Filmmaker Vee Hua Launches 'Reckless Spirits' Feature-Length Fundraiser

In the fall of 2022, filmmaker and director (and former South Seattle Emerald managing editor) Vee Hua premiered their vibrant and zany short film Reckless Spirits at Northwest Film Forum's Local Sightings Film Festival. 

The "metaphysical buddy comedy" follows two best friends — a Latine gender-fluid performance artist, Syd, and a neurotic Asian American therapist, Yvette — on a weird, psychedelic journey through church basements, cult meetings, and strange visions. Set and filmed in Seattle, it's a colorful, Broad City-esque ode to spirituality and friendship in these dark times. 

Now, Hua wants to expand that universe into a feature film. On Tuesday, Nov. 19, they are hosting their crowdfunding campaign launch for Reckless Spirits (The Movie) at Northwest Film Forum with a goal of raising $100,000, or one-sixth of the film's $600,000 budget. In addition to a screening of the short, there will also be performers and vendors who reflect all the different elements of the project: Mari Shibuya will do astrology readings; Sarah Wiliams, aka Alecto Chaos, will do donation-based tarot readings; Paul Siple will project a liquid light show; Ghost Gallery and Wolf Delux will host pop-up shops featuring tarot and clothing, respectively; and drag diva Uh Oh will be doing a "plant daddy"-themed performance. The launch is also an opportunity for local filmmakers to hang and meet one another.

"A reason for doing the in-person event, first of all, is to ground this sort of abstract concept of a crowdfunding campaign into something real and tangible early on," said Hua in a recent interview. "It felt like [the event] should be something that's accessible to anyone who wants to come to celebrate the idea and mingle with other filmmakers."

Although fundraising is one (HUGE) portion of making a movie, Hua has already dug into other parts of the project. The Reckless Spirits short film is essentially the first 12 minutes of the feature-length project — the movie picks up exactly where the short left off and brings the characters even deeper into a world of spiritual trickery, friendship, shared dreams, and devious cult leaders. 

While there will be some tweaks (like changing Syd's character from Puerto Rican to Mexican) Hua is in the middle of casting and building the feature's team. The original short is set and filmed in Seattle, and Hua is hoping to keep the production here if possible. In recent years, our state has seen a bigger investment in Washington-based film productions — the State Legislature approved a giant increase in its film incentive program, and Seattle has its very own film commission. However, the movie industry production nationwide is at historic lows, making it even more difficult for underrepresented filmmakers to get their features funded.

"The idea is to definitely shoot in Washington State, not just because of the incentive, but also just because there aren't that many films by POC or queer creators at even the $600,000 budget level," said Hua. They continued: "I want to show people that it can be done in Seattle, [especially] people who might resonate with the concepts or the identities in the film."

The Reckless Spirits Feature Film Crowdfunding Launch starts at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at the Northwest Film Forum. RSVP on Hua's Partiful page. If you're interested in financially contributing to the film, visit the official Kickstarter page.