Programmed May 2024

First-Person Asian American: 11 Documentaries

As independent Asian American filmmakers took the matter of self-representation into their own hands, many turned inward: to their own families, personal histories, and private musings. Some used their own experiences to stand for the larger Asian American community, whose stories were written out of the mainstream, while others gave intimate expression to their own idiosyncratic perspectives. Using lightweight film and video cameras, many of these filmmakers turned to the travelogue format to document family reunions or cross-country or transpacific journeys, finding in their travels across geographies and cultures the full richness and complexity of the Asian American experience. Programmed by Brian Hu