"A Great Deal!" - Deborah Lum in St. Louis Filmmaker's Showcase 

	Deborah Lum, a native of St. Louis, returns home from California, the world's 
film-making capital, for the screening of her film, "A Great Deal!". "A 
Great Deal!" is showing at Webster University in the St. Louis Filmmaker's 
Showcase on Friday, July 23 at 7:00pm. The film tells the story of an 
agoraphobic woman and her dominating Chinese mother, played by Laureen Chew 
("Chan Is Missing", "Dim Sum"). Lonely and overly manipulated by her 
mother, she gets an opportunity to try something new from a strange source-a 
wily telemarketer with a seductive charm. Set in San Francisco, Lum uses lush 
visuals and black comedy to explore Chinese American cultural questions, and 
the competing demands of manipulation, obedience and desire. "A Great Deal!" 
has screened in film festivals across the country from Washington DC to 
Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

	Lum first broke into the film business as an editor on "The Joy Luck Club."  
She had a successful career as an editor and producer of critically acclaimed 
documentaries, including the Emmy award wining "A.K.A. Don Bonus" and "Kelly 
Loves Tony." Learning from eminent directors such as Wayne Wang, Philip 
Kaufman and Spencer Nakasako, Lum was inspired and encouraged to create her 
own work. She wrote and directed "One April Morning", an idyllic story about 
the pitfalls of ideal love that played in numerous film festivals, and she 
has more screenplays coming down the pipe. Her current work entitled, 
"Gentlemen Don't Always Prefer Blondes" is a black comedy about a Caucasian 
man who only dates Chinese women. Lum's stories speak to the Asian American 
condition with clarity, humor and aesthetic sensitivity.  And like all 
independent filmmakers, she is looking for investors and new talent for her 
next major project.

	Suburban St. Louis, where Lum grew up, gave her an unlikely mix of influences 
that have infused her films with a unique perspective. Living a stone's throw 
from the Creve Coeur Cinema, she remembers summer-long traffic jams from the 
nation's first blockbuster STAR WARS. By contrast, her father, a 
third-generation Chinese American transplant from Hawaii, would drive her 
family to the Tivoli to watch all the latest art films. Her mother, a New 
Yorker, originally from Chongqing, Siquan, likewise, would drive her to north 
St. Louis, where she trained at a competitive gymnastics club. She attended 
John Burroughs High School, graduating in the top of her class. She holds a 
B.A. from Brown University and will receive her M.F.A. in film from San 
Francisco State University.