HOUSTON – It’s becoming less and less of a secret about the homegrown talent we have in Houston. And one writer/director from Sugar Land has already started making a name for herself as a finalist for a pilot series she wrote that she still hopes can someday be picked up.
RELATED: Should movies set in Texas be filmed in Texas?
Recommended Videos
Li Lu’s series, titled “Sugar Land,” is a semi-autobiographical dramedy based on Lu’s upbringing in Sugar Land’s New Territory subdivision set in 2001.
At its core, the story is about Wei Zhou, a young girl caught between cultural pride and social pressure, but she discovers a passion for dance after seeing a performance in Houston’s Chinatown. Her self-expressive journey continues to unfold on the heels of her father’s job at Enron and the seismic cultural shifts that defined 2001.
“The show is firmly set in 2001 because it was such a different time; the world changed after 9/11, and also that was the year when Enron collapsed,” Lu explained. ”Enron’s also giving the family a coveted visa for them to stay in the country. So when all of that falls apart, the family has to deal with the visa situation where they have 60 days to figure out whether or not they can stay in America."
SUGGESTED: Texas could learn a lot from Billy Bob Thornton. Here’s what I learned
The “Sugar Land” pilot was developed through the Houston Television Lab, a new fellowship co-founded by filmmaker Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. to spotlight stories rooted in the city.
“There’s such a lost and unrepresented era of Asian-American subculture from that time,” Lu explained. “We haven’t really seen it on screen — and I do feel like film and TV is our collective memory.”
"TV is a medium of building worlds, building communities, building authenticity within those worlds and those communities," Osei-Kuffour Jr. added. “We like the people in those worlds, and we like the authenticity of those communities. The escapism is real, but it still touches your heart, in a way, where it’s less about the plot and more about the people in the world that they’re in, just interacting in every single episode."
As Houston Television Lab’s first inaugural fellow, Lu recently presented her work at the ATX TV Festival’s prestigious pitch competition in Austin — a major milestone for a first-time creator representing Houston in a largely L.A.- and New York-centric industry.
In fact, Osei-Kuffour noted that the distinct creative energy in Houston, coupled with its diversity, history, and cultural specificity, is ripe for stories yet to be told on national platforms.
“There’s no clear image of Houston the way there is for places like New York or Atlanta,” he said. “But the talent is here. And the stories are here. We just need more infrastructure — more opportunities to tell them.”
MADE IN TEXAS: Critically acclaimed series ‘Landman’ receives ‘Texas Made’ Award
For Lu, storytelling is a way to archive the moments and memories that made Houston home.
“I look back on the things that I’ve made myself, and everything has Texas in it. And I think it truly lies within the true desire to showcase the diversity of what our home state is. Especially as I get older, I feel so Texan, as much as I feel Chinese, American, all of these things."
The Sugar Land pilot isn’t the end of her work, either. Lu is currently building a team around the show to take it to buyers and studios while also developing her second feature film — a multi-era drama exploring Chinese immigrant history from the 1800s to present-day America.
She’s also helping lead the way locally, founding a screening series called HTX Made to spotlight Houston-grown filmmakers and reconnect them with the city’s creative community.
“We’re a huge city. We love TV. We love these stories,” Lu said. “I just want to make sure we’re celebrating the Houston that made us who we are — and putting that on screen for the world to see.”
To learn more about the Houston Television Lab, visit their website. You can also follow them on social media @houstontelevisionlab.