A film by Joey Ally
Runtime: 18:36 Korean, Mandarin, English (English Subs) Website: www.silveroxpictures.com/joy-joy-nails E-mail: joey.ally@gmail.com Instagram: @joyjoynailsfilm
LOGLINE Korean manager Sarah gets her claws out when she suspects Chinese new-hire Mia of being after her man only to discover that everyone's a victim at JOY JOY NAILS. SHORT SYNOPSIS In an upmarket Connecticut strip mall, Korean Sarah manages a Korean-owned nail salon with an ever cheerful, K-pop pumping, manicured iron fist. When Chinese Mia starts training as a manicurist, and looks to be stealing the boss s son s affections, Sarah gets her claws out only to discover that under the varnish, everyone s a victim at JOY JOY NAILS.
WHY THIS STORY; WHY THIS TEAM JOY JOY NAILS was made as part of the American Film Institute Directing Workshop for Women, a 501c3 non-profit fighting to push the needle for women in cinema. The film is 60% in Korean and Mandarin, with an 70% Asian, 90% female cast, and a female dominated creative team to match. Asian actors in Hollywood accounted for only 5% of speaking or named roles in film/tv in 2014; Women comprised just 7% of all directors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films in 2016.
DIRECTOR S NOTE The seed story of JOY JOY NAILS came to me after reading a series of articles about the nail salon industry published last fall, including the Pulitzer Prize nominated NY Times expose Unvarnished. The coverage detailed rampant human rights abuses in an industry that thrives largely on the powerlessness of undocumented workers, many of whom are housed in tenements throughout five boroughs and taken in vans to remote suburban locations. I was horrified to discover racial caste systems and indentured labor in salons just like the ones I frequented when growing up in Connecticut, and living in Manhattan as an adult. Horrified to realize that it s happening somewhere, right now. These women are being bullied, and their stories must be told. JOY JOY NAILS was written to explore the interiors of these women s lives, inside the frame of a story we all know essentially, a twisted take on the classic story of popular girl versus unpopular girl, but in the salon setting. In the process of making the film, which is in English, Korean, and Mandarin, I discovered something more - the severe underrepresentation of Asian/American Actors in Hollywood. As recently as 2014, Asians represented just 5.1 percent of speaking of named characters across film, television and digital series per the NYTimes - it s a problem that feeds itself, as this also means Asian actors have less access to good material for their reels, which limits their access to good representation, etc.
DIRECTOR S NOTE (continued) For JOY JOY NAILS, I needed an almost entirely Asian cast, and one with perfect accents. As a result, our casting process was my most intense to date - through our casting director Amey René, multiple EP s, Producers, and friends, we put out calls in Korean, Mandarin, and English across blogs, papers, and message boards, and found the most talented group of actors. I m so excited for Tribeca to experience them, and to cast them them in all varieties of roles in upcoming projects. Despite the neo-realist tone and the darker themes at play, as with the bleakest moments of life, this film balances tragedy with comedy. In JOY JOY NAILS, the audience sits where these women sit, eats where they eat, and sleeps where they sleep...or, many nights, where they lie sleepless, worried, and waiting for chances and changes that never come. I think if you laugh, cry, and cringe with someone your story becomes in some way bound with theirs. I think the best thing a piece of art, of any kind, can do is help us all connect more; to see ourselves in each other. I know the Tribeca audience will see their own struggles, and joys, in these actors and the characters I was so fortunate to create with them and I suspect they ll never look into a nail salon quite the same way again.
FILMMAKERS Joey Ally - Writer/Director Joey Ally is a writer and director, a New Yorker who currently lives in Los Angeles. She is a member of the 2017 class of the American Film Institute Directing Workshop for Women, was one of 5 female filmmakers chosen for the 2016 Tribeca/Chanel "Through Her Lens" program, is part of the first class of the AFI/Fox Directors Lab 2017, and was the recipient of Video of the Year 2015 at WME IMG. She most recently directed two episodes of Flip the Script, Women in Film's first digital series, and JOY JOY NAILS, a short film for the AFI DWW that will premiere at Tribeca 2017. Before moving behind the camera, Joey was an acting apprentice at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and studied improvisation at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater NYC, and the Groundlings LA. A graduate of Amherst College, Joey got her education in filmmaking assisting Megan Griffiths, then Lynn Shelton, on set. Her multiple awardwinning films MINIMUM WAGE and PARTNERS have screened internationally at 50+ festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, Aspen ShortsFest, Outfest (Best of Fest), BFI:Flare, Palm Springs International Shortfest, LA Film Festival, Lunafest, and NBCUniversal Film Festival - PARTNERS debuted online with Vimeo Premieres, hitting 250k+ views in it's first week. Her projects have been featured in Indiewire, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, NY Magazine, W Magazine, and HelloGiggles. She s busy these days learning piano (slowly), and developing several projects with her partner T.J. Williams, Jr. through their company SilverOx Pictures (less slowly).
Constanza Castro - Producer Born in Mexico City, Constanza Castro is a film producer with a Masters degree from the American Film Institute, where she received the Jeffrey Katzenberg Fellowship Award, a full year scholarship. Constanza has produced numerous award-winning shorts and music videos and her work has been featured on Vimeo Staff Pick, Short of the Week, Billboard.com, MTV Clubland, and Vice. Her short HALA premiered on Nylon.com. Her first feature, LIARS FIRES AND BEARS premiered at the Chinese Theaters in Hollywood and her work has screened at Austin Film Festival, Atlanta, San Diego, Sarasota, Napa, Nordisk Panorama, and Palms Springs to name a few. She currently has three shorts in the festival circuit, works in commercials and has three features and two series in development. T.J. Williams, Jr. - Cinematographer, Co-Producer, Additional Editor T.J. is a 2x Emerging Cinematographer Award winning DP who most recently lensed the feature film SADIE for director Megan Griffiths. His work has screened internationally including at Sundance16&17, Outfest, LAFF, & Camerimage. Raised in the Seattle Independent Film community, he currently lives and works in LA, where he brings a visual voice to feature films, digital content, and commercials.
Ben Jaffe - Composer Ben Jaffe is a composer and musician most known for his work with the Americana group, " HONEYHONEY". Jaffe has also written music and performed on numerous television and film projects including the upcoming TBS series, "Guestbook" and cartoons such as " Spongebob Squarepants" and " Camp Lazlo". He is a nice guy. Adam Thomson - Editor Adam is a feature film editor from New York. Raised in a storytelling culture with a background in video-art, he s been an integral part of crafting films and visual art projects that have premiered around the world and incompetition at festivals such as SXSW, Tribeca, Rotterdam, AFI Docs & MoMA.
CAST Kahyun Kim - Sarah Kahyun Kim's theatre credits include: Love and Money (Signature Theatre), Aubergine (Berkeley Rep Workshop), Hit (LATC), Assistance (Wilma Theatre), Midsummer Night s Dream, Hay Fever and Circle Mirror Transformation (Juilliard). TV credits: Cassandra French s Finishing School for Boys, Mysteries of Laura, Shameless and Austin and Ally. Film credits: Spa Night, Obituaries and Playing it Cool. Kahyun is a recent graduate from the Juilliard School. She is currently in Chicago originating a role in Tracy Letts new play at the Steppenwolf Theatre. Yi Liu - Mia Yi Liu, a US-based Chinese(Mandarin)-English bilingual actress, trained in NYC and has credits in theater, films, documentaries, contemporary art. Li-Yan, 2016, starring Yi Liu, directed by world-renowned French artist Philippe Parreno, was exhibited in Gladstone Gallery in NYC, 2016. She also starred in the short film The Daydreaming Bunny, which received millions of viewers after it was released, and played a principle role in the short film The Walker which won Best Short in 2016 Alicante Film Festival.
Tae Song - Matthew Tae Song is a Korean-American actor currently residing in Los Angeles. After graduating from UC Irvine with a degree in Drama, specializing in Musical Theatre, Tae quickly transitioned into the film industry. His most recent and notable work apart from JOY JOY NAILS can be seen in SPA NIGHT which premiered at Sundance 2016 in the dramatic competition and has won a multitude of awards since then including the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes award. This is Tae s first appearance at Tribeca and he is looking forward to tearing down the streets of New York with his JOY JOY NAILS family.
CREDITS AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women Presents A SilverOx Picture With Support from the Minerd Foundation Starring Kahyun Kim Yi Liu With Tae Song & Sarah Chang Shirley Kwon Esther Moon Chris Yejin And Catherine Haena Kim Jongman Kim Amber Sealey Caryn West Executive Producers Nicole Boxer Soojin Chung Ian Harding Weiko Lin Robert O'Twomney Kimberly Parker Executive Producers Eloy Mendez Scott Minerd
Co-Producers Sahhara Assafiri Minji Kang T.J. Williams, Jr. Co-Executive Producer Marco Locascio & Emily O'Brien Edited by Adam Thomson Production Design by Alex Dixon Music by Ben Jaffe Cinematography by T.J. Williams, Jr. Produced by Constanza Castro Story by Joey Ally and T.J. Williams, Jr. Written and Directed by Joey Ally
CONTACT PUBLIC RELATIONS: Dani Cordaro Piccolo Public Relations Mail: dani@piccolopr.com Phone: 323.250.3702 DIRECTOR: Joey Ally SilverOx Pictures Mail: joey.ally@gmail.com Representation: WME IMG Arvand Khosravi akhosravi@wmeentertainment.com 310.285.9000