On August 29, the Asian American Committee (AAC) welcomed members to the Guild's Los Angeles Theater for a screening of director Jessica Yu’s new documentary feature, Last Call at the Oasis. Following an introduction by AAC Co-Chair, Chris Tashima, the audience was able to learn about the coming crisis in the fresh water supply via Yu’s thought-provoking film.
Last Call at the Oasis serves as a wake-up call to a subject that is rarely discussed, the future world-wide shortage of fresh water, due to climate change, pollution, and privatization. After the screening, Yu was joined on stage by director Jessica Sanders (After Innocence, Samba) who served as moderator for a Q&A about Yu’s work and the making of Last Call at the Oasis.
Yu is a director of both documentaries and scripted films. Her feature comedy debut, Ping Pong Playa, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2007. Her documentaries include the award-winning features Protagonist, In the Realms of the Unreal, and HBO'S The Living Museum; as well as the shorts Meet Mr. Toilet and The Kinda Sutra. Her television credits include episodes of The West Wing, Parenthood, Grey's Anatomy, and ER. In 1997, Yu won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short for Breathing Lessons, a film about Mark O’Brien, a poet confined to an iron lung. She is currently finishing a film about the restoration of Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique.
Yu has been a member of the DGA since 1999.