Stephane Gauger

Biography

Born in Saigon, South Vietnam to an American civilian contractor and his Vietnamese wife, Gauger was raised in Orange County, California and graduated from California State University, Fullerton in theatre arts and French literature.

Cinematography Work

He met cinematographer Matthew Libatique at CSUF and apprenticed under him as a camera loader and lighting technician. While working on thesis films at Loyola Marymount University, he met filmmaker brothers Tony Bui and Timothy Bui, and worked as a lighting technician on their feature films Three Seasons (1999) (directed by Tony Bui) and Green Dragon (2001) (directed by Timothy Bui). Gauger has also worked as a key grip on the feature film, Six-String Samurai (1998) (directed by Lance Mungia) and as a gaffer in the epic Vietnamese action film, The Rebel (2007), directed by Charlie Nguyen and as a gaffer in Ham Tran's Journey from the Fall (2006). Gauger has also served as a cinematographer on short films such as Moonlight (2006) (directed by Alice Chen), Good Bad Karma (2006) (directed by David Takemura), Jim and Kim (2010) (directed by Victor Teran), and Finding Gauguin (2010) (directed by Lee Donald Taicher). Gauger has also served as his own cinematographer on films he has directed including the music documentary Vietnam Overtures as well as Owl and the Sparrow (2007) and Saigon Electric (2011).

Owl and the Sparrow

Gauger directed the short film Seabirds (1998) before his first narrative feature Owl and the Sparrow (2007), which premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and won over fifteen awards at international film festivals and was released theatrically in the U.S. in January 2009. The Owl and the Sparrow also won the audience award at the Los Angeles Film Festival, the emerging filmmaker award (for Gauger) at the Denver Film Festival, and the best narrative feature at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, as well as the Critic's Choice Award and the Best Foreign Co-Production Awards at the 2009 Golden Kite Awards in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Vietnam Overtures

Gauger's music documentary (and first documentary) Vietnam Overtures (2008) is about a music exchange program between Norway and the music institutions of Vietnam, and premiered at the 2008 Hawaii International Film Festival.

Saigon Electric

Gauger's second narrative feature film, Saigon Electric was made in 2011 and it covers the various dance cultures in Vietnam. The film won Best Film and Best Actress (Quynh Hoa, who played the lead character, Kim) at the Golden Kite Awards in Hanoi, Vietnam. The film also won Best Narrative Feature Film and an Audience Award for Narrative Feature from the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival. The film has also screened at festivals such as the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the San Diego Asian Film Festival Spring Showcase, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, The Chicago Asian American Film Showcase at the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Vietnamese International Film Festival, the Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival, the Asian Film Festival of Dallas, the Asian American International Film Festival, the DC APA Film Festival, the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, the Heartland Film Festival, the Berlin Asian Film Festival, the Hawaii International Film Festival and more.

Chinatown Squad

Gauger has directed and produced a TV pilot written by Feodor Chin entitled "Chinatown Squad", which focuses on a four-man squad of San Francisco police officers that attempt to clean up 1980s San Francisco Chinatown from corruption. The pilot stars Feodor Chin (as Chinese mob boss villain, Pistol Pete) as well as Kelvin Han Yee (as Uncle Wong), David Huynh (as Fong), Robert Wu (as the translator specialist of the squad) and more.

Gauger also directed a short film PSA entitled The Moral Paper Route (2012), that starred actors from "Chinatown Squad" including Feodor Chin as the father, Rita Huang as the mother, and David Huynh as the son.

Cheetah: The Nelson Vails Story

Gauger directed a documentary in 2014 entitled Cheetah: The Nelson Vails Story on former Olympic road and track cyclist Nelson Vails.

Kiss and Spell (Yêu Đi, Đừng Sợ!)

Gauger's latest film, Yêu Đi, Đừng Sợ! (Translated as "Kiss and Spell") is a Vietnamese romantic comedy about a magician who is afraid of ghosts who falls in love with a girl that appears to have some connection to the supernatural. It was released on August 25, 2017 in Vietnam and distributed by CJ Entertainment Vietnam.

Writing Work

Gauger has also written the story for the crime drama film Powder Blue (2009), directed by Timothy Bui and starring Jessica Biel, Forest Whitaker, Eddie Redmayne, Ray Liotta, Lisa Kudrow, Patrick Swayze and more. Gauger has also written the screenplay for a short film entitled Finding Gauguin (2010), directed by Lee Donald Taicher. Gauger has also written the screenplays for the films he has directed, including Owl and the Sparrow and Saigon Electric.

Awards and Accolades

Gauger is a nominee of the Breakthrough Director Award at the 2007 Gotham Awards and the John Cassavetes Award at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards (for his work with Owl and the Sparrow (2007)). Also for his work for that film, he received the emerging director award at the 2007 Starz Denver Film Festival. Gauger was also featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 new faces of 2007.

Filmography as director

Partial Filmography as writer