Independent Documentary "Chasing Sunrise" to Premiere at 2015 "Action on Film" Festival

Irvine & Monrovia, CA, September 3, 2015 (Newswire.com) - “Chasing Sunrise” is the First Project of Amateur Filmmakers

“Chasing Sunrise,” the first documentary film project completed by an Irvine, California-based team of amateur filmmakers, will be featured for its world premiere screening at the 2015 Action on Film festival. Chasing Sunrise has been nominated for:

• Best Documentary
• Best Documentary-Sports
• Best Director-Documentary
• Best Cinematography- Documentary
• Best Editing-Documentary

“Chasing Sunrise” centers on the challenges faced as a father and son take on the daunting 25 Hours of Thunderhill endurance motorsport race in Willows, California. The race is one of the world’s longest and most challenging auto races: an hour longer than the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans, and more than twice the length of the famously grueling historic Mille Miglia. As “Chasing Sunrise” was filmed, the Thunderhill race was held in record cold temperatures.

“They say the weather is always a factor at Thunderhill,” said co-director and writer Scott Rutherford. “But nothing like we saw. There was snow falling during qualifying. During the race, the crew kept their drinks in coolers to keep them from freezing. The crew had to figure out how to keep themselves going, and keep the drivers from going numb, in an open-cockpit car, at night, in below-freezing temperatures.”

“The project was done on a shoestring budget,” said producer, director and writer Zen Yieh. “The entire film was completed for about four thousand dollars. We borrowed cameras where we could, and we even sold the in-car cameras we used once we were done with them.”

The film team met as staff of the University of California, Irvine, who worked on the film on nights and weekends for nearly a year, to transform more than 50 hours of raw footage into the 59-minute documentary.

“Chasing Sunrise” (2014)

Cast: Oscar Jackson, Sr., Oscar Jackson, Jr., Scott Rutherford (voice)
Directed by: Zen Yieh, Scott Rutherford, Shaunt Kouyoumdjian, Natalie Paredes
Written by: Scott Rutherford, Zen Yieh
Produced by: Zen Yieh
Cinematography by: Shaunt Koumoumdjian, Natalie Paredes
Art direction by: Natalie Paredes

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Zen Yieh, [email protected]