An Interview With ‘Forge’ Writer-Director Jing Ai Ng

Coco (Andie Ju) and her brother, Raymond (Brandon Soo Hoo), have forged paintings before — but never a job as big as the one they’re considering in Jing Ai Ng‘s new movie, Forge. In theaters soon, and having premiered at SXSW last year, here’s what Ng had to share about her experience making the picture:

Rachel Bellwoar: While you’ve directed multiple shorts, Forge is your debut feature. Where did the idea for this film come from, and had you always envisioned it as a feature versus a short?

Jing Ai Ng: I always envisioned Forge as a feature, there was never a discussion of it as a short. The idea for the film came from me being an art crime nerd. I was researching the latest art forgeries of the time, and I read about a man who forged eighty million dollars worth of art in New York. The art forger behind that was a Chinese American man who had never been interviewed and still hasn’t. That led to me imagining a possibility, and that story gave me a blank canvas to work on the script.

Bellwoar: What was it like researching art forgery and do you have a favorite tidbit you learned?

Ng: A really horrifying statistic to me is that 25-30% of art circulating in the market are actually forgeries. That number is extremely high and before working on this film I did not know that.

Bellwoar: As someone who both writes and directs a lot of her work, do you prefer one role to the other?

Ng: I definitely prefer directing. Which is funny because I got into the film industry through writing. I started out as a prose writer, and then slowly moved into film. But I love the craft of filmmaking, and I would definitely be open to directing other people’s scripts. Directing is something I really look forward to when we are heading towards shooting.

Bellwoar: Sibling stories are a personal favorite of mine. Why did you want to explore that relationship with this film?

Ng: I have a very close sibling relationship with both my brother and sister. I would say both of them are in this movie: my brother is Raymond and my sister is Emily. There are a lot of themes that can be held within one family. The themes I wanted to integrate into the script when writing Forge felt like they could really be tackled by that sibling relationship. Because I have such a close relationship with my siblings, it was easy for me to write the sibling relationship between Coco and Raymond.

Bellwoar: Rather than just focus on the brother-sister forgery team, Forge also spends time with the FBI agent investigating the case. Had you always wanted to show both perspectives?

Ng: No I did not. Showing both perspectives is something I integrated in because as I was researching art forgery and that is when I found out about the FBI Art Crimes division. I found it fascinating that they had a whole division dedicated to this. On one hand, they are the agents that bust big art heists, and recover stolen art, but they also track down art forgers. Art forgers are usually operating solo, or are very small operations, because part of their scheme is to fly under the radar. I thought that particular investigative work was really interesting, and I had never seen it in a movie before, so it was something I wanted to tackle.

Bellwoar: On IMDB I saw it mentioned that you’ve spent time in Miami. Is that why you decided to set this film in Florida?

Ng: I am from Miami and grew up part of the time there. It is a city I know very well, and it has really changed since Art Basel. I had the privilege of seeing the city change when Art Basel came to Miami, as the art scene became a bigger and bigger part of the city. It has come to a point now, that I think Art Basel is one of the big things Miami is known for. I wanted to set the film in a place I knew and was familiar with, but also have it set in a place that was relevant to the art world.

Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Jing!

Forge opens in Los Angeles beginning May 15th at the Landmark Nuart Theatre and in New York beginning May 22nd at Quad Cinema.