Asian American Showcase
The Gene Siskel Film Center and the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media (FAAIM) present the 14th edition of Asian American Showcase, April 3 through 16. If there’s one thing this festival proves year after year, it’s that Asian American directors have collectively come into their own as a creative force on the independent film scene, with smash hits and awards at Sundance, Toronto, and other major festivals, and visibility in mainstream distribution.
Our opening night features director Harry Kim in person with his dynamic documentary DIRTY HANDS: THE ART & CRIMES OF DAVID CHOE, chronicling the deliberately outrageous and wildly self-destructive art process of an outsider artist who has rocketed from the fringe to the mainstream. Our closing night film, the poignant childhood tale TREELESS MOUNTAIN by School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumna So Yong Kim, has garnered major awards at festivals including Berlin, Dubai, and Pusan.
The Showcase selection of new features highlights comedy with comedy/drama DIM SUM FUNERAL, the cutting-edge musical FRUIT FLY, and the winningly contemporary KARMA CALLING, with director Sabra Das and cast members appearing in person. Dramas include award-winning HALF-LIFE, and THE FIRST BREATH OF TENGAN REI, a hit in its Film Center screenings earlier this year, now returning with directors Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski in person.
Our documentaries encompass a diverse range of subjects from YOURS TRULY, MISS CHINATOWN and YOU DON’T KNOW JACK: THE JACK SOO STORY to THE HOUSE OF SHARING, a hopeful look at the present-day lives of surviving WWII “comfort women” enslaved by the Japanese military. Not to be missed is the premiere of ORIGINS OF NOW: STORIES OF THE CHICAGO NISEI by filmmaker/jazz musician Tatsu Aoki, a School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumnus.
Be sure to check out the two marvelously entertaining shorts programs. There’s a wealth of eye-opening animation in “The Illusion of Life: Animation Shorts,” and a most entertaining selection of films by up-and-coming directors in the program “Across the Cultural Divide,” including ARITHMETIC LESSON with director Wenwha Ts’ao in person.
Check our web site for additional listings of Asian American Showcase activities in the coming weeks, including an exhibit of work by Asian American artists in our gallery/café, and a rock concert.
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
Opening night film!
Harry Kim in person!
DIRTY HANDS: THE ART & CRIMES OF DAVID CHOE
2008, Harry Kim, USA, 93 min.
“Harry Kim manages to capture the essence of his vulgar, obstreperous and wildly talented subject.”--John Anderson, Variety
Maverick is too conservative a word to describe David Choe, an artist so outside the mainstream that his graffiti-based, vandalism-inspired outsider art has become the hottest and weirdest of insider art (his drawings appeared in the film JUNO). Critics now liken Choe’s work to that of Basquiat, Warhol, and even Picasso, but filmmaker Kim puts a true down-and-dirty spin on this charismatic renegade’s flamboyantly anarchic process, from hunting dinosaurs and wrestling Pygmies in Africa to the on-the-run creation of two-handed spray-painted murals, noting addictions, jail terms, and a host of self-destructive maneuvers along the way. DigiBeta video. (BS)
Director Harry Kim will be present on Friday for audience discussion.
Friday, April 3, 8:00 pm
Monday, April 6, 8:00 pm
Closing night film!
TREELESS MOUNTAIN
2008, So Yong Kim, USA/South Korea, 89 min.
With Hee Yeon Kim, Song Hee Kim
“Pitch perfect…the filmmaker works wonders with child actors.”--Howard Feinstein, Screen Daily
“Kim has a distinct way of letting her camera observe her characters with kind thoughtfulness.”--Robert Koehler, Variety
Following her international hit IN BETWEEN DAYS, School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumna Kim turns her hand to crafting yet another personal story of startling emotional resonance. Set in South Korea, TREELESS MOUNTAIN unfolds a sisterly saga of two little girls, ages six and five, palmed off on neglectful “Big Aunt” by their harried single mom, then turned loose to find their way in an even more unfamiliar world. Kim crafts an engaging, unsentimental story characterized by a sharp observation of human foibles and lovely humorous moments. In Korean with English subtitles. 35mm. (BS)
Thursday, April 16, 8:15 pm
Feature Films
DIM SUM FUNERAL
2009, Anna Chi, Canada, 95 min.
With Ling Bai, Russell Wong, Talia Shire
This comedy/drama deftly weaves a handful of individual stories dripping with infidelity, scandal, and family secrets into one thoroughly entertaining narrative of a Chinese American family’s reconciliation. The death of a “dragon lady” matriarch elicits varying reactions from her four estranged adult children, none of them grief. The philandering plastic surgeon, the real estate magnate, the single mom with the mixed-race kid, and the lesbian kung fu movie star gather in a Seattle McMansion where the family’s longtime housekeeper (Shire) breaks the news that they’re in for a seven-day traditional Chinese funeral complete with chanting monks. HD-CAM video. (BS)
Sunday, April 12, 5:00 pm
Tuesday, April 14, 8:00 pm
Filmmakers in person!
THE FIRST BREATH OF TENGAN REI
2008, Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski, USA/Japan, 72 min.
With Erika Oda, Katori Eason, Sean Nix
“Great performances.”--Michael Esposito, Chicago Tribune
“An auspicious debut.”--Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times
Set largely in the industrial wilds of Chicago’s far-South Side and northern Indiana, this is the story of a Japanese woman who ventures into an alien landscape and even more unfamiliar mindscape to right the wrong that has scarred her life. Kidnapped and raped by two American G.I.s as a teenager on her native Okinawa, Rei (Oda, of Kore-Eda’s AFTER LIFE) tracks down one of the rapists and succeeds in taking hostage his teenage son Paris (Eason). Violence begets violence, and even as the woman and the boy achieve a strained peace, a final reckoning with the father looms for them both. HD video. (BS)
Co-producers/writers/directors Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski will be present for audience discussion.
Thursday, April 9, 8:15 pm
FRUIT FLY
2008, H.P. Mendoza, USA, 94 min.
With L.A. Renigen, Mike Curtis
“Loud-and-proud indie-Asian-gay hijacking of THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG that aims a poisoned pen and Casio keyboards at San Francisco.”--27th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival program
Flashy, trashy, and brazenly fun, this new all-singing, all-dancing musical by the writer/star of COLMA: THE MUSICAL breaks new ground with its pounding soundtrack and big production numbers. San Francisco’s gay club scene is front and center in the story of a naive performance artist who takes up residence in a commune, where her frisky roommates stand ready to initiate her into their 24-hour-party lifestyle. Director Mendoza expertly pulls off intricate choreography in colorful ensemble numbers including “Public Transit,” “Fag Hag,” and “Fabulous, Fantastic, Fierce.” Widescreen HD-CAM video. (BS)
Friday, April 10, 8:15 pm
Monday, April 13, 8:00 pm
HALF-LIFE
2008, Jennifer Phang, USA, 106 min.
With Sanoe Lake, Julia Nickson
“All the makings of a cult favorite…It’s films like this that remind us why Sundance was launched and why it continues to have value.”--Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter
HALF-LIFE’s beautifully crafted narrative is part coming-of-age film and part low-key family melodrama with infusions of surreal imagery and a touch of magic realism. A middle-aged single mother dallies with the much-younger unemployed jock that is her live-in boyfriend, while her teen daughter and little boy mourn in different ways for the flyer dad who disappeared long ago. Fraught with tension and tinged with mystery, the story ultimately revolves around the cataclysmic discovery of sexual secrets. DigiBeta video. (BS)
Saturday, April 11, 8:00 pm
Monday, April 13, 6:00 pm
Filmmakers in person!
KARMA CALLING
2009, Sarba Das, USA, 90 min.
With Darshan Jariwala, Kavi Ladnier
Credit card debt would seem an unlikely catalyst for romance, but, in this charmingly chaotic comedy chronicling the loves and travails of a large, much-assimilated Hoboken Hindu family, life revolves around evading calls from the collection agency. Unknown to all, collector “Rob Roy” is situated several continents away in an Indian call center, and when daughter Sonal begins to fall for the smooth operator there are repercussions for everyone, including visiting auntie Mausi, who has a direct line to the gods. Actor Tony Sirico (“Paulie Walnuts” of The Sopranos) provides an appropriately thuggish touch as narrator. HD-CAM video. (BS)
Director Sarba Das and selected members of the cast will be present on Saturday for audience discussion.
Saturday, April 4, 8:00 pm
Tuesday, April 7, 8:15 pm
Documentary Films
THE HOUSE OF SHARING
2008, Hein Seok, USA/South Korea, 84 min.
Four Korean survivors of WWII sexual slavery as “comfort women” for Japanese forces are the focus of this sensitive documentary made at the House of Sharing, an education center where they now live in serenity. Filmmaker Seok focuses on the resilience and courage of the aged grandmothers as they create artwork based on their experiences, tell their horrific stories of kidnapping and brutal abuse to visitor groups, and stoically continue to appeal to the Japanese government for a formal apology. In Korean and English with English subtitles. Beta SP video. (BS)
Monday, April 6, 6:00 pm
Tatsu Aoki in person!
PASSING POSTON: AN AMERICAN STORY
2008, Joe Fox and James Nubile, USA, 60 min.
ORIGINS OF NOW: STORIES OF THE CHICAGO NISEI
2009, Tatsu Aoki, USA, 25 min.
THE DWELLING
2009, Sheldon Candis, USA, 18 min.
An untold story of the WWII Japanese internment camps comes to light in PASSING POSTON as the filmmakers detail the secret 1942 agreement between the War Relocation Authority and the Office of Indian Affairs to use Japanese labor to improve living conditions for the nation’s most impoverished tribal people. Beta SP video.
Preceded by two shorts. In ORIGINS OF NOW, a work in progress, Chicago filmmaker and jazz virtuoso Aoki, a School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumnus, tells the story of Chicago’s Japanese community through the words of those who settled here following internment. Mini-DV video.
THE DWELLING focuses on the plight of Tokyo’s homeless through the resourceful efforts of one homeless man. All in English and Japanese with English subtitles. Beta SP video. (BS)
Director Tatsu Aoki of ORIGINS OF NOW will be present for audience discussion.
Sunday, April 5, 3:00 pm
VIETNAM OVERTURES
2008, Stephane Gauger, Vietnam, 64 min.
DADDY TRAN: A LIFE IN 3-D
2008, Siu Ta, Canada, 47 min.
A rich celebration of multi-cultural music-making, VIETNAM OVERTURES explores a little-known side of the nation. Vietnam-born, U.S.-raised filmmaker Gauger (OWL AND THE SPARROW) pays soulful tribute to the intersection of East and West through music when an ensemble from a Norwegian music festival joins forces with the Saigon city orchestra for a concert. In Vietnamese with English subtitles.
DADDY TRAN’s portrait of a man who has been driven, sustained, and even saved from pirates through his lifelong passion for photography, makes for an inspiring and sometimes funny saga of one man’s immigrant experience. Both in Beta SP video. (BS)
Friday, April 10, 6:00 pm
YOU DON’T KNOW JACK: THE JACK SOO STORY
2009, Jeff Adachi, USA, 60 min.
A SONG FOR OURSELVES
2009, Tadashi Nakamura, USA, 30 min.
In YOU DON’T KNOW JACK, director Adachi (THE SLANTED SCREEN) tells the story of the Japanese American comic actor Goro Suzuki, who got his start performing for a captive audience in a WWII internment camp and later rocketed to fame under the Chinese stage name Jack Soo. A star of the Broadway musical Flower Drum Song and the sitcom Barney Miller, Soo refused stereotypical roles and broke new ground for Asian American actors by portraying a wise-cracking hipster.
Preceded by A SONG FOR OURSELVES, a feeling tribute (through interviews, graphics, and performance footage) to singer/songwriter/activist Chris Iijima, credited with changing the face of Asian America through his passion for social justice. Both in DigiBeta video. (BS)
Sunday, April 12, 3:00 pm
Tuesday, April 14, 6:00 pm
YOURS TRULY, MISS CHINATOWN
2008, Daisy Lin Shapiro, USA, 60 min.
FAMILY, INC.
2008, Emily Ting and Helen Jin, USA, 47 min.
YOURS TRULY, MISS CHINATOWN sheds light on the pros and cons of L.A.’s venerable pageant and delves into the lives and personalities of present-day contestants. Styled to be paragons of ladylike decorum and non-threatening representatives of the “model minority,” the hopefuls struggle with behind-the-scenes doubts, criticism, and varying ambitions. Outspoken critics of the event include a standup comic who parodies Miss Chinatown as a loudmouthed Jack Daniels-toting barfly.
Preceded by FAMILY, INC. Co-director Ting finds it impossible to say no when her estranged father orders her to Hong Kong to learn the family toy business, but the business of being family is anything but child’s play. Both in Beta SP video. (BS)
Saturday, April 4, 5:30 pm
Short Films
Wenhwa Ts’ao in person!
Across the Cultural Divide
2007-9, Various directors, USA/Canada/Malaysia, 85 min.
A collection of short films addressing the subject of barriers, both actual and virtual, includes: SMILE by Julia Kwan (2007, Canada, 19 min.); TIFFEN by Ai Lene Chor (2007, Malaysia, 14 min.); ARITHMETIC LESSON by Wenhwa Ts’ao (2008, USA, 17 min.); THE OTHERS by Aram Siu Collier (2008, Canada, 10 min.); FINDING PRIYA A PROM DATE by Garrett Nantz (2008, USA, 14 min.); THE SHORTEST SUMMER by K.C. Lo (2008, USA, 5 min.); WAKE UP by Matt Cozza (2008, USA, 4 min.); and BOY MEETS GIRL by Melissa Hung (2009, USA, 2 min.). Various video formats.
Director Wenhwa Ts’ao of ARITHMETIC LESSON will be present for audience discussion.
Saturday, April 11, 5:00 pm
The Illusion of Life: Animation Shorts
2006-8, Various directors, USA, 85 min.
The latest in cutting-edge animation in a program curated by award-winning animator Sam Chen includes: AGAINST THE GRAIN; PROCEED; MAGICICADA; SNOW DAY; EMBRIONYC; ABRIDGED; AGAIN AND AGAIN; BATTLE OF THE ALBUM COVERS; HALLUCCI; THE POSSUM; SWIMMING MOON; SPORTS AND DIVERSIONS; KETCHUP; PREKISSTORIC TIMES; YELLOW STICKY NOTES; SHOOTING STARS; MEAT DAYS; and JOSIE’S LALALAND. Various video formats.