A Great Deal!

St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase Comedy
Saturday, Nov. 16, 11 a.m., Tivoli Theatre, 6350 Delmar Blvd. 
Producer: Debbie Lum, 2001, 18 min.
To break out of her shell, an agoraphobic girl overcomes an overbearing mother and constipated father with the help of a charming telemarketer.

Debbie Lum, a native of St. Louis, now living in California, the world's 
film-making capital, will have the second St. Louis screening of her film, "A 
Great Deal!" "A Great Deal!" is showing at the Tivoli in the St. Louis 
International Film Festival, Saturday, November 16, 11:00 am. 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.  She returned to St. 
Louis last summer for the first screening at the St. Louis Filmmakers 
Showcase.  Her film has also been selected for the Hawaii Film Festival, and 
she has chosen to travel to Hawaii instead of St. Louis for the screening.

This year the St. Louis International Film Festival has achieved an official 
designation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a 
sanctioned short subject qualification event. Debbie Lum's "A Great Deal!" is 
an 18 minute film and could qualify through their juried panel. Audiences at 
the St. Louis International Film Festival have the opportunity to vote on 
their favorite feature, documentary and international films.  All winners 
will be announced at the Closing-Night Awards Party on Sunday, Nov. 24, 9:30 
pm at the Sheraton Clayton Plaza.

Lum's video work in Florence, Italy was shown the past two weeks at Elliot 
Smith Gallery and Des Lee Gallery as part of Bill Kohn's MultiMedia 
Performance "Brunnelleschi e noi" which also featured the music of composer 
Rich O'Donnell, and Dale Dufer as photographer and editor.

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 Chongqing, Siquan, likewise, would drive her to north St. 
Louis, where she trained at a top 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 Univesrity.