Q&A with Joy Dietrich:
Filmmaker on the Verge
The women in “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” teeter on the tiny border of greatness and madness with no promise of a happy ending.
It’s reality, says Dietrich, who wrote, directed and produced the film. In the end, not everything is neatly wrapped in shiny paper and topped with a bow.
All three of the film’s women struggle in their own gilded cages. Especially Jenny Mason (Kim Jiang), the film’s Korean born adoptee who was born at an airport as a 45-pound, 45-inch baby bounced into the arms of her white Midwestern family.
For her first critically acclaimed feature film, Dietrich chose to put a little of herself onscreen.
“I was born in South Korea, lived in an orphanage for almost four years somewhere in Seoul, then got adopted by white American parents living in Texas at five years of age.”
But Dietrich mostly wanted to make a film about often ignored subjects. “Enter the world of young Asian American women,” the film’s tagline almost dares you. Are you ready? — Lynda Lin
Pacific Citizen: How much of this ‘autobiographically inspired’ film parallels and intersects with your life?
Joy Dietrich: I know there’s going to be a lot of questions about whether the film is autobiographical and my answer is the film’s a work of fiction. There are certain elements in the film that are inspired by my own experience, such as the feeling of alienation, the disconnection I felt growing up in a white family and in a small town in the U.S.
I am a Korean adoptee and I do have a white brother, but he’s also adopted like me. Apart from those similarities, the film is not my personal story. Unlike the film, my brother and I were never close. We never really knew each other because of the battle raging between him and my adoptive parents. It was a very dysfunctional family.
PC: You were once a journalist, but defected to the film world. Whhhy?
JD: I didn’t feel passionate about journalism though I really liked it. Also to be a reporter, you have to have a certain personality — an aggressive one, which I can’t sometimes maintain. I’m more introverted and insular than people think.
However, I developed a passion for films. I was an avid film buff, especially the art house films from the U.S. and abroad. I lived for two years in Paris working as a journalist over there and I would go to the cinema two to three times a week. I suddenly thought I should try filmmaking and moved to New York to do just that. However, I still have to rely on my work as a journalist. I currently work as a research editor at the New York Times.
PC: Almost every frame of ‘TYR’ is art in motion. My favorite scene is Bea’s first bathtub scene after she’s had this simmering confrontation with her parents. It’s beautifully harrowing. Do you have a background in visual art?
JD: I started as an art major at the beginning of college, but then I had some family troubles and found out I had to pay for college by myself and got scared. I tried to think of all the things I could do as a career. I thought being an artist would be hard and I would not make a living doing it. I knew I liked to travel and I liked politics and studying cultures, so I switched majors to international relations. I thought I could be a diplomat. Even though I went into another field, I always kept my creative side going.
PC: Three of the leading ladies are all profoundly troubled (a favorite theme of yours). One has a breakdown and the others have breakthroughs.
JD: I think that reflects reality. Not everyone’s going to make it out at the end and most of the time people barely hang on. It’s a tough world out there.
PC: Is this a chick flick? A cautionary tale?
JD: I don’t know. I would say it’s a drama about young women searching for connection and a place to call home.
PC: Andrew Wyeth’s ‘Christina’s World’ is a haunting metaphor for the plight of these women. Why did you choose it to come to life in the film?
JD: I remember always wondering what Christina looked like. Her home was so near, but crippled it was going to be a challenge for her to make it home up on that hill. It’s like Jenny, it’s like Bea, it’s like Sandy. All three girls searching for a place, for a connection, a comfort zone, for home that is so near but so far away. Also, because I wanted to make a film about Asian American young women, I thought I would choose the most iconic American painting and have the woman who turns her head around to be an Asian woman.
PC: You’re taking the film through the festival circuit any news on a theatrical release?
JD: Working on it. It’s tough out there. ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon’ has won two great prizes: the Special Jury Prize for Best Director at CineVegas and the Best Narrative Film Award at Urbanworld Vibe Film Festival in New York. Even so, with no known stars, and an Asian American cast and the fact it’s a difficult drama make it hard to convince distributors to take the risk of taking the film theatrical. Usually in the independent film world, the common thing is you lose money when you go theatrical. But I haven’t lost hope!
PC: What’s the next film project bumping around your head?
JD: I’ve got a lot of ideas and am working on developing one with a producer. Top secret!
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