Asian American feminism, politics, and pop culture
On March 28, a five-day short film challenge started that provided disabled creators a chance to represent themselves from, behind, and in front of the camera.
Continue reading “Highlighting Disabled Creators in the Easter Seals Disability Film Challenge”
After a successful inaugural year that saw winning short films screened at the 2017 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, HBO’s APA Visionaries Short Film competition is back for 2018!
This year, HBO has partnered with the totally awesome Leonardo Nam (Westworld) to seek short film submissions exploring themes of belonging, identity and culture. Check out this year’s competition announcement video (featuring Nam) after the jump!
Continue reading “HBO’s APA Visionaries Short Film Contest is Currently Seeking Submissions!”
Are you an emerging AAPI filmmaker? If so, then this post is for you!
HBO announced today Asian Pacific American Visionaries, an exciting new opportunity for young AAPI filmmakers. APA Visionaries is a short film contest specifically geared towards emerging AAPI directors who use the medium of short film (either narrative or documentary) to explore the AAPI experience.
Filmmakers are invited to submit their shorts prior to the November 7th deadline.
A panel of film-making experts will select three winners from the pool of submitted films. Winning films will air at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in April 2017, and the film will be licensed to be distributed through HBO on-air or streaming outlets during APA Heritage Month in May 2017.
An additional cash prize will be awarded to each of the winning filmmakers, and HBO will also provide travel money so that filmmakers can attend their film’s premiere at LAAPFF.
Continue reading “HBO Launches Short Film Contest for AAPI “Visionary” Filmmakers”
This week, the Twittersphere became embroiled in discourse (through #whitewashedOUT) over mainstream Hollywood’s Whitewashing of several traditionally Asian and Asian American characters — including the casting of Emma Stone as Allison Ng in Cameron Crowe’s Aloha, Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi in the upcoming Ghost in the Shell live-action adaptation, and Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One in Marvel’s Dr. Strange. While discourse is important to activate and engage the community, I’ve long felt that our community must do more: we disentangle ourselves from considering only popular culture media, and throw more of our support towards independent AAPI actors and filmmakers.
Along these lines, KQED — a public access radio and television station servicing Northern California — has put together a playlist of student films for 2016’s Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month. The films were originally aired as part of the station’s Film School Shorts, a half-hour program which showcases student film projects. Assembled as a Film School Shorts APAHM2016 playlist, the collection highlights eleven fantastic short films by student filmmakers who span the AAPI diaspora. Included in the lineup are shorts like the Student Academy Award-winning Above the Sea, as well as and Pagpag (The Refuse), directed by John Paul Su, who was named the Director Guild of America’s Best Asian-American Filmmaker for his work on the short. My personal favourites are the quirky So You’ve Grown Attached by Kate Tsang, and the adorable heart-warming animated short Steadfast Stanley.
After the jump, all eleven films are embedded for your enjoyment (or you can go directly to the playlist on YouTube, or Vimeo)! Please watch and share!
Continue reading “11 AAPI Student Films to Start Off Your APA Heritage Month!”
We’ve finally entered December of 2015, and I have one end-of-the-year prediction to make: expect a deluge of year-in-review think pieces calling 2015 a Renaissance Year for the Asian American actor. Hell, a lot of these articles have already been written. There’s this one. And, this one. Oh, and this one. Hell, I’ll probably even write one before this year is out.
It’s safe to say that if you’re an Asian American who cares about seeing Asian American actors get work, 2015 was the year for you. Fresh Off The Boat is midway through their critically acclaimed second season and celebrating news of a full season order. In contrast to the multi-cam format of FOTB, Ken Jeong debuted a refreshingly conventional family sitcom in Dr. Ken, bringing ABC’s Asian American-led primetime sitcom offerings to two. On Sundays, ABC also airs Quantico, which stars the impeccably-coifed Priyanka Chopra as an FBI recruit- turned-agent- turned-fugitive (check out recurring guest contributor Lakshmi Gandhi’s weekly recaps of Quantico every Monday morning right here on Reappropriate). And, over at Netflix, Aziz Ansari stars in Master of None, a show he co-created with producer Alan Yang.
But what if you’re an Asian American actor whose name isn’t Ken Jeong or Aziz Ansari? For these folks, Hollywood is still a tough place to find work, where few decision makers can imagine an Asian face being worn by anyone who isn’t the nerd, the ninja, the prostitute, the gangster, or the foreigner.
Now, a really fantastic independent short film — East of Hollywood — uses comedy to explore what it’s really like being a struggling Asian American actor in Hollywood.
