
FLICK FEST. AngryAsianMan.com’s Phil Yu chats with producer Taro Goto (White
Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) at the APA
Filmmaker Reception. (AR Photo/Toni Tabora-Roberts)
From The Asian Reporter, V17, #8 (February 20, 2007), page 9.
Asian-American filmmakers find support and opportunity at
Park City fests
By Toni Tabora-Roberts
Special to The Asian Reporter
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival, the nation’s largest independent film
fest, and the neighboring playful Slamdance, both in Park City, Utah,
boasted a record number of Asian Pacific filmmakers who garnered
enthusiastic responses from audiences packed with studio execs, industry
folk, and film lovers.
Sundance featured Asian-American films throughout the lineup, including
several features:
- Dark Matter, by Chen Shi-Zheng, features a star-studded cast
including Meryl Streep and Aidan Quinn. The story follows a brilliant
Chinese student and his struggles through the politics of American life,
ego, and science. The film was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the
festival.
- Finishing the Game, by Justin Lin, is a 1970s comedy spoof
which re-imagine’s Hollywood’s search for the next Bruce Lee.
- Never Forever, by Gina Kim, follows the drama of a white
woman married to a Korean-American man and her dangerous efforts to
conceive a child.
- Protagonist, by Jessica Yu, is a hybrid documentary exploring
drama and the role of the protagonist through vérité, interviews, and
puppets.
- Smiley Face, by Gregg Araki, offers a comedic look at pot
culture.
- Slamdance screened some notable features as well:
- American Zombie, by Grace Lee, a mockumentary-style comedy
romp exploring the misunderstood Zombie community.
- Dream in Doubt, by Tami Yeager, follows an immigrant Indian
family’s struggle to deal with a highly publicized hate crime post-9/11.
In addition to receptive audiences, APA filmmakers also found support
through the Asian Pacific American Film Experience, presented by Bud Select
and hosted by the Asian Pacific American Film Experience Committee, a
coalition of organizations including Asian CineVision, the Center for Asian
American Media, the San Diego Asian Film Foundation, and Visual
Communications. The program was created in 2001 "by a small group of
Asian-American media professionals who wanted to recognize the fact that
Asian-American filmmakers were a growing presence at the biggest American
film festivals," according to Winston Emano, co-founder.
On January 21, the sixth annual Asian Pacific Filmmaker Reception was a
lively, jam-packed (almost too packed) networking event bringing together
directors, producers, actors, and other industry folk for an afternoon
celebration of all the filmmakers screening at the prestigious festivals.
"The result is, five years down the road, the growth of our event has
mirrored the growth of Asian-Pacific cinema," said Emano. The first
reception had just 200 guests and this year’s hosted over 500. Nearly 40
Asian-Pacific filmmakers screened their works in Park City, compared with 18
just five years ago.
The Asian Pacific American Film Experience expanded to include the first
APA Filmmakers Lounge. The highlight was an all-star panel discussion, "If
You Build It, Will They Come? Aspirations For the New Asian-American Film
Movement," moderated by Chi-hui Yang, Festival Director at the Center for
Asian American Media. The panel featured directors Justin Lin and Grace Lee,
producer Janet Yang, actors Sung Kang, Suzy Nakamura, and Dustin Nguyen, as
well as reality TV star Yul Kwon, winner of "Survivor: Cook Islands."
The discussion was animated and entertaining. Panelists spoke frankly
about the difficulties of bringing an Asian-American sensibility to the
narrow, celebrity-fueled mainstream movie-making business, while each
expressed the desire not to have their work be completely boxed into
categories like "Asian" or "Asian American." Lee said, "American Zombie
is a totally American independent film, which is a label that I would
embrace."
Lin added, "When I was a kid, I never wanted to be the best basketball
player in the Asian league, I wanted to play in the NBA. I think that is the
ideal situation, to hopefully break all these categories. But the reality is
that it does exist … coming from the indie world to the studio world —
you’re dealing with people who want to box things in."
Overall, the APA film scene in Park City reflected the five years of
maturation. Filmmakers are now creating more complex works that go beyond
the earlier staple of identity politics to more sophisticated storytelling
that includes an Asian-American perspective. As Lin said, "Don’t go to our
films just because we’re Asian American. Go see our films because they are
good."
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