Armed with Jet Blue's "All You Can" Jet pass, filmmaker James Chen plans on traveling to 30 cities in 30 days and try to go on 30 dates as he attempts to find his "soulmate" in a new "sousveillance documentary" project.
"I believe in soulmates," James states on his website. "But I also believe that finding them is one of life's journeys. I've always wondered, "What if your soulmate wasn't in your home town?" How would you ever find them?
James recently answered a few questions about his new project for Examiner.com:
What inspired you to create this project?
From a personal side, I believe that while soulmates exist, it's up to us to find them. If life was kind to us, we would run into our soulmate on our way to work and on a Saturday night out with friends. But sometimes life isn't so kind. What if your soul-mate is on the other side of the country? How would you meet them? How would you know unless you flew out there and went on a date? It's set of hypothetical questions that I've always wished I could afford to answer, but have never had the resources to do so. Until now. (smiles)
From a filmmaker's side, I have an enormous amount of respect for documentary filmmakers. I think the entire process of making a documentary requires a great deal of discipline, patience and hard work. I have shot a few single day live events, and they were challenging enough on their own to shoot and edit. The task of creating an entire film seemed daunting. But having watched a string of incredible documentary films recently (Planet B-Boy, Whiz Kids, Food Inc., Burma VJ), I was really inspired to attempt one and just waiting for the right opportunity.
When the opportunity for this project came up, I knew it would be frantic to plan, but I decided to jump at it. I guess I enjoy learning through trial by fire. It's stressful, but forces you to learn and recover from your mistakes quickly. So if I can survive this project, hopefully I'll grow a bit as a filmmaker and weave a good story along the way.
How did you come up with the concept for 30 days, 30 cities, 30 dates?
When I discovered the Jet Blue All You Can Jet pass, I was fascinated by the possibilities. Several of my friends bought it and started planning vacations, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to visit parts of America I hadn't seen yet. Then... the Asian part of me thought about how I could maximize the value of the pass. The possibility of doing something crazy like thirty cities in thirty days sprang to mind. That's when the filmmaker side of me took over and demanded that I film the entire journey. So it quickly went from a relaxing vacation to work.
I brainstormed several ideas that I thought would make a compelling documentary and narrowed it down to two, a more serious one that would try to highlight non-profit work and a more light hearted one that would allow me to seek out my soulmate. When I presented the ideas to other people, the overwhelming majority surprisingly voted for the soulmate search. Even strangers I approached were curious to see what would happen on my search for a soulmate. I was personally rooting for the non-profit documentary. But aside from the voting, the logistics, hurdles and costs for producing the non-profit film was much more difficult, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it justice. As a filmmaker, the choice seemed clear. Though, I'm still hoping for an opportunity to shoot the non-profit documentary some time in the future.
From the non-filmmaker side, what single guy wouldn't want to go on 30 dates? I did have several reservations about it though. This would be the first time I've really "put myself out there", so to speak. Writing the personal's page felt a bit awkward, but good practice I guess. The logistics and planning for the entire project still has me very stressed. But I'm very fortunate to have some amazing producers backing me up (Philip Hoang and Chris Lee), who have really worked overtime to ease the burden. And it's difficult to say what to expect from here. I might have thirty dates lined up, or I might have zero. Regardless, I'm excited and preparing for the best and worst.
Define your perfect "soulmate"?
My perfect soulmate is someone that I can grow with. By that, I mean someone that can help me grow as a person and for which I can return the favor. Someone that I can empathize with and lift up through the worst of times and celebrate the best of times. And someone who will do the same for me.
When I was younger, I used to think that my soulmate was someone who I wouldn't have to work for. They would magically appear and just love me for who I was. I wouldn't need to change in any way. But as I grew older, I began to realize that change was inevitable and that conflict and disagreements were staples in life. It's not about getting everything you want, but more about how you deal with the times that you don't get what you want. And ultimately, it wasn't about finding someone that you would never argue with, but instead finding that person who you handles those arguments graciously. It's someone who can handle the worst of me, and help me working on improving that part.
How do you think finding your "soulmate" will affect you?
Good question. As it pertains to the trip, I've lightly entertained the thought of possibility meeting my soulmate on the first few days. What would I do if I did? Would I cancel all my remaining flights to spend more time with her? Would I keep going on dates in hopes of finding proof of my feelings? It's hard to say at this point, but truthfully, in the past, my heart usually trumps my brain.
As it pertains to life in general, it might be an interesting dilemma as well. I'm currently transitioning to a new life-long career in film and starting from the bottom again has me working harder than ever to succeed. I have to admit that I'm very career focused at this point, and I have struggled with balancing work and relationships in the past. But I'm always looking out for my soulmate, because if I met her, I'd imagine that she would help me bring balance to my life.
Ed Moy is an award-winning Asian American writer, actor, producer. He has written for Asian Week News, Asiance Magazine and 13 Minutes Magazine. He's a member of the Coalition for Asian Pacifics in Entertainment.
I dated almost 500 men in almost two years and found my love, but I believe that you can't go looking for your soul mate you just have to know that when you life is in the right place your soul mate will be there. I placed my faith in my higher power to find my love, I dated because it was better than sitting at home alone every night. I don't think you can go out and find your soul mate if you look I do believe it will be an empty search. That is why I wrote a book about it, and started a web page to help people learn that love is not like fast food you can't just drive up and order what you want. good luck to you Christina
gunnersgirl125 at gmail
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Comments
I dated almost 500 men in almost two years and found my love, but I believe that you can't go looking for your soul mate you just have to know that when you life is in the right place your soul mate will be there. I placed my faith in my higher power to find my love, I dated because it was better than sitting at home alone every night. I don't think you can go out and find your soul mate if you look I do believe it will be an empty search. That is why I wrote a book about it, and started a web page to help people learn that love is not like fast food you can't just drive up and order what you want. good luck to you Christina
gunnersgirl125 at gmail
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