV?
Hotpop.TV is an incubator. For all productions that take place there has to be an incubation of the projects, it just doesn't take place overnight. There are no such incubators for Asian Americans. What HotPopTV.Com is an incubator for shows and talent for our communities. Once that talent is developed within the incubator, then we feel it is ready to be platform in the entertainment industry - a very competitive field where you can't come in with half-baked with half-baked ideas with no testing grounds to make sure that the shows work. Even the biggest comedians constantly test their materials by going to the comedy stores "incubating" their acts and developing their shows.

Jacqueline  Kong    Background Jacqueline Kong is an industry film director with four feature films to her credit. Her film, Night Patrol, achieved global box office success. She is currently producing a documentary on the Chinese-American experience in California over the last 100 years. She is responsible for setting AAMD's agenda and making business and creative decisions with her primary focus being the creative development of writers and developing avenues for their work.

Yet Asian Americans don't have that incubator.

What HotPopTV.Com is for the Asian Americans in the entertainment industry is that incubator by creating shows that created by, starring and written by Asian American writers, actors and directors while putting them into a platform that is media - not just stage. The problems with just coming after the fact and complaining about improper portrayals is one of the reasons why a lot of the portrayals are improper because there are no involvement of our communities in its creation.

Basically somebody else is creating our images and creating them wrong. They are not including us because we are not creating the content and incubating the content ourselves. Therefore, we are expecting them to know how to write for Asian Americans and hire these actors and they are all wrong. Then we go and protest. Sometimes the best intentions get protested because it is approached incorrectly.

THE NEED FOR ETHNIC TV PROGRAMMING
Right now, how many Asian American TV shows are out there. There are no Asian American TV shows being produced. Very few Asian American are seen on television, as evident by noting that we represent the lowest percentage of any minority being represented in TV - lower than our percentage in the general public.

Last year, the Media Coalition (which was formed and headed by the NAACP - of which I was involved with), protested that in the 26 shows that was announced last May, they had no ethnic minority in any of the main characters or the main supporting characters. What that told us: if we're not vigilant, all the hard work that Africans and Latino Americans have made gets totally ignored or bypassed. It means that somebody is not watching or not making an effort in the network to include all people of color to be in their shows in a significant way.

What we did, was to organized a "brown-out" and a boycott last year. I spoke at NAPTE in January, which is the largest television conference (National Association of Television Program Executives). It includes everybody from all the major networks, all the cable networks, all the main producers that produces the network shows, 17,000 members - it is the largest television convention in the world. That's where they talk about all these issues. I spoke with Mfume (head of the NAACP) and Felix Sanchez (Latino Legal Center in Washington D.C.) and there were no executives that showed up during our speeches that meant that this issue is not being taken seriously - which was written in the LA Times and in all the trade papers.

Are they taking this issue seriously? My answer: no that they are not!

This was very evident when in May of last year; there was a slate of shows that was released with no ethnic minorities. Then in January, we were invited to discuss it and nobody from the networks showed up to even hear about solutions. We weren't there to complain, we were there to discuss solutions - nobody was there to listen.

What does that tell you? That they are giving us lip service and telling us that they care, but there are no real effective policies to change the lack of ethnic minorities.

Yes: maybe they are hiring an actor here and there - so that it might smooth things over. There is, however, no significant push for more diversity in the development/production end of the shows in the major networks.

Moctesuma   Esparza    AAMD Board Member Moctesuma Esparza, principal partner, Esparza/Katz Productions - is an award winning filmmaker, producer and entertainment industry executive. He has received over 100 honors including an Academy Award nomination, an Emmy, a Clio Award, and Cine Golden Eagle Award. Mr. Esparza has produced, directed and/or written over 100 documentaries, educational, short films, public service announcements and commercials. His work has been distributed on public broadcasting, cable television, and theatrical release. Producing credits include Selena, The Milagro Beanfield War, The Roughriders, Lorca, Cisco Kid, and Gettysburg.

So what does that tell us? It tells us that ethnic minorities have to be very vigilant to make sure that this issue doesn't drop from the radar screen. Because the minute that it is dropped, it seems like all the hard work that all the civil rights work by black Americans gets overlooked.

WHERE DO YOU THINK THE GREATEST NEEDS ARE
If you are an actor with no available roles to be in, it doesn't manner how many directories you put together or how many showcases you put together. The producers are not looking for Asian American talent. At last year's JamFest, we invited many executives - but many of them didn't come. We provided the following: 1) event's location at the most prestigious place on the Westside (LA County Museum of Arts); 2) easy geographical access to the showcase and 3) first class amenities. All the participating performers went through an audition process. Yet many industry people who stated that they were interested, including the networks, did not attend.

The problems that I see is that the networks are not seriously interested, especially in the Asian American communities for talent. This is a major problem.

Knowing that this is the problem.
To have more actors training for non-existent roles is not the best approach. I feel the best approach, which AAMD and HotPopTV.Com are doing, is to create "The Role." The writing is the most important aspect, where there have be organizations like this, supporting the creation of the stories about the Asian American communities, using and designed for Asian American actors.

Why is that important?

Look at what the African American communities have done. Right now, we are very accustomed seeing people like Denzil Washington - all of these African American stars. Where do most of those African American actors get their platform - from African American filmmakers that write and direct stories about the African American experience. If no one is writing the stories about the Asian American experience, who will write these tales? I am currently training a lot of writers working with the workshop through AAMD who have gone to USC, AFI, etc. We have tried to nurture them to write about the Asian American experience that will utilize Asian American actors.

That to me is the most important. The issue of directing is another key and difficult issue. I think that the director is the vision, but the writing has to be there and there has to be somebody to produce that writing.