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Asian American Showcase

The Gene Siskel Film Center and the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media (FAAIM) present the 13th edition of Asian American Showcase, April 11 through 24. This year’s theme is “Lucky 13” as we celebrate film and video production by Asian American directors through 13 Chicago-premiere programs and a “Lucky 13”-themed exhibition by Asian American artists in our gallery/café.

Our opening night film PING PONG PLAYA is the fast-paced and very funny first comedy by Academy Award-winning documentary director Jessica Yu (IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL). The film’s star/screenwriter Jimmy Tsai will be here in person. Our closing night film is SANTA MESA, a poignant coming-of-age drama set against the chaotic milieu of Manila street life.

Director appearances highlight a powerhouse selection of new features. Michael Kang (MOTEL) appears with WEST 32ND, an edgy crime drama distinguished by superb acting. Amyn Kaderali presents his surprising comedy KISSING COUSINS, in which a guy accustomed to terminating relationships gets an unwelcome lesson in love. First-time directors Francis Hsueh and Steven Hahn appear with PRETTY TO THINK SO, in which three Manhattan singles become entangled through money, love, and the past.

Feature documentaries include THE KILLING OF A CHINESE COOKIE, a humorous but fact-filled history of that questionably Chinese treat, and WINGS OF DEFEAT, in which surviving WWII kamikaze pilots speak of their experiences for the first time. Chicago director Kai-Duc Luong appears with acclaimed blues performer Vance Kelly, one of the subjects of his journal film SOMEPLACE ELSE. Body-image dilemmas facing the Asian American woman are explored in NEVER PERFECT.

Our selection of shorts includes a program of films by students of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The 50s-themed musical DAMN THE PAST! is a highlight of the shorts program “Life, Love, and Everything in Between.”

Check our web site for additional listings of Asian American Showcase activities and events in the coming weeks.

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; 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.

--Barbara Scharres

Feature Films

Amyn Kaderali in person!
KISSING COUSINS
2008, Amyn Kaderali, 99 min.
With Samrat Chakrabarti, Rebecca Hazlewood

Seasoned bachelor Amir, a relationship termination specialist by trade, crushes dreams and breaks hearts for hire so cowardly lovers don’t have to do it themselves. One day, crazy cousin Zara, his childhood nemesis, shows up from the UK, and he gets duped into introducing her as his girlfriend. The game is on but the stakes are still uncertain in this sprightly comedy with a surprise ending. HDCAM video. (BS)

Director Amyn Kaderali will be present on Saturday for audience discussion.

Saturday, April 12, 8:00 pm
Monday, April 14, 6:00

OPTION 3
2008, Richard Wong, USA, 72 min.
With Preston Conner, Theresa Navarro

Independent Spirit Award-nominated Richard Wong (COLMA: THE MUSICAL) takes off in a new direction with an avant-garde chase film that begins with a young woman’s disappearance from a San Francisco restaurant. A mysterious caller directs her frantic boyfriend to a series of addresses, each one a red herring. With tongue in cheek, the director couldn’t resist mounting one big soulful musical number with backup violinists. DigiBeta video. (BS)

Thursday, April 17, 8:15 pm
Friday, April 18, 6:30

Opening night film!
Jimmy Tsai in person!
PING PONG PLAYA
2007, Jessica Yu, USA, 96 min.
With Jimmy Tsai, Khary Payton

Award-winning documentary director Jessica Yu (IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL) brings crackling energy to her first comedy feature while putting a new spin on some ethnic stereotypes. Christopher “C-Dub” Wang (Tsai) is the jiving motor-mouth loser in a clan of serious over-achievers. When a freak accident renders him the temporary mainstay of his mom and dad’s modest little sports franchise, this Peter Pan-from-the-dark-side is challenged to channel his hustle and hyperactivity into defending the family honor in the annual ping pong tournament that is their claim to fame. 35mm. (BS)

Actor, writer, and co-producer Jimmy Tsai will be present for audience discussion.

Friday, April 11, 8:30

Filmmakers in person!
PRETTY TO THINK SO
2008, Francis Hsueh and Steven Hahn, USA, 105 min.
With Pia Shah, Louis Ozawa

Sexual tension bonds three Manhattan singles in an uneasy triangle as dotcoms crash. A link with the past threatens to derail the relationship between an unemployed financial analyst and her corporate lawyer boyfriend when she meets his new client, a squeaky-clean youth minister with a secret gambling addiction. First-time directors Hsueh and Hahn prove adept at weaving the aura of Manhattan and the flavor of yuppie watering holes into a drama rife with primal conflict. HD CAM video. (BS)

Co-directors Francis Hsueh and Steven Hahn will be present for audience discussion on Friday.

Friday, April 18, 8:00 pm
Tuesday, April 22, 7:45

Closing night film!
SANTA MESA
2008, Ron Morales, USA/Philippines, 85 min.
With Jacob Kiron Shalov, Melissa Leo

The sudden death of his mom plunges 12-year-old Filipino American Hector into the poverty of the Manila slums to live with the stern grandmother he’s never met. Dangerous choices loom when he’s recruited by a street gang and finds friendship with an abused girl who’s one of their own. The home invasion meant to be his gang initiation goes wrong, and Hector faces the most dangerous choice of all. Director Morales subtly conveys the lush beauty and colorful extremes of Manila in all its vibrancy. In English and Tagalog with English subtitles. 35mm. (BS)

Thursday, April 24, 8:15

Michael Kang in person!
WEST 32ND
2007, Michael Kang, USA, 91 min.
With John Cho, Jun Kim

This stylish, fast-paced crime drama foregrounds ruthless ambition in two men on opposing sides of the law: John (Cho), a young hotshot lawyer aiming for a promotion to partner, and Mike (Kim), a hardened Koreatown gang member with a hair-trigger temper. The manager of a swanky brothel is executed gangland style one night and a 14-year-old boy is charged. John steps up to the defense pro bono for the prize he imagines to be the kid’s shyly alluring sister, but no one including John, is who they seem. In English and Korean with English subtitles. 35mm. (BS)

Director Michael Kang will be present for audience discussion.

Saturday, April 19, 8:15

Documentary Films

Ann Kaneko in person!
AGAINST THE GRAIN: AN ARTIST SURVIVAL GUIDE TO PERU
2007, Ann Kaneko, USA, 64 min.
VINCENT WHO?
2008, Tony Lam, USA, 40 min.

AGAINST THE GRAIN documents the careers of Peruvian art-activists before, during, and after the Fujimori dictatorship through work including audacious street-actions, graphic sculptures masquerading as religious art, mock flags, and provocative murals that push the limits of Peru’s freedom of speech. In Spanish, English, Japanese, and Quechua with English subtitles. DigiBeta video.

VINCENT WHO? reviews Vincent Chin’s legacy more than 25 years after his shocking murder served as a catalyst for Asian American activism. Beta SP video. (BS)

Ann Kaneko, director of AGAINST THE GRAIN, will be present for audience discussion.

Saturday, April 19, 5:30

THE KILLING OF A CHINESE COOKIE
2008, Eric Shimoda, USA, 74 min.

Director Shimoda dares ask the question at the back of everyone’s mind: who invented the fortune cookie, and where do they get those “fortunes”? Contrary to popular opinion, the traditional Chinese meal doesn’t conclude with a tasteless tidbit with a scrap of paper inside. This playful but fact-filled history highlights the prescient pastry’s disputed origins--in San Francisco, the brainchild of a Japanese restaurateur, or in Los Angeles, the invention of the Hong Kong Noodle Company--and the trial that was meant to settle the rivalry. Beta SP video. (BS)

Sunday, April 20, 5:15 pm
Tuesday, April 22, 6:15

NEVER PERFECT
2007, Regina Park, USA, 64 min.
MISS CHINATOWN, USA
2006, Kathy Huang, USA, 25 min.

NEVER PERFECT follows young Vietnamese American Mei Ahn as she contemplates cosmetic surgery to widen her eyes, just one more step in the series of life changes meant to differentiate her from her immigrant mother. Mei Ahn’s story is the centerpiece of director Park’s inquiry into the opposing cultural pressures on today’s Asian American woman: to embody the virginal good-girl of her parents’ ideal or the seductive commodity of Western fantasies.

MISS CHINATOWN, USA unreels the story of a Seattle student’s decision to compete in the high-profile San Francisco beauty pageant to please her parents. Both in Beta SP video. (BS)

Sunday, April 13, 3:00

Filmmakers in person!
SOMEPLACE ELSE
2008, Kai-Duc Luong and Avisheh Mohsenin, USA, 70 min.

An engagingly informal profile of Chicago blues-soul-funk musician Vance Kelly weaves through director Luong’s film journal, extending from his first days in Chicago as a foreign student to his three-year struggle to find his voice as an artist through filmmaking. Extended performance sequences of Kelly and his Backstreet Blues Band at the Checkerboard pose a contrast to the personal and poetic quality of Luong’s reflections on Chicago. Beta SP video. (BS)

Director Kai-Duc Luong and Chicago blues artist Vance Kelly will be present for audience discussion.

Monday, April 14, 8:00 pm
Monday, April 21, 6:00

WINGS OF DEFEAT
2007, Risa Morimoto, USA, 90 min.

A story never before revealed because the survivors kept their secret out of shame, WINGS OF DEFEAT investigates the motives and feelings of Japanese kamikaze pilots, the notorious suicide bombers of WWII, through interviews and personal histories. Director Morimoto traces the story of her own uncle to expose the grim reality of fear and resignation experienced by these men, many barely older than boys when forced to volunteer for death. DigiBeta video. (BS)

Sunday, April 13, 5:00

Shorts programs

Life, Love, and Everything in Between
2007-8, Various directors, USA, ca. 83 min.

Comedy, drama, music videos, and one honest-to-goodness all-singing all-dancing musical. MIKE’S (4 min.) and A THOUSAND WORDS (5 min.) by Ted Chung; CHINESE DUMPLINGS (8 min.) by Michelle Hung; JUST A GAME (5 min.) by Leon Cu; EMILY, I--SCRABBEL (4 min.) by Dan Lee; YEAR OF THE DOG (18 min.) by Kevin Lam; COOKIES FOR SALE (4 min.) by Wes Kim; SLOW MACHINES (6 min.) by Bernard Badion; and DAMN THE PAST! (29 min.) by Juli Kang. Various video formats. (BS)

Saturday, April 12, 5:00

SAIC Student Shorts Showcase
2005-8, Various directors, USA, ca. 85 min.

A selection of narrative, animated, and experimental shorts by past and present students of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago celebrates Asian American Showcase’s “Lucky 13” anniversary. Various video formats.

Monday, April 21, 7:45

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Special Events

Free admission!
Lucky 13
Gene Siskel Film Center Gallery/Café
Opening Reception:
Friday, April 11, 6:00 pm-8:30
The number 13 is the inspiration for a gallery exhibition featuring works by 13 Asian American artists in celebration of the 13th anniversary of Asian American Showcase.

Hiphopistan: South Asian Hip Hop Showcase and After Party
Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, 2233 S. Martin Luther King Drive, Chicago
Thursday, April 17,
9:00 pm-1:00 am
Enjoy a multi-regional hip hop show with six MCs followed by a party with DJ Rekha spinning hip hop, bjangra, and reggae music. Presented in conjunction with the Association for Asian American Studies Conference.

18+ only; $2 admission; students free; cash bar in a separate room for 21+