Asian American Showcase
The Gene Siskel Film Center and the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media (FAAIM) present the 12th edition of Asian American Showcase, March 30 through April 12. This unique festival celebrates film and video production by Asian American directors through independent features, documentaries, and shorts, many by emerging directors.
Asian American Showcase boasts a history of hits over twelve years, and many of the directors we feature this year are not only returning Showcase artists, but filmmakers who have become established as stars on the independent scene. We are pleased to welcome outstanding new films by Justin Lin (FINISHING THE GAME), Romeo Candido (THE INHERITANCE), Masahiro Sugano (SECOND MOON), Eric Byler (TRE), and Chris Chan Lee (UNDOING).
Check our web site for additional listings of Asian American Showcase activities and events in the coming weeks, including filmmaker appearances, additional films, concerts, workshops, and an art exhibition in the Gene Siskel Film Center’s gallery/caf.
For their essential role in making Asian American Showcase possible, the Gene Siskel Film Center thanks FAAIM founding members Sooyoung Park, Ben Kim, and William Shin, festival director Tim Hugh, and assistant festival director Sam del Rosario; the Alphawood Foundation; American Airlines; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Illinois Arts Council, A State Agency; and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Special thanks to Columbia College Chicago and DePaul University for their support of special events. Starcom USA is the exclusive Media Services Sponsor for Asian American Showcase. Time Out Chicago is the Premier Print Media Sponsor of Asian American Showcase.
--Barbara Scharres
Feature Films
Desmond Nakano in person!
AMERICAN PASTIME
2007, Desmond Nakano, USA, 102 min.
With Gary Cole, Masatoshi Nakamura
The year is 1941, and the carefree days of the Nomura family’s two sons center on baseball and the jazzy strains of big band music, until internment in a remote desert camp puts an end to life as they know it…almost. Lane enlists, saxophone whiz and baseball star Lyle falls in love, and that most American of sports proves to be a uniting force when the wary camp residents come up against the hostile townspeople of Abraham, Utah, in this lively and heartwarming story. In English and Japanese with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)
Director Desmond Nakano will be present for audience discussion.
Sunday, April 8, 3:00 pm
Juwan Chung in person!
BABY
2006, Juwan Chung, USA, 100 min.
With David Huyn, Feodor Chin
The life of a motherless East-L.A. boy veers fatefully when drug-dealing gang lords initiate him into their bloodletting brotherhood to secure his complicity. Chung’s (CAKE) moody crime thriller opens with Baby’s return following seven years in prison, and wends through the underbelly of Monterey Park and Alhambra, with hardened, disillusioned Baby attempting to pick up the pieces of the adolescence he never had. HD video. (BS)
Saturday, March 31, 7:45 pm
Director Juwan Chung will be present for audience discussion.
COLMA: THE MUSICAL
2006, Richard Wong, USA, 113 min.
With Jake Moreno, H.P. Mendoza, L.A. Renigen
“A giddy, unexpected pleasure.”--Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly
“Shrugs off the recent losing streak for musicals and makes it look easy.”--Dennis Harvey, Variety
Set in a Bay-area town best known for its underground population (in the cemeteries, that is), low-budget but audacious COLMA busts out the energy and charm as three friends, shy aspiring actor Billy, brassy gay poet Rodel, and Rubenesque party girl Maribel, attempt to find their way in a post-high school world. Abundant and highly imaginative musical numbers include a duet to the sound of a car alarm and the showstopper “Crash the Party.” DigiBeta video. (BS)
Saturday, March 31, 3:00 pm
DARK MATTER
2007, Chen Shi-Zheng, USA, 88 min.
With Liu Ye, Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn
Brilliant astrophysics student Liu, newly arrived at an American university from Beijing, seems well on the way to the Nobel Prize of his dreams when the superstar in his field (Quinn) becomes his mentor, and a wealthy, indulgent patron of Chinese culture (Streep) takes him under her wing. When Liu makes a research breakthrough challenging the theories of his idol, patronizing camaraderie turns to vengeful hostility, creating the spark that ignites Liu’s short fuse. Based on a true story. 35mm. (BS)
Saturday, April 7, 8:00 pm
Wednesday, April 11, 6:00 pm
Opening Night
Justin Lin, Roger Fan, and Sung Kang in person!
FINISHING THE GAME
2007, Justin Lin, USA, 84 min.
With Roger Fan, Sung Kang, Dustin Nguyen,
Laughs abound in Justin Lin’s (BETTER LUCK TOMORROW, THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT) mockumentary on the casting for the completion of Bruce Lee’s unfinished GAME OF DEATH following the star’s death. A clutch of no-talent Lee wannabes compete in open auditions and screen tests, and the finalists become vicious rivals for the role against a background of low-budget Hollywood sleaze. Lin’s evocation of the mid-70s is a treat, with over-the-top interiors and frighteningly accurate hairdos and polyester get-ups. 35mm. (BS)
Friday, March 30, 8:00 pm
Wednesday, April 4, 6:00 pm
Director Justin Lin and actors Roger Fan and Sung Kang will be present for audience discussion on Friday.
THE INHERITANCE(ANG PAMANA)
2006, Romeo Candido, Philippines/Canada, 111 min.
With Darrel Gamotin, Nadine Villasin
Upon the death of their formidable grandmother, two Canadian siblings and their Manila-based cousin jointly inherit the family’s ancestral mansion and surrounding estate in a remote province of the Philippines. They also inherit the family ghosts, including grandma, making her debut in the spirit world. Director Candido (LOLO’S CHILD) cannily reinterprets Filipino folklore in the no-holds-barred realm of the horror movie to thrilling effect. In English and Tagalog with English subtitles. 35mm. (BS)
Friday, April 6, 8:15 pm
OWL AND THE SPARROW
(CU VA CHIM SE SE)
2007, Stephane Gauger, USA/Vietnam, 99 min.
With Cat Ly, Thi Han
The colorful and winning tale shot guerilla-style in Saigon takes off when a headstrong orphan girl runs away from a harsh life of enforced labor in her uncle’s factory. The enterprising little vagabond is soon selling flowers in the streets, where she makes new friends including a zookeeper and a pretty, sad airline stewardess. The energy and noise of street life combined with the sensitive beauty of Gauger’s vision make his film both a love story and a valentine to Vietnam. In Vietnamese with English subtitles. 35mm. (BS)
Sunday, April 1, 4:45 pm
Monday, April 2, 7:45 pm
Masahiro Sugano in person!
SECOND MOON
2006, Masahiro Sugano, USA, 119 min.
With Andre Ing, Jennifer Shin
Boasting a dash of Tarantino verve and a heaping helping of Chicago filmmaker Sugano’s (HISAO, SUPER KAMADA) dry humor, SECOND MOON is shot entirely in Chicago with a cast of homegrown actors. Dubbed a “neo-Yakuza romantic farce” by the director, this debut feature follows the increasingly absurd adventures of Q (Ing), an agent for “Art of Love,” a clandestine organization that contracts adulterous trysts for lovelorn suburban housewives. HD video. (BS)
Wednesday, April 4, 7:45 pm
Director Masahiro Sugano will be present for audience discussion.
SHANGHAI KISS
2007, Kern Konwiser and David Ren, USA, 105 min.
With Ken Leung, Kelly Hu
A romantic comedy with a wide and often hilarious streak of angst, SHANGHAI KISS follows an out-of-work L.A. actor’s pursuit of sex, love, and identity. A windfall inheritance in Shanghai leads Liam Liu to ditch L.A. and the jailbait cutie who has become his best friend, in favor of a sleek, worldly temptress and an earnest search for roots that doesn’t turn out quite as planned. HD video. (BS)
Monday, April 9, 6:00 pm
Joy Dietrich in person!
TIE A YELLOW RIBBON
2007, Joy Dietrich, USA, 87 min.
With Kim Jiang, Jane Kim
Too cool, too fast-moving for any relationship but anonymous one-night stands, aspiring photographer Jenny would seem to have the ideal life of a liberated SoHo siren. With a change of apartment and roommate, troubling fissures appear in her carefully cultivated faade of alienation, and the childhood rejection by her adoptive family over forbidden attraction to her stepbrother looms like a dark shadow. HD video. (BS)
Thursday, April 5, 8:15 pm
Director Joy Dietrich will be present for audience discussion.
Eric Byler in person!
TRE
2006, Eric Byler, USA, 110 min.
With Daniel Cariaga, Kimberly-Rose Wolter
The limits of love are tested when illicit sex becomes the challenge and the after-dark game for four friends sharing a luxurious secluded house. Gabe and Kakela, newly engaged, host his moocher friend Tre and her recently separated pal Nina for a volatile mix of attractions and temperaments that threatens the fragile bonds of each relationship. Director Byler (CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES, AMERICANESE) brings a trademark depth of style and character development to a story rich in innuendo. HD video. (BS)
Director Eric Byler will be present for audience discussion.
Wednesday, April 11, 8:00 pm
Gene Rhee in person!
THE TROUBLE WITH ROMANCE
2007, Gene Rhee, USA, 88 min.
With Roger Fan, Emily Liu
The director of the 2002 Sundance hit THE QUEST FOR LENGTH crafts four romantic vignettes with surprise endings, demonstrating that love has many definitions. “Banged,” “Spice,” “Dumped,” and “Love” play out simultaneously in neighboring suites of an upscale hotel, as an unhappy threesome, a wife with kinks on her mind, a man with a ring in his pocket, and a call girl and her client come to terms with the vagaries of relationships. HD video. (BS)
Director Gene Rhee will be present for audience discussion.
Saturday, April 7, 3:00 pm
Closing night
Chris Chan Lee in person!
UNDOING
2006, Chris Chan Lee, USA, 85 min.
With Sung Kang, Kelly Hu
This low-key neo-noir drama set largely in L.A.’s Koreatown is the long-awaited second feature by the acclaimed director of YELLOW. Torn between a desire for redemption and the need for revenge, Sam (Kang) returns to the dangerous streets that killed his best friend one year before. Lee’s moody imagery, drenched in saffron-tinged light by day and neon tones by night, gives eerie immediacy to Sam’s violent journey into a world where he is a conspicuous innocent. HD video. (BS)
Director Chris Chan Lee will be present for audience discussion.
Thursday, April 12, 8:15 pm
Documentary Programs
AND THEREAFTER II
2006, Hosup Lee, South Korea/USA, 56 min.
KORYO SARAM: THE UNRELIABLE PEOPLE
2006, Y. David Chung and Matt Dibble, USA, 62 min.
KORYO SARAM explores the history and present day aftermath of Stalin’s 1937 campaign of ethnic cleansing, which transplanted a Korean migr population of more than 180,000 from eastern Russia to the steppes of Kazakhstan. In English, Russian, and Korean with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)
In AND THEREAFTER II, a 60-year-old Korean war-bride and widow of a New Jersey serviceman reluctantly opens up about her career as a prostitute. As the filmmaker’s calculated agenda is dashed and altered, his subject Ajuma unfolds the story of her marriage and her own motives with salty candor. In Korean and English with English subtitles. Beta SP video. (BS)
Saturday, March 31, 5:15 pm
BOLINAO 52
2007, Duc Nguyen, USA, 56 min.
PILGRIMAGE
2006, Tad Nakamura, USA, 22 min.
BOLINAO 52’s chronicle of the Vietnamese boat people centers on the fate of one doomed boat left adrift by an American ship in 1989, despite the extreme distress of its starving passengers. Included are present-day interviews with survivors and U.S. Navy crewmen, with testimony of painful death and cannibalism. In English, Vietnamese, and Tagalog with English subtitles. DigiBeta video.
Preceded by PILGRIMAGE, the inspirational story of how a WWII Japanese internment camp has been reclaimed as a shrine. DigiBeta video, (BS)
Saturday, April 7, 5:15 pm
THE CATS OF MIRIKITANI
2006, Linda Hattendorf, USA, 74 min.
A fateful 2001 encounter between the filmmaker and a Japanese American outsider-artist selling his vibrant cat paintings on a lower Manhattan street begins an odyssey for both. Following 9/11, she also becomes his bemused host and enabler as 80-year-old “grand master artist” Jimmy Mirikitani continues to create furiously, drawing on his past, including a childhood in Hiroshima and WWII internment as an “enemy alien” for subject matter. In English and Japanese with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)
Sunday, April 1, 3:00 pm
NA KAMALEI: THE MEN OF HULA
2006, Lisette Marie Flanary, USA, 57 min.
PILGRIMAGE
2006, Tad Nakamura, USA, 22 min.
An old Hawaiian proverb, “Dare to hula, leave your shame at home,” is the mantra of students at the all-male hula academy of revered Hawaiian dancer and traditional music master Robert Camizero. NA KAMALEI details the contemporary reclamation of the masculine side of the ancient dance. The master’s rough and ready approach to instruction adds to the delight of the rehearsals leading up to his academy’s winning powerhouse performance in the world’s most prestigious hula competition. DigiBeta video.
Preceded by PILGRIMAGE, the inspirational story of how a WWII Japanese internment camp has been reclaimed as a shrine. DigiBeta video, (BS)
Sunday, April 8, 5:30 pm
NEW YEAR BABY
2006, Socheata Poeuv, USA, 75 min.
A Texas family marked indelibly by the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge comes together in a healing trip to Cambodia to rediscover pieces of a history both shocking and heroic. Socheata Poeuv’s parents take one Christmas gathering of the clan to tell secrets that will transform family relationships, leading up to an emotional journey into the past. In English and Cambodian with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)
Monday, April 2, 6:00 pm
Shorts Program
Filmmakers in person!
Hometown Heroes
2005-7, Various directors, USA, ca. 90 min.
From personal history to sci-fi romance, a collection of short films by Chicago-area filmmakers. The program includes ANGEL CAPRICCIO by Phoebe Chao (12 min.); GENERATION A AND INTERVIEW by Cheng-yun Kuo (15 min.); WISDOM FOOD by Kerry Yang (2 min.); MIZAR by Yuting Hsueh (12 min.); JAPANESE WOODPRINT REMIX by Emily Wang (2 min.); AUTONOMY by Deirdre E. Lee (4 min.); IN BETWEEN by Sean Seung W. Kang (8 min.); THE BEGINNING OF AN AMERICAN LIFETIME by Karen Lin (5 min.); UNTITLED by Caroline Hong (7 min.); NICE THREADS by Michelle Kaffko (13 min.); THE BEST REMEDY by Maki Terashita (3 min.); and GLASSHOUSE by Chi-Jan Yun (9 min.). Various formats.
Many of the directors are expected to appear for audience discussion.
Monday, April 9, 8:00 pm
Special Events
Free admission!
Asian American Directors’ Panel
Film Row Cinema - Columbia College Chicago
1104 S. Wabash Avenue, 8th floor
Join us for an exciting directors’ panel featuring Justin Lin and Masahiro Sugano. A screening of recent work precedes a discussion focusing on experiences as Asian Americans in the film industry and strategies for success.
Thursday, March 29, 12:00 pm
Free admission!
Remake: The Sequel
Gene Siskel Film Center Gallery/Caf
Inspired by the plethora of film-world remakes and sequels, the gallery exhibition of new work by selected Asian American artists presents provocative “remakes” of pre-existing works or classics.
Opening Reception:
Friday, March 30, 6:00 pm-8:00 pm
Free admission!
Attack of the Giant Robot
DePaul University Art Museum
2350 N. Kenmore, Chicago
Co-editors Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong discuss the background, philosophy, and growth of Giant Robot, the successful magazine they launched in 1994 to cover Asian and Asian American pop culture and art.
Wednesday, April 4, 5:00 pm
Beats & Shorts
Hot House
31 E. Balbo Avenue, Chicago
Mix and mingle with the filmmakers for an evening of Asian American hip hop and film featuring Chicago’s own super-trio the P.A.C.I.F.I.C.S.
18+ only, cash bar
Admission $5; free admission for Columbia College students. Proceeds benefit Columbia College Chicago’s new Asian American Student Organization.
Wednesday, April 4, 7:00 pm
Free admission!
Giant Robots Everywhere!
Columbia College Chicago
33 E. Congress Pkwy.
Get free advice from the experts in a publishing workshop with Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong, founders and co-editors of the critically acclaimed magazine Giant Robot.