About a year ago to the day, my beautiful friend Carmen told me she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. I booked a flight to Vancouver the next day to be there in person to say, “I love you” and give the biggest hug I could possibly muster.
I took a flight to Edmonton afterwards to see family. I talked to my cousin, Ellysia, about Carmen. Two weeks later, she was also diagnosed with breast cancer. While going through treatment, Ellysia told me if I hadn’t come to visit, she wouldn’t have thought twice to get checked. She felt the situation would’ve been much worse, and Carmen might’ve saved her life..
This is PINK ELEPHANT –a short film for them released in October 2017. It was a manifestation of trying to process feelings that couldn’t be described with words. The title comes from references to growing up with my best friend/wonderfully silly cousin. “PINK” not just for the obviously symbolic color, but from our love of the late ’80’s cartoon, “Jem and the Holograms” (that still influences my work btw, lol). “ELEPHANT” from the puns we used to make out of our names, ie. “leggo-my-m’eggo” and “elly-phant”. Also, when you mouth the word elephant, it looks like “I love you”. Ladies, please take care, get checked. –March 26, 2018
Made with love by:
// Director/Writer: Meghan Hui
// Producer: Ujin Kim
// Cinematographer: Michael Greenwood
// Production Design: Amanda Jacobs
// Composer: Nestor Estrada
// Makeup: Ujin Kim
// Hair: Richard Canales
// Set Photographer: Krista Turner
// Special Thanks:
Kenji Hattori-Forth, Eyad Kalaji, Rose Rosas, Yuri Angela Chung, Kut Haus Salon Claremont