The State Of Asian American Cinema

So after reading The State of Asian American Cinema: In Search of Community by Peter Feng I now know that there are different “kinds” of films. Apparently there are American films and Asian American films and others that I didn’t know. I honestly thought that movies were movies and that they were fun to watch… but I guess not. Anyway I thought that it was interesting that there is a difference between Asian American films and Asian films. The films are Asian American if there are Americans featured in the film with an Asian director and Asian films are directed and acted out by Asians. I also found the theme of identity crisis which we have seen in the past books we have read and discussed. I think it makes it especially difficult for filmmakers to make it in the business because they need to chose whether or not they are Asian or American. I, personally, don’t understand why people in the film making business can’t make good movies without being criticized for not choosing to be one or the other. What’s the big deal?

Also, I didn’t know that Asian films tried to put their independent films on the big screen because I’m pretty sure I would have tried to go and watch the film. I enjoyed reading about how it was like growing up in America for some Asians and watching it on tv would have been interesting. On page 24 in the first paragraph Feng wrote “While all five films reveal different longings, each long for the same thing: a sense of community.” I think that Asian American’s still don’t feel like they belong to either the American community or the Asian community. But I think if different races stop bringing up things that happened in the past and just move on and live in the present then I think that Asian American filmmakers could go pretty far in the movie business someday.

1 comment April 23, 2008