Tyrus (film)

Last updated
Tyrus
Directed by Pamela Tom
Written by Pamela Tom
Produced byPamela Tom
Gwen Wynne
Tamara Khalaf
CinematographyShana Hagan
Edited byCarl Pfirman
Tim Craig
Walt Louie
Angela Park
Music byDerek Baird
Release dates
  • September 8, 2015 (2015-09-08)

Telluride Film Festival [1]
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Tyrus is a 2015 feature-length documentary directed by Pamela Tom about the renowned Chinese American artist Tyrus Wong, whose paintings became the inspiration for the classic animated feature Bambi .

Contents

Synopsis

Tyrus Wong immigrates to the U.S. from Guangzhou as a boy. [2] Though living in poverty, his father, encourages Wong's unique talent for drawing. Inspired by the art of the Song Dynasty and abstract Western painters like Picasso and Whistler, Wong employed simple brushstrokes, using watercolors and pastels, to create lush forests and green meadows. His philosophy of abstraction (fewer strokes) allowed him to connect with viewers' imaginations, as his work would suggest images while viewers' minds would fill in the rest. [3] His work eventually caught the eye of Walt Disney, who hired Wong as an illustrator at Walt Disney Studios. Wong's style became the blueprint for the visual look and feel of the film of Bambi , constituting all its background art. After an abrupt dismissal from Disney, Wong would go on to become a fine artist, a storyboard artist, and muralist as a means of providing for providing for his family; however, he became a kite designer to fulfill himself artistically. Wong's storyboards helped set the tone and drama for films such as Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), William Goldman's Harper (1966) and Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch . Despite working as in Hollywood for nearly 30 years, the racist attitudes of the time prevented his contributions from being acknowledged until the 21st century. [3] Wong died at the age of 106 on December 30, 2016, the oldest-known living Chinese American artist at the time of his death. He is now widely regarded, at Disney Studios and among illustrator communities, as "a Legend." [4]

Production

Pamela Tom was inspired to make Tyrus after watching Bambi with her daughter. In the behind-the-scenes documentary that followed, she learned of Wong:

...the animators kept referring to this Chinese American artist named Tyrus Wong. I thought, ‘A Chinese American artist in the 1930s? I need to find out more about this person.’ [5]

Tyrus was produced by Tom, Gwen Wynne, and Tamara Khalaf.

Release

Tyrus premiered on September 8, 2015 at the Telluride Film Festival. It had its U.S. national release on September 8, 2017 as a part of PBS's long-running series, American Masters. [6] The film has screened at numerous film festivals across the world. [5] [7]

Critical reception

Good Docs labeled the film a "tour-de-force." [2]

Awards

DateFestivalAward
2016 Seattle Asian American Film Festival Audience Choice Award
2016 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival Best Feature Documentary
2016 Boston Asian American Film Festival Audience Award
2016CinetopiaBest Director in Feature Documentary
2016 Newport Beach Film Festival Audience Award
2016 DisOrient Film Festival Best Feature Documentary
2016 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Special Jury Award
2016 Boston Asian American Film Festival Audience Award
2015 Hawaii International Film Festival Audience Award
2015 San Diego Asian Film Festival Audience Award

Press

Sightlines Magazine – “Creativity Will Out: Seven Arts Documentaries To Watch” [8]

AARP – “Influential Asian American & Pacific Islander Movies” [9]

Phoenix Magazine – “Film Review: Tyrus at No Festival Required” [10]

Eugene Weekly – “Bambi’s Secret” [11]

Parade – “American Masters to Showcase the Life and Work of Tyrus Wong, Disney Animator and Artist” [12]

My Modern Met – “Tyrus Wong, the Chinese-American Artist of Disney’s “Bambi” Finally Gets Recognition He Deserves” [13]

LA Times – “Newport film fest’s ‘Bambi’ provides inspiration for ‘Tyrus’ documentary” [14]

Orlando Sentinel – “‘Bambi’ turns 75; PBS salutes unsung artist” [15]

Animation Magazine – “Tyrus Wong Documentary Premieres on PBS September 8” [16]

Hyperallergic – “A Documentary on Tyrus Wong, a Long-Ignored Illustrator for Disney and Warner Bros” [17]

Cartoon Brew – “PBS To Air Documentary About ‘Bambi’ Production Designer Tyrus Wong (Watch Trailer)” [18]

KTLA – “New PBS Documentary About Tyrus Wong, Chinese American Artist Behind Disney’s Bambi” [19]

CAAM Media – “‘Tyrus’ Documentary Airs on American Masters Sept 8” [20]

NonFiction Film – “Director Pamela Tom On Her Tyrus Wong Doc: Centenarian Artist ‘Transforms Ugliness Into Beauty'” [21]

Huffington Post – “Tyrus Wong, The ‘Bambi’ Artist Who Endured America’s Racism, Gets His Due” [22]

CBS – Sunday Morning – "'Bambi' artist Tyrus Wong" [23]

Slate – “A New Documentary Celebrates the Life of Tyrus Wong, Bambi’sOverlooked Innovator” [24]

Front Row Center – “American Masters Celebrates Bambi Artist Tyrus Wong” [25]

Artsy – “Why the Artist behind Disney’s 'Bambi' Still Influences Animators Today” [26]

CAAM Media – “‘TYRUS’ Film Shines the Spotlight on the Chinese American Behind ‘BAMBI'” [27]

Dig In – CAAMFest Opening Night: TYRUS & Red Carpet Interviews [28]

CAAM Media – “Memoirs of a Superfan Vol. 11.5 – A Flower Grows” [29]

KQED – “A Background Artist Comes to the Fore in CAAMFest’s ‘Tyrus’” [30]

SF Chronicle – “CAAMFest makes bold to bring filmgoers to Mission” [31]

SF Examiner – “Rich, varied program for CAAMFest 2016 opens with TYRUS“

Filmmaker Magazine – TYRUS at HIFF [32]

SDAFF – “Tyrus Wong…More Than a Brushstroke of Genius”

San Diego Tribune – “Broad Scope at San Diego Asian Film Fest” [33]

Awards Daily – “Oscar Contenders Emerging Out of Telluride” [34]

Awards Daily – “Top Five Films I Missed At Telluride” [35]

KCET – Artbound – “Chinese Brushstrokes in Hollywood: The Works of Tyrus Wong” [36]

Smithsonian Magazine – “How Disney’s 1942 Film Bambi Came to be Influenced by the Lush Landscapes of the Sung Dynasty” [37]

Related Research Articles

Tyrus may refer to:–

<i>Bambi</i> 1942 American animated film

Bambi is a 1942 American animated drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is based on the 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten. The film was produced by Walt Disney and directed by David Hand and a team of sequence directors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyrus Wong</span> Chinese-born American artist

Tyrus Wong was a Chinese-born American artist. He was a painter, animator, calligrapher, muralist, ceramicist, lithographer and kite maker, as well as a set designer and storyboard artist. One of the most-influential and celebrated Asian-American artists of the 20th century, Wong was also a film production illustrator, who worked for Disney and Warner Bros. He was a muralist for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), as well as a greeting card artist for Hallmark Cards. Most notably, he was the lead production illustrator on Disney's 1942 film Bambi, taking inspiration from Song dynasty art. He also served in the art department of many films, either as a set designer or storyboard artist, such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Rio Bravo (1959), The Music Man (1962), PT 109 (1963), The Great Race (1965), Harper (1966), The Green Berets (1968), and The Wild Bunch (1969), among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Floyd Norman</span> American cartoonist

Floyd E. Norman is an American animator, writer, and cartoonist. Over the course of his career, Norman has worked for various animation companies, among them Walt Disney Animation Studios, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Ruby-Spears, Film Roman and Pixar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CAAMFest</span> Asian American film festival in San Francisco, California, U.S.

CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every March in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation's largest showcase for new Asian American and Asian films. It annually presents approximately 130 works in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose. The festival is organized by the Center for Asian American Media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryan Fogel</span> American dramatist

Bryan Fogel is an American film director, producer, author, playwright, speaker and human rights activist, best known for the 2017 documentary Icarus, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 90th Academy Awards in 2018.

Arthur Dong is an American filmmaker and author whose work centers on Asia America and anti-gay prejudice. He was raised in San Francisco, California, graduating from Galileo High School in June 1971. He received his BA in film from San Francisco State University and also holds a Directing Fellow Certificate from the American Film Institute Center for Advanced Film Studies. In 2007, SFSU named Dong its Alumnus of the year “for his continued success in the challenging arena of independent documentary filmmaking and his longstanding commitment to social justice."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Asian American Media</span>

The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) was founded in 1980. The San Francisco–based organization, formerly known as the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA), has grown into the largest organization dedicated to the advancement of Asian Americans in independent media, specifically the areas of television and filmmaking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Sito</span>

Tom Sito is an American animator, animation historian and teacher. He is currently a Professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts in the Animation Division. In 1998, Sito was included by Animation Magazine in their list of the One Hundred Most Important People in Animation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamela Tom</span>

Pamela Tom is a 5th generation Chinese American producer, director, and screenwriter. Her films often explore the Chinese experience in the Western world, social justice, feminism, and religion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Kooser</span> American artist

Barry R. Kooser is an American artist, painter, and educator who worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios between 1992 and 2003 as a background artist on films such as The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and as background supervisor on Brother Bear. After leaving Disney, he worked independently as a painter exhibiting and selling fine art in galleries around the US. While teaching animation and story-boarding at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, he met Worker Studio founder Michael "Ffish" Hemschoot, and became a partner at the Colorado animation studio. Barry has since left Worker Studio. He is the Founder, Executive Producer and Director at Many Hoops Productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu</span> Native Hawaiian filmmaker, artist, activist and as a community leader

Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu, also known as Kumu Hina, is a Native Hawaiian māhū – a traditional third gender person who occupies "a place in the middle" between male and female, as well as a modern transgender woman. She is known for her work as a kumu hula, as a filmmaker, artist, activist and as a community leader in the field of Kanaka Maoli language and cultural preservation. She teaches Kanaka Maoli philosophy and traditions that promotes cross-cultural alliances throughout the Pacific Islands. Kumu Hina is known as a "powerful performer with a clear, strong voice"; she has been hailed as "a cultural icon".

<i>9-Man</i> (film) 2014 American film

9-Man is a 2014 American documentary film about the sport 9-man played in Chinatowns in the U.S. and Canada. The New York Times called it "an absorbing documentary."

Milton Quon was an American animator, artist and actor.

Finding Kukan is a 2016 feature-length documentary investigating the story of Chinese Hawaii-born producer Li Ling-Ai, the female co-producer of the film Kukan (1941).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane Paragas</span>

Diane Paragas is a Filipino-American documentary and narrative film and commercial director. She is best known for writing, directing and producing the 2020 film Yellow Rose. Yellow Rose was Paragas' debut narrative feature The film was selected as the Opening Night Film of the 2019 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Yellow Rose won Grand Jury Prizes at LAAPFF, Bentonville Film Festival, CAAMFEST37, and Urbanworld where it also took the Audience Award. The film also won the Audience Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival.

The Chinese Exclusion Act is a 2017 documentary film about the United States Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Produced by PBS as a "special presentation" for the American Experience documentary program, it explores how the Act's 61-year-long prohibition of Chinese immigrants to the United States had an effect on Chinese communities already living in the country. Directed by Ric Burns and Li-Shin Yu, who also served as writer and editor respectively, the film premiered in the 2017 CAAMFest and aired on PBS in the United States on May 29, 2018.

Deborah Lum is an American documentary filmmaker based in San Francisco. Her projects frequently explore subject matters within the Asian and Asian American community.

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Events in 1910 in animation.

References

  1. ↑ "Documentary on Alum Tyrus Wong Premieres at Telluride Film Festival". Otis College of Art and Design.
  2. 1 2 "Tyrus: His Art Inspired Bambi, His Life Will Inspire You". Good Docs.
  3. 1 2 Jon Hogan (23 Jun 2017). "A Documentary on Tyrus Wong, a Long-Ignored Illustrator for Disney and Warner Bros". Hyperallergic.
  4. ↑ M.V. Moorehead (11 Jul 2011). "Film Review: Tyrus at No Festival Required". Phoenix.
  5. 1 2 Michael Miller (22 Apr 2016). "Newport film fest's 'Bambi' provides inspiration for 'Tyrus' documentary". LA Times .
  6. ↑ "S31 Ep7 Tyrus". American Masters. 8 Sep 2017. PBS.
  7. ↑ "Tyrus". Asian World Film Festival. Retrieved 22 Feb 2021.
  8. ↑ https://sightlinesmag.org/creativity-will-out-seven-arts-documentaries-to-watch
  9. ↑ "Influential Movies and Documentaries featuring Asian Americans". AARP. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  10. ↑ "Film Review: Tyrus at No Festival Required". PHOENIX magazine. 2017-07-11. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  11. ↑ "Bambi's Secret – Eugene Weekly". eugeneweekly.com. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  12. ↑ "American Masters To Showcase the Life and Work of Tyrus Wong, Disney Animator and Artist". Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  13. ↑ Stewart, Jessica (2017-09-08). "Tyrus Wong, the Chinese-American Artist o Disney's "Bambi" Finally Gets Recognition He Deserves". My Modern Met. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  14. ↑ "Newport film fest's 'Bambi' provides inspiration for 'Tyrus' documentary". Daily Pilot. 2016-04-22. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  15. ↑ "'Bambi' turns 75; PBS salutes unsung artist". Orlando Sentinel. 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  16. ↑ https://www.animationmagazine.net/2017/08/tyrus-wong-documentary-premieres-on-pbs-september-8/
  17. ↑ Leckert, Oriana; Hogan, Jon (2017-06-23). "A Documentary on Tyrus Wong, a Long-Ignored Illustrator for Disney and Warner Bros". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  18. ↑ Amidi, Amid (2017-08-22). "PBS To Air Documentary About 'Bambi' Production Designer Tyrus Wong (Watch Trailer)". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  19. ↑ "New PBS Documentary About Tyrus Wong, Chinese American Artist Behind Disney's Bambi". KTLA. 2017-09-07. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  20. ↑ ""TYRUS" Film Shines the Spotlight on the Chinese American Behind "Bambi"". CAAM Home. 2016-02-24. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  21. ↑ "105-year-old artist subject of new doc". NON FICTION FILM. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  22. ↑ "'Bambi' Artist Who Endured America's Racism Finally Gets His Due". HuffPost. 2017-09-06. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  23. ↑ ""Bambi" artist Tyrus Wong". www.cbsnews.com. 2017-01-08. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  24. ↑ Harris, Aisha (2017-09-07). "A New Documentary Celebrates the Life of Tyrus Wong, Bambi's Overlooked Innovator". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  25. ↑ Trojan, Judith (2017-09-08). "American Masters Celebrates Bambi Artist Tyrus Wong". FrontRowCenter. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  26. ↑ "Why the Artist behind Disney's "Bambi" Still Influences Animators Today". Artsy. 2017-09-06. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  27. ↑ ""TYRUS" Film Shines the Spotlight on the Chinese American Behind "Bambi"". CAAM Home. 2016-02-24. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  28. ↑ "CAAMFest Opening Night: TYRUS & Red Carpet Interviews". www.diginmag.com. 2016-03-13. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  29. ↑ "Memoirs of a Superfan Vol. 11.5 - A Flower Grows". CAAM Home. 2016-03-11. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  30. ↑ "A Background Artist Comes to the Fore in CAAMFest's 'Tyrus'". KQED. 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  31. ↑ https://www.sfchronicle.com/movies/article/CAAMFest-makes-bold-move-to-bring-filmgoers-to-6866055.php?t=5897db20ea331b8bde
  32. ↑ Sanders, Jason (2016-02-03). "A Showcase for Pacific Islands Filmmakers: The Hawaii International Film Festival at 35 | Filmmaker Magazine". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  33. ↑ "Broad scope at San Diego Asian Film Festival". San Diego Union-Tribune. 2015-11-04. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  34. ↑ "Oscar Contenders Emerging out of Telluride". Awardsdaily. 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  35. ↑ "Top Five Films I Missed at Telluride". Awardsdaily. 2015-09-08. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  36. ↑ "Chinese Brushstrokes in Hollywood: The Works of Tyrus Wong". KCET. 2013-01-08. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  37. ↑ Stevens, Joann. "How Disney's 1942 Film Bambi Came to Be Influenced by the Lush Landscapes of the Sung Dynasty". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
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