"Passing Poston," a documentary directed by Joe Fox and James Nubile about Japanese Americans interned in the Poston Relocation Center, screens this week in New York City at the Pioneer and Anthology Film Archives.
For the over 120,000 Japanese Americans forcibly interned during War War II � the scars have not yet fully healed.
PASSING POSTON tells the moving and haunting story of four former internees of the Poston Relocation Center � each person shadowed by a tragic past, each struggling in their own painful way to reconcile the trauma of their youth. Each individual still searching and yearning during their last chapter of their lives, to find their rightful place in this country.
It is a story that takes Ruth Okimoto back to the desert of Arizona where she spent her childhood years behind barbed wire. Back to the Colorado River Indian Reservation, where Poston was built. It is a journey Ruth takes, to find meaning in the inexplicable as she searches to discover the true story of how the Poston camp came into being.
Ruth's answers startle and disturb but eventually leads to resolution as she learns about the role that the Japanese Internees played in developing this reservation.
The Best of Slant Vol 1 features a collection of short films culled from seven years of Aurora Picture Show’s annual Slant: Bold Asian American Images festival. The Slant festival annually showcases the best in emerging Asian American cinema. Since its start in 2000, Slant has screened an eclectic mix of films that explore a wide range of topics and genres such as the smashing of stereotypes, off-beat comedies, family stories, explorations of culture and identity, and universal themes like love, loss, the human condition. Slant curator Melissa Hung is the founding editor of Hyphen, a magazine about Asian American culture. She is a frequent speaker on the topic of Asian American media and independent media. She lives in Oakland, California and works for the San Francisco WritersCorps, a creative writing program for urban youth.
Films in the Compilation include:
1. How to do the Asian Squat by Daniel Hsia
2. Lilo and Me by Kip Fulbeck
3. Maritess vs the Superfriends by Dino Ignacio
4. A Little Bit Different by Lynn Okimura
5. Profiles in Science by Wes Kim
6. I Pie (A Love Store) by Nobu Adilman
7. How to Make Kimchi According to My Kun-Uma by Samuel Kiehoon Lee
8. Slip of the Tongue by Karen Lum
Byler's "Tre" opens in SF, gets rave from the SFBG
The San Francisco Bay Guardian loves Eric Byler's Tre, which opens at the Four Star Cinemas in San Francisco today. Here's an excerpt from the review:
A semisequel to writer-director Eric Byler's 2002 debut feature, Charlotte Sometimes, this low-key but quietly devastating relationship meltdown in the mode of Harold Pinter and Neil LaBute is his best work to date.
Jon Chu, whose short musical "When the Kids Are Away" won a slew of awards are few years back, has directed "Step Up 2," which is playing everywhere this weekend. Angry Asian Man notes a few Asian Americans in the cast.
For an article about Chu from 2003, visit AsianWeek.
San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival unveils program
The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, unspooling March 13 to 23, has unveiled its program. The festival opens with Wayne Wang's "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" and gives its Centerpiece slot to Michael Kang's "West 32nd." Special events include a sing-along screening of "Colma: The Musical." Awesome.
Filmmaker turned comic book writer Greg Pak has a new side project -- AsianAmericanComics.com, bringing you the latest scoop about Asian American comic books and creators (heeey... that sounds familiar...).
Korean American films in NYC and Gene Rhee's feature in Berkeley
East Coast alert: The Korean American Film Festival takes place February 9 in New York City with a 4 pm shorts program and a 7 pm feature presentation of Juwan Chung's "Baby." Click here for the official website and here for the program.
West Coast alert: Gene Rhee's "Trouble With Romance" screens TONIGHT at 7 pm in Berkeley, with Rhee in attendance! Click here for the deets, courtesy of Angry Asian Man.
Eric Byler's new film "Tre" opens on February 1 in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Sunset 5 (8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90046, (323) 848-3500)
Showtimes: 12:30, 2:45, 5:10, 7:30, 9:55
Q&A with director Eric Byler and co-writer/lead actress Kimberly-Rose Wolter
Friday, Feb. 1st after the 7:30PM show & Saturday, Feb. 2nd after the 5:10PM & 7:30PM shows
Ann Marie Fleming on the "Long Tack Sam" graphic novel
Ann Marie Fleming's feature film, "The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam," won rave reviews at film festivals and nabbed awards like the Grand Jury Award of the 2004 Asian Film Festival of Dallas. And now it's a graphic novel that the American Library Association has named one of the Top Ten Graphic Novels for Teens. AsianAmericanFilm.com editor Greg Pak spoke with Fleming about her new adventures in comics. Read on for the interview -- and click on the images below to see preview pages from the book!
AsianAmericanFilm.com: Please describe the book in three sentences or less.
Ann Marie Fleming: "The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam" is a graphic novel based on the animated documentary of the same name, which traces my search to find the life of my great grandfather, Long Tack Sam, who was a world-famous, globe-hopping Chinese acrobat and magician that my family had really not know very much about at all. It takes us on a trip of the events of the 20th century through the prism of this one particular man's life, and, stylistically, it riffs off from the collage-like, multi-media quality of the film itself.
AAF: How did the plan to make the film into a graphic novel come together?
AMF: This was very serendipitous. Megan Lynch, an editor at Riverhead Books in New York City, saw the film on the Sundance Channel and got in touch with me, asking me if i'd be interested in adapting it into a graphic novel. She thought it would be particularly relevent for teaching inner city kids about valuing themselves in the world through the stories of their own families.
AAF: How did working in comics allow you to tell the story differently than working in film?
AMF: 2D is VERY DIFFERENT from 3D... from time-based media. I had to completely rethink the film. I didn't have the sound and music element, and my voice-over, which is such a large part of the film and gives it so much of its colour.
I tried to shift the layout on every pages, so you can explore the information differently, and change it up... I guess it was my way of visually pacing... I added other elements (like Stickgirl, my avatar, the narrator) and I also got to go on more tangential lines which I had to cut down or out in the film. I play with lists and timelines, which is very much how I began to structure my search in the first place.
Ann Marie Fleming's feature film, 