{"id":174623,"date":"2026-03-25T14:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/174623\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T14:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:01:09","slug":"cphforum-hears-pitch-for-queens-ballroom-by-hansen-lin-siyi-chen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/174623\/","title":{"rendered":"CPH:FORUM Hears Pitch For ‘Queens Ballroom’ By Hansen Lin, Siyi Chen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen filmmaker Hansen Lin<\/a> opened the door to a building in the borough of Queens, New York, he didn\u2019t realize he was entering a portal to the immigrant experience in America.<\/p>\n

\n\tLin, producer of the award-winning documentary Always<\/a>, was scouting a film project when he stumbled upon the edifice in the Chinatown section of Flushing.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s completely dark outside, but the inside is really colorful,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt already has this mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLin had inadvertently crossed the threshold into a Queens ballroom<\/a> where Asian American seniors dance, socialize, and preserve something of the culture they left behind in coming to the U.S. That chance encounter set Lin on the quest to make a documentary, which he just pitched at the prestigious CPH:FORUM<\/a> in Copenhagen. The film, which he\u2019s directing and producing with Siyi Chen<\/a>, is in a late stage of development.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe just followed our curiosity\u2026 We don\u2019t know who are these people, why this place exists,\u201d Lin tells Deadline in Copenhagen. \u201cWe started asking all these dancers from the ballroom how they ended up being here, being in the United States and being in the ballroom. That actually opened a really colorful world that we can\u2019t imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"'Queens<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Queens Ballroom\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQueens Disco Production LLC<\/p>\n

\n\tSpending significant time at the ballroom allowed the filmmakers to identify potential participants in a documentary.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were just chatting with them, getting to know them,\u201d Chen says. \u201cIt was a very long casting process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUltimately, they settled on three protagonists: \u201cMary, 70, headstrong and sharp-tongued,\u201d as the filmmakers write in the CPH:FORUM guide. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t guess she used to be a judge in China or that she left it all behind in the \u201890s, including her husband and son, to start over in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAaron, in his 60s, is \u201ca romantic and a hustler, always<\/a> dressed to impress or to hide how success keeps slipping through his fingers.\u201d Jimmy, the oldest of the three protagonists at age 83, \u201clost the love of his life twenty years ago \u2013 and with it, a part of himself\u2026 The ballroom is the only place he allows himself to imagine another person\u2019s touch \u2013 to feel connected and alive \u2013 even if only as a silent spectator. Could he find the strength to rise and dance one last time?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ballroom is a world of sequins and secrets, the filmmakers discovered \u2014 or to put it another way, a place with an active rumor mill.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThrough all this gossip, we hear how some drama happens in the ballroom,\u201d Lin notes. \u201cHearing more and more gossip, we [try to] find out, is it true or did somebody just make up the story?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThey cite one example. \u201cSomeone else gossiped and told us Jimmy\u2019s mattress is full of cash,\u201d Chen recalls. \u201cWe know, of course, it\u2019s an exaggerated detail, but it adds complexity like, \u2018Okay, this is the person you see now, but we\u2019re so complex.\u2019 \u2026I love imagining that, trying to look at someone and trying to see this person is so much more than just this moment when you sit next to him maybe at the tea house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Mary<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMary in \u2018Queens Ballroom\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQueens Disco Production LLC<\/p>\n

\n\tChen says she found herself drawn particularly to Mary, the septuagenarian.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe\u2019s double my age almost, but I connect with her because she came to the U.S. when she\u2019s 39, and she already had a life in China. She was a judge in Shanghai, and she has a family. So it wasn\u2019t like a terrible life, where she [went hungry],\u201d Chen says. \u201cAnd for me, it\u2019s the same. I never struggled to eat. My motivation to come to the U.S., maybe I was searching for \u2014 I\u2019m not even sure if it\u2019s success or anything, but some sort of freedom, which I cannot really describe. But it was also a really courageous decision [for Mary to leave] because she already had a life there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLin grew up in China as well before relocating to New York. He has faced those challenging life choices common to immigrants.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"(L-R)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t(L-R) Directors Siyi Chen and Hansen Lin pitch \u2018Queens Ballroom\u2019 at CPH:FORUM in Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of the filmmakers<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI questioned a lot about my career, like working in this industry and also living really far away from my home in China, how do I see my life in a foreign country?\u201d he says. \u201cI think we collect a lot of really touching moments [in the film] and a story that\u2019s big to us. We feel like we are not the only ones that have that situation or those problems. And it becomes very timeless for me as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLin adds, alluding to a Greek myth, \u201cI think we have a really beautiful line we wrote in our application. It\u2019s like, how do we find this beauty and romance in our Sisyphean life?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s another poignant aspect to the story \u2013 the ballroom patrons recreating a part of the culture from their past.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s very nostalgic. It kind of reminds me of China, but an old version that doesn\u2019t exist in China anymore because when these immigrants, they left China in the \u201990s or 2000s, they kind of brought a piece of China with them. But now China changed so much,\u201d Chen observes. \u201cSpaces like that, these ballrooms, there used to be a lot of them. And there\u2019s still some, I think in Shanghai or different cities, but it\u2019s not so easy to find such a place. So, when we go [to the Queens ballroom], we\u2019re like, \u2018This is like a little time capsule that reminds us of the \u201990s and the 2000s, that vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, founded in 1748, site of the CPH:FORUM.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Hansen Lin<\/p>\n

\n\tClara Vuillermoz and Laurence Buelens, both based in Europe, serve as co-producers on the project. The Queens Ballroom team came to CPH:DOX<\/a> seeking co-production partners and funds to complete filming.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have a treatment that has a lot of scenes that we want to shoot,\u201d Lin notes. \u201cProbably like 15 days of shooting, then we will be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Lin, participating in the Forum marks a return to Copenhagen. Last year, Always, the film produced by Lin and directed by Deming Chen, won the DOX:AWARD<\/a>, the festival\u2019s top prize.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have this very personal connection to the festival because of winning the award last year here. It\u2019s a huge, huge encouragement for me and for my whole team,\u201d he comments. \u201cA lot of things are really familiar to me, but being here with a different team, a different collaborator, it does feel different\u2026 Coming back, I\u2019m feeling a lot of trust, and I want to build on this relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When filmmaker Hansen Lin opened the door to a building in the borough of Queens, New York, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[71059,71060,71061,71062,9,24,63,122,71063,124,123,71064],"class_list":["post-174623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-always","tag-cphdox","tag-cphforum","tag-hansen-lin","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-ballroom","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-siyi-chen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}