Diaspora Melancholy
Asian American Film Series
Wisconsin Film Festival 2007
April 12-15, 2007
Film Series Poster
Ticket Order Information
"Asian American film is about transition. The films in 'Diaspora Melancholy' depict the rough moments of multiple forms of movement: from Asia to the U.S., from old world to new, from boy to man, from wannabe to world champion, from death to resurrection. In the diaspora, in movement, what is lost and what is gained?" --Leslie Bow, Director, Asian American Studies Program
(read her whole essay)
Americanese
Director: Eric Byler
Category: drama | 110 min
Now part of the canon of Asian American literature, Shawn Wong's empowering 1995 novel American Knees did what few works had dared, depicting the long-marginalized love lives of contemporary Asian Americans-cerebral yet sexual, and always fraught with the thorny question of race. A decade after its publication, Wong's novel is brought to life by writer/director Eric Byler, whose debut feature CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES captivated critics and audiences alike with its subtle, sophisticated portrait of sex, lies and loneliness. In the declaratively renamed AMERICANese, what was merely subtext in CHARLOTTE-racial politics both in and out of the bedroom bubbles to the surface. Raymond (Chris Tashima, VISAS AND VIRTUE) is a forty-year-old, divorced Chinese American college professor struggling with his recent break-up with the younger, half-Japanese Aurora (Allison Sie). For Raymond, Aurora needed some hard lessons on recognizing her own Asian identity; Aurora, however, would have preferred a lover, not an Ethnic Studies lecturer. As Aurora begins dating a Caucasian man, Raymond embarks on a new relationship with a Vietnamese co-worker (Joan Chen in a pivotal, haunting role) with a troubled history of her own. Struggling with their own pasts, lonely in their respective presents, each character seeks something more for the future, with-or without-their prior loves. Byler is the rare American filmmaker who trusts his audience, investing objects and spaces with emotions and memories, and capturing the pregnant silences that say far more than words. With a stellar supporting cast including Kelly Hu (THE SCORPION KING; X2), Sab Shimono (ROBOT STORIES) and Michael Paul Chan (THE JOY LUCK CLUB), AMERICANese represents a triumph for Asian American cinema -- a frank, provocative confrontation with the hothouse issues of sex and race, and an intelligent, adult love story about trying to move on.
Finishing the Game
Director: Justin Lin
Category: drama | 88 min
In 1973, Bruce Lee died suddenly at the age of 32, leaving behind footage intended for his dream project THE GAME OF DEATH. Not one to miss an opportunity for profit, Hollywood executives cast stand-ins to double as Lee in a rewritten script which took advantage of 12 minutes of Lee's real footage, including his now immortal fight with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in his iconic yellow-and-black jumpsuit.
Following his groundbreaking indie hit BETTER LUCK TOMORROW as well as studio ventures ANNAPOLIS and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT, director Justin Lin returns to his roots with FINISHING THE GAME, a rollicking comedy spoof about this egregiously exploitative search for Bruce Lee's stand-in. Documentarians capture the absurd, hilarious and sometimes disturbingly true-to-life (but decidedly fictional) audition process as a motley assortment of candidates vie for the role: a former-TV-star-turned door-to-door salesman, a Bruce Lee knockoff named Breeze Loo and some guys who don't even look Chinese, much less like Lee.
FINISHING THE GAME turns out to be less about Bruce Lee than it is a lampoon of Hollywood in the 1970s, poking fun at the behind-the-scenes farces and the racism-both blatant and subtle-ingrained in the industry. Lin reunites many of his cast from BETTER LUCK TOMORROW (Sung Kang, Roger Fan, Parry Shen) and populates the film with cameos by friends gained along the way, such as Leonardo Nam and Brian Tee (from TOKYO DRIFT), Dustin Nguyen (21 JUMP STREET), MTV's Suchin Pak, James Franco and even MC Hammer. Telling the story of the struggles faced by Asian American actors of the time, Lin has ingeniously created a vehicle for some of today's counterparts to showcase their impressive comedic talents.
Punching At The Sun
Web: http://www.punchingatthesun.com/
Director: Tanuj Chopra
Category: drama | 83 min
Set during the sweltering heat of summer in post-9/11 Queens, PUNCHING AT THE SUN concerns a South Asian teen, Mameet Nayak (played by electrifying newcomer Misu Khan), who is consumed with both personal and social demons after his older brother, a local streetball legend, is murdered in their family's corner store.
Not only does Nayak have to struggle with his own guilt, but his borough is wrought with racial tensions. Within a Black and White world, Nayak and his desi friends quickly learn that being Brown is to be both invisible and hyper-visible. While his buddies turn to humor and hiphop as outlets for their frustrations and a way to resolve these contradictions, Nayak instead fends off the lure of violence.
Tackling the complexities of race and resentment, Chopra heads an emerging wave of South Asian American filmmakers moving beyond formulaic family melodramas and exotic cultural ethnographies. His piercing look into the contemporary experience of desi youth asks difficult questions about America's delicate social balance, and refuses to indulge in easy resolutions.
Man Push Cart
Web: http://www.manpushcartmovie.com/
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Category: drama | 87 min
Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi) is a hard working Pakistani trying to keep his head above water in New York, serving coffee and treats to the busy Manhattan-ites from his push cart during the day, and earning some extra cash selling dodgy DVDs by night.
He meets affluent fellow countryman Mohammad (Charles Daniel Sandoval), who takes him under his wing, offering welcome work decorating his apartment. He also befriends Spanish woman Noemi (Leticia Dolera), who works at the newsstand close to Ahmad's cart. The three start to socialise together, but these ill-defined relationships falter, as we see timid Ahmad patronised by Mohammad and taken for granted by Noemi. We gradually learn more about Ahmad, about how he was a famous singer back home (Mohammad enthusiastically declares him 'Lahore's answer to Bono', in an attempt to get him a gig), but also how he is haunted by a past tragedy.
Iranian American director Ramin Bahrani has crafted a subtle, effecting and beautifully drawn character study, a poignant tale of a man struggling to connect with a city he desperately wants to call home.
The Slanted Screen
Web: http://www.slantedscreen.com/
Director: Jeff Adachi
Category: documentary | 60 min
Sessue Hayakawa, James Shigeta, Bruce Lee. Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto, Fu Manchu: the history of Asian American men in American cinema is a rich, complex and tricky one. Marked by storied careers like Shigeta's, whose romantic leading roles of almost fifty years ago are still unparalleled for their nuance, it is also characterized by the dogged stereotypes that American media is still rife with today: the desexualized Asian male, the yellow peril threat. At the core of this history is a fascinating story of race, politics and media-one that has interestingly changed very little in a centuryplus of moving images.
In his engaging, enormously enjoyable portrait of the silver screen, Jeff Adachi weaves together scores of rare and memorable film clips from the '20s to the present with interviews from some of cinema's major figures. Guided by voices such as Mako, Jason Scott Lee and Dustin Nguyen, and performances from such greats as Philip Ahn and George Takei, THE SLANTED SCREEN digs deep into the history vaults and the minds of its subjects to tackle the social forces that have shaped how Asian American men are seen and portrayed. Revelatory and insightful, it offers not only a primer on Asian American film history, but an inspiring look at its bright future ahead.
Sentenced Home
Directors: David Grabias, Nicole Newnham
Category: documentary | 76 min
Like many young Cambodian Americans who arrived here as refugees in the '80s, Loeun Lun, Manny Uch, and Kim Ho Ma hoped for the best. Little did they know that their destinies, guided by youthful mistakes and the unforeseeable events of 9/11, would decades later bring them full-circle: from birth in Cambodia to an unwilling return.
After fleeing the Khmer Rouge and settling in Seattle, each was drawn into gang life, and ultimately jail. According to U.S. immigration law they should have been deported, but Cambodia did not accept deportees at the time of their sentences. However, after September 2001, the U.S. pressured Cambodia into changing its policy; as a result, thousands of individuals were separated from their families and returned to a land that many barely knew. Moreover, Loeun, Manny, Kim Ho and many others faced the prospect of paying a double penalty: having already served their original prison sentences and moved on with their lives, they now faced deportation.
At the opening of the film, Loeun is married with two young children and has a full-time job. Manny, seeking redemption for his past, coaches a Little League team in Seattle, while Kim Ho is just days away from being deported. Following them from the U.S. to Cambodia, directors David Grabias and Nicole Newnham bring to light their heart-breaking stories, and reveal the human cost of an inhumane immigration policy.
The Cats of Mirikitani
Web: http://www.thecatsofmirikitani.com/
Director: Linda Hattendorf
Category: documentary | 74 min
What do a quizzical housecat and a homeless "grand master artist" have in common? How do dreams survive on the streets of New York? Can art raise the living from the dead? Such questions frame this portrait of an octogenarian outsider artist, Jimmy Mirikitani. Born in 1920 in Sacramento, California, Mirikitani grew up in Hiroshima and quickly showed a talent for painting. Hoping to avoid the draft in Japan, heikitani grew up in Hiroshima and quickly showed a talent for painting. Hoping to avoid the draft in Japan, he returned to the U.S. during World War II and was forced into an internment camp. It became the decisive season of his life, and desolate images of the camp-as well as scenes from his beloved Hiroshima, both before and after its destruction-appear repeatedly in his work. But brilliant colors and felines, whether dreamy kittens or fierce tigers, also abound. In 2001, Mirikitani was living in Washington Square Park, still drawing pictures of the events that so dramatically affected his life. To rescue him from toxic dust after the World Trade Center collapse, filmmaker Linda Hattendorf impulsively brings Mirikitani home with her, like a stray. Now impromptu roommates, the unassuming filmmaker and elderly artist explore Mirikitani's painful past, navigate the maze of social services, and seek out his long-lost relatives-aided and abetted by Hattendorf's pet cat, of course. Mirikitani even travels back to the camp where he was interned, to make peace with the past. But most importantly, he shares his story with someone who wants to listen. In this often funny, intimate film, we see the creative spirit unfurl itself like a cat's tail as it awakens from a long slumber.
Air Guitar Nation
Web: http://www.airguitarnation.com/2007/
Director: Alexandra Lipsitz
Category: documentary | 81 min
Fueled by pure rock energy, this documentary chronicles the birth of the U.S. Air Guitar Championship and investigates the passions that drive its participants all the way to the world competition. No longer a mere bedroom pastime, air guitar is now recognized as a force with universal appeal. Oulu, Finland, has hosted the Air Guitar World Championship for years, but remarkably, as late as 2002, the United States had yet to be represented. After the sold-out success of the inaugural stateside tournament held at the Pussycat Lounge in Tribeca, it became clear that America had been hungering to stand up and take its turn on the international stage. Filmmaker Alexandra Lipsitz captures the electricity of that initial event, and goes on to track the intense rivalries that develop in further rounds as contestants vie to become the country's first ambassador of air. C-Diddy, Bjorn Turoque, and Krye Tuff are only a few of the players who set out to become legends. Of course the question remains, once in Finland, will the unproven United States be able to hold its own? Those who blithely mock air guitar as a competitive event have yet to experience its power. Contestants are judged on their technical accuracy, stage presence, and "airness", a zen-like state that transcends all else. Lipsitz's high-energy film bears witness to the air guitar phenomenon and proves that though the instruments may be invisible, the rock is real. For anyone who has ever had rock star fantasies or dreamed of taking their fake strums all the way to the top, this film is for you.
