By Eva Trieger
SOLANA BEACH, California — Sometimes art imitates life, and sometimes art dictates life. When I interviewed Perry Chen and his mom, Dr. Zhu Shen on Wednesday, I felt that art and life inform each other, with one or the other alternatively taking the lead. It has been six years since I met Perry and Dr. Shen, shortly after the passing of Perry’s dad, Dr. Changyou Chen, a Stanford-trained cancer researcher and biotech founder.
At that meeting Perry shared his animated film with me, Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest. This brief animated film revealed the plight of an 8 year-old Jewish girl escaping a camp during the Holocaust. The topic had captivated Perry, and he created this short award-winning, sensitive movie, with Oscar nominee, Bill Plympton.
Motivated by the idea that he could give his father hope, and keep him alive longer, Perry began another animated film, Changyou’s Journey. This film chronicled his father’s life, his parents’ meeting, their courtship, and their eventual move to America from Mainland China. This film won a number of national arts awards from a host of sources including 2018 National Young Arts Foundation Finalist Award in Cinematic Arts, 2018 Scholastic Art and Writing National Gold Medal in Film and Animation, 2018 New York Life Award as well as 2018 US Presidential Scholars in the Arts Semifinalist. And that barely scratches the surface of the recognition and accolades this film has garnered, which is why, as the youngest animation director, Perry Chen and Zhu Shen are currently campaigning for an Oscar nomination. To this end, a fundraiser is planned for Sunday, Nov. 18th. See details below.
So more than half a decade later, I wanted to know where Perry and his mom were on their own respective journeys. In our phone interview, I was bowled over by the amount of progress, growth, and insight that the pair have experienced through working on this project together and bringing the film to the public.
Perry achieved many milestones since we’d last connected including graduating from San Diego’s Canyon Crest Academy High School and then being accepted at UC Irvine, where he resides as a freshman. Though his major is undecided, Perry is pursuing his passion of storytelling. “I think that storytelling is something that can be achieved through all sorts of media: film, drawing, animation, writing, any art. Now that I’m off to college I am no longer focusing on animation alone, but diversifying my knowledge in all fields and in all forms of art.”
I wanted to know if, at any point along the way, Perry had become discouraged or disenchanted with the project or the process. He acknowledged that after his father passed, he became defeated and depressed. His reasoning for making Changyou’s Journey seemed to have fallen flat. His film could not save his father’s life. As a 12-year-old, Perry reported, he felt powerless. This disillusioned adolescent was ready to throw in the towel, much to his mother’s dismay. Zhu Shen, his mother and producer, felt that this was not an option. Donations had been made in good faith and quitting seemed wrong.
Enter Performance Coach Walker Clark. With new perspective and a deep trust, Clark was able to share new vantage points to bridge mother and son. Through weekly meetings, Walker connected closely with the family, and enabled Zhu to see that ultimately Perry’s happiness was a priority. When she accepted this, and understood how critical it was to honor Perry’s feelings, the young artist surprised her by deciding to renew his commitment to delivering a product that would serve as “an inspiration and give hope for all of those who’ve experienced childhood grief.”
Perry and Zhu, with the support of friends and donors continued the project and entered numerous national and international competitions, winning awards and making multiple connections, often breaking through barriers and walls unimaginable for a director so young, and a producer without a cinematography or production background. Perry told me that the “film itself was not so much what helped me overcome the grief, but is a testament to my own personal growth. The film would not have been possible if I’d not overcome monumental hurdles in my life.”
I was curious to know how Perry’s experience of his film has changed since it first was made. The writer/director told me that at first he’d watch it and see all of the little mistakes; he was preoccupied by the errors. Today when he views the film he sees it as a product of what he could do at that age, and now he can absorb the big picture. Most often, after a showing of the film, audience members come up to Perry and share their own personal experiences with grief, and tell Chen how they saw themselves in Changyou’s Journey. Perry reported that he is surprised this his own film has been able to touch the lives of so many and “open the conversation of childhood grief, to foster compassion and empathy.” The film was screened in the Coronado Island Film Festival and in the San Diego Asian Film Festival on November 10th and 11th.
Clearly the process of making this film was transformative for Perry. So too, his mom. Zhu told me of her own evolution sparked by this project. This biotech science-oriented mom wanted to see her son pursue a successful career, most likely in Science or Engineering. However, she realized and came to embrace Perry’s creative energy and has become a “Zen Mom,” learning to “not attach certain expectation or outcomes to my work, to have presence, peace, gratitude and equanimity in my life, and in raising Perry too.” Her own film, about the making of Changyou’s Journey, will be released next year. A Journey of a Thousand Miles will be a feature length film of 1.5 hours. This venture has encouraged her to get in touch with her own creative side, and after 1000 hours of shooting, Zhu is editing the raw footage.
Zhu likened her transformation to the film The Devil Wears Prada. By this, she means that she has rebuilt herself from the inside out. Zhu credits her son for teaching her much about making a better documentary film, and taking better photos. These opportunities have brought so many gifted artists, editors, and designers into her world. One stunning example is Cynthia Zhou, a 17 year-old school student from San Jose, designed the poster for Perry’s film!
The mother and son relationship has flourished since that turbulent period when Perry was ready to back out. Today, the two report a highly symbiotic partnership. Where Zhu has business acumen and is ambitious and outgoing, Perry reads people well, and has a more critical lens with which he views the world. Both feel that “one without the other is not as effective as both together.” They trade off being each other’s mentor and teacher, and both are gaining insights into the skills of the other. Zhu is empowered by her license to explore her creativity, and Perry is garnering some of the more technical aspects of the field, as his mom sometimes drives him “out of my comfort zone.”
This Sunday, November 18th a fundraising event will be held at a private home in Poway. The Movie Magic and Oscar Race Fundraiser will be held at 16110 Lakeview Road in Poway, and more information is available at www.changyousjourney.com.
Just as I was about to send this article to my editor, I received news from Zhu that must be included:
Changyou’s Journey has been selected in the official Shorts Competition at the upcoming Los Angeles Animation Festival (one of the top animation film festivals in the US)! Screening on Dec 2, details below:
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3818251 (Changyou’s Journey #10 on list of screened film) Shorts in Competition #3 Screening: Noon, Sunday December 2, 2018. MayFlower Club, 11110 Victory Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91606.
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Trieger is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eva.trieger@sdjewishworld.com