In this big, wide world, Asian diasporas experience change and introspection in all sorts of environments. Will it be in the water? In the heat of the sun? Or the shadow of a volcano? Wherever it is, and wherever they go, there is a story worth telling. ...
Linh Tran Got the Green Light
A remarkable debut by a new young filmmaker “I have no idea what I’m doing with my career,” Linh Tran candidly stated via phone interview. That uncertainty is confidently felt throughout her debut feature, “Waiting for the Light to Change.” Tran’s film, w ...
Postscript: The Fall of the I-Hotel
Editor’s Note: “The Fall of the I-Hotel Postscript” originally screened at AAIFF85. It is a documentary that follows the San Francisco Filipino community’s resistance against the systemic destruction of Manilatown, including the forced eviction of 50 elde ...
‘Leading from the Front’ of Asian American Identity
The zeitgeist of Asians in the United States is defined by questions: How do we bear the sacrifices of our families who decided to stake our futures on this land? With whom do we connect as a nationality defined by the world’s ethnicities? And as we look ...
‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ and the importance of reinterpreting stories
This article contains spoilers. Every so often, Hollywood releases an all-female, or all-POC version of a classic story, like the 2016 version of “Ghostbusters” or the 2014 version of “About Last Night.” And when that happens, you can bet that there wi ...
Interrogating Preconceived Notions of Korea
“Crossings” takes viewers on a tour of the two Koreas Feminist scholar Gloria Anzaldúa wrote, “Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them. A border is a dividing line, a narrow strip along a steep edge.” ...
International Fame through Faith: “Singing in the Wilderness”
“Singing in the Wilderness” is a documentary about a Miao ethnic Christian choir group in China. After a century of living in the mountains, this choir group gets a chance to sing on the world stage. Their faith is questioned as they try to find success. ...
‘Better Luck Tomorrow’: 20 Years Later
Tackling the legacy of the greatest Asian American filmThis article contains spoilers.On October 4, 2019, the LA Times’ released an article titled “The 20 best Asian American films of the last 20 years.” And number one on their list was the 2002 crime dra ...
Iris Yamashita: extraordinarily under-appreciated screenwriter
The Woman Who Penned 'Letters from Iwo Jima' Has Never Stopped Writing “If our children can sleep safely for one more day, it would be worth the one more day that we defend this island!” So declares General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, played by Ken Watanabe ...