NATIVE SON EXPLORES EMOTION THROUGH FILM
Spencer Tsang
JL By Jessica Laskey Meet Your Neighbor
T
he room is claustrophobic. You can almost smell the tang of sweat and adrenaline. A face appears onscreen, uncomfortably close, marred by a wound. The camera reels as punches are thrown. You don’t know whether to look away or watch through your fingers. Spencer Tsang was able to capture this intense scene on film because he lived it. He and his friends would meet behind a Taco Bell near John
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F. Kennedy High School to fight. It wasn’t until Tsang was in college and won a grant to make “Fight Night,” a short film based on this time in his life, that he realized he could make a living exploring his own experiences through art. “I used to resist my artistic side,” says Tsang, a Sacramento native whose parents emigrated from China. “Being a minority Chinese American, arts are not encouraged. I grew up in a very masculine environment and tried to
suppress my artistic side. I was called names. People would say, ‘You think you’re so deep, you think you’re better than us,’ to try to cut down your ego. I was just trying to figure myself out.” Art became Tsang’s escape. He drew comic books. He daydreamed in class, making up episodes of Power Rangers. He went to the movies so often he’s pretty sure he ran subscription ticket service MoviePass out of business. By high school, Tsang discovered his love for writing, which “literally saved
my life.” During a suicidal episode senior year, he wrote a poem to his late godfather, who had died by suicide. Tsang entered University of San Francisco as a business major, determined to leave art—and Sacramento—behind. But art followed him. Campus MovieFest, the world’s largest student film festival, came to USF his freshman year. Tsang and a friend submitted a short film that was chosen for screening out of 45 entries.
