The Musical Innertube - Jennifer Lin "Ten Times Better"
Journalist and documentarian Jennifer Lin is premiering her latest film this week. "Ten Times Better" is the remarkable story of George Lee, a dancer the film describes as a "prodigy, refugee and pioneer."
Here's an excerpt from a discussion John and Don had with journalist and filmmaker Jennifer Lin last November. Jennifer talks about her film "Ten Times Better," the remarkable story of dancer George Lee.
George Lee is an 88-year-old blackjack dealer who still works five days a week. He’s a familiar and beloved figure in the pit of the Four Queens Casino in downtown Las Vegas. But none of those card players knows his astonishing story or his place in ballet history. A child dance prodigy who grew up poor in Shanghai. A refugee fleeing war. As a teenager in New York, George was selected by George Balanchine to dance in his original staging of The Nutcracker. A dancer whose artistry was recognized by no less than Gene Kelly, who cast him in the original production of Flower Drum Song.
The film has its premiere Saturday, February 10th at the Lincoln Center in New York.
Find out more about "Ten Times Better" by clicking here.
Jennifer Lin
I was born with the reporter’s gene. It’s all I ever wanted to do from the time I was in high school and listening to a young local radio reporter named Andrea Mitchell (yes, that Andrea Mitchell) interviewing my father about soaring health-care costs. I had the good fortune of working for one of the finest newspapers in the business, The Philadelphia Inquirer, but always as a reporter, never an editor. Reporters had more fun. There’s nothing like the rush of a big breaking story. I worked as a correspondent in New York, Washington, D.C., and Beijing.
My son and daughter were tots when I told them, “We’re moving to China!” They thought Beijing was somewhere west of Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. My husband, Bill Stieg, uprooted his own career and we traded in our Ford station wagon for Flying Pigeon bicycles. I reported from all over Asia—Hong Kong during the city’s 1997 handover; Jakarta during the fall of President Suharto; Taiwan during tension with China. But of all the news and issues I covered, the assignment that captivated me the most was the one right in front of me, the story of my Chinese family.
Listen On
