THE DONUT KING

The American Dream with a *glazed* twist.

THE DONUT KING is Ted Ngoy’s rags-to-riches story of a refugee escaping Cambodia, arriving in America in 1975, and building an unlikely multimillion-dollar empire baking America’s favorite pastry, the donut. Ngoy sponsored hundreds of visas for incoming refugees and helped them get on their feet teaching them the ways of the donut business. By 1979, he was living the American Dream—but a great rise often comes with a great fall. THE DONUT KING is a tale of hard knocks, redemption, wealth, survival, risk, and donuts.

Join audiences nationwide on Wednesday, May 19, 2021 at 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET for a virtual CAAMFest Indie Lens Pop-Up screening of THE DONUT KING featuring a post-screening panel with writer, director, and showrunner Kulap Vilaysack and soon-to-be announced special guests, on immigration, cross-cultural community relationships, and the promise of the American Dream.

This event is hosted by Indie Lens Pop-Up and the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM),in collaboration with Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Justice San Antonio, TX; Bud Werner Memorial Library; Connecticut Public Television; Georgia Public Broadcasting; Global Peace Film Festival; Kansas City Public Library; KIXE; KQED; NET; Nebraska’s PBS & NPR Stations; Panhandle PBS/KACV; Tillotson Center; and Yale Film Archive.

This is a live virtual screening. This program, produced by ITVS, will be presented on the OVEE Platform. For registration questions, email: indielenspopup@itvs.org. For questions during the event, email: ovee@itvs.org. An OVEE team will be on hand to answer questions and provide support. Leading up to the event, they will also send several emails with instructions.

About the filmmaker: A Los Angeles native, Alice Gu began her career as a Director of Photography, working with renowned directors Werner Herzog, Stacy Peralta, and Rory Kennedy, among others. Her commercial clients for print and live action include TBWA/Chiat Day, Media Arts Lab, Deutsche, Edelman, Berlin Cameron, Cole & Weber, Pereira & O’Dell, Doremus, Publicis, Beats by Dre, Laird Hamilton, ESPN, FIFA, NFL, NHL, NBA, the WSL, Apple, Peta, and the American Humane Association. Take Every Wave: the Life of Laird Hamilton made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, a documentary film directed by Academy Award nominated director, Rory Kennedy, and lensed by Alice Gu. The Donut King, Alice’s feature directorial debut, was slated to premiere at the canceled 2020 SXSW film festival. Despite the cancellation, the film won the Special Jury Prize for Excellence in Documentary Storytelling, as well as the One in a Million Award at the 2020 Sun Valley Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at the Bentonville Film Festival. A feature-length documentary about the rise and fall of a Cambodian refugee turned donut tycoon, The Donut King is executive produced by Academy Award-winner Freida Lee Mock and produced by Logan Content in association with Scott Free Productions. Alice is following up her directorial debut with a comedic scripted feature as well as a music documentary.

About the moderator: Kulap Vilaysack is a writer/director who created the TV series BAJILLION DOLLAR PROPERTIES on Seeso. She was the showrunner/EP on the show and also directed numerous episodes. Her original documentary ORIGIN STORY, which chronicles her travels to her native land of Laos to search for her father, debuted at the Bentonville Film Festival and CAAMFest to great acclaim and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. She was also the showrunner/Co-EP on the NBC special A LEGENDARY CHRISTMAS WITH JOHN AND CHRISSY and directed Emily Heller’s stand up special ICE THICKENERS for Comedy Central Digital. She currently co-hosts Add To Cart with SuChin Pak –a podcast about what we buy and what that says about who we are for Lemonada Media

Co-Presenter: ITVS

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