Eric Byler

Eric Byler (born January 15, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter and political activist. He identifies as hapa biracial, born to a Chinese American mother and a white American father.^[1] He grew up in Virginia, Hawaii (where he attended Moanalua High School), and California. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1994, majoring in film. He currently lives in Gainesville, Virginia.

Filmmaker

Byler's senior thesis film, Kenji's Faith, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1995, went on to win six film festival awards, and was a regional finalist in the Student Academy Awards.

His first feature film, Charlotte Sometimes was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards in 2003, including the John Cassavetes Award for Best Feature under $500,000, and a Best Supporting Actress award for Jacqueline Kim. The film was called "Fascinating and illuminating" by film critic Roger Ebert, and won the Audience Award at South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), the Special Jury Award at the Florida Film Festival, and the Best Dramatic Feature at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. The film was distributed theatrically by Visionbox Media and Small Planet Pictures before being released on DVD.

Byler's second feature is the Charlotte Sometimes quasi-sequel, TRE which was the winner of the Special Jury Award at the 2007 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. TRE was distributed in theaters and on DVD (May 6, 2008) by Cinema Libre Studio.

His third feature, Americanese, is an adaptation of Shawn Wong's seminal Asian American novel, "American Knees." It won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at SXSW, in addition to a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Cast, which includes Chris Tashima, Allison Sie, Joan Chen and Kelly Hu. It was acquired by IFC First Take. He also directed the PBS / ITVS Television pilot, My Life Disoriented.

His most recent feature film, "9500 Liberty" (co-directed with Annabel Park), is a documentary about immigration and politics. "9500 Liberty" won the Breakthrough Filmmaker Award at the 2010 Phoenix Film Festival, the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 Charlotte Film Festival, and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 St. Louis International Film Festival.^[2]

He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Netroots Organizer

In February 2010, Byler cofounded the Coffee Party, along with Annabel Park. ^[8] Byler directed and edited the "How we Started" video for Coffee Party USA,^[9] the "National Kick-off" video,^[10] and other videos that appear on the Coffee Party YouTube channel,.^[11] Coffee Party USA [2] is coalition that began as a fan page on Facebook.^[12]

During the 2008 presidential primary, Byler volunteered as co-director (along with Warren Fu) of a music video of a song written and performed by artist Andres Useche, entitled "Si Se Puede Cambiar", in support of Sen. Barack Obama. The video was released on YouTube on February 22, 2008 and was viewed more than half a million times.^{[13][14][15][16]}

In 2007, Byler volunteered and created YouTube videos for the "121 Coalition" a national grassroots organization that helped to pass House Resolution 121, urging the Japanese government to acknowledge and apologize for military rape camps (comfort women) during World War II. The resolution passed on July 30, 2007.

In the fall of 2006, Byler participated as a volunteer in Virginia U.S. Senate election. In response to incumbent Sen. George Allen's use of the term "Macaca" on the campaign trail, referring to a South Asian American student from the University of Virginia, Byler and others rallied the Asian American community together, forming a group calling themselves "Real Virginians for Webb" and supporting Allen's democratic opponent, Jim Webb. Their efforts can be credited as a significant contributing factor to Webb's eventual victory, where he won the final vote count by a margin of less than 9,000.^[17]

Byler also is a content producer for the interactive documentary "2010 Okinawa" exploring the controversy over U.S. bases in Okinawa.^[18]

Filmography

• Kenji's Faith (1994) student thesis
• Charlotte Sometimes (2003) — director, writer, producer, editor
• My Life Disoriented (2006) — director, producer
• Americanese (unreleased) — director, screen-adaptation
• TRE (2008) — director, writer
• 9500 Liberty (2009) — director, writer, editor

References

External links

• Eric Byler at the Internet Movie Database
• Eric Byler at AllRovi
• Eric Byler on Myspace
• Coffee Party USA (2010)
• 9500Liberty (2009)
• Charlotte Sometimes (2003) trailer
• Tre (2008)
• "Si Se Puede Cambiar" Obama Music Video on YouTube
• Through Our Lens Political Blog on AsianWeek.com

Film criticism

• Los Angeles Times review of Charlotte Sometimes (2003)
• Washington Post review of Charlotte Sometimes (2003)
• Roger Ebert review of Charlotte Sometimes (2003)
• Variety review of Tre (2007)
• eFilmCritic review of "Tre" (2007)
• Roger Ebert review of Americanese (2008)