8 Asians

As a filmmaker, I am a big believer in the importance of API film festivals. I believe they are the incubator of API talent and help get our stories on the big screen. One of the first people to believe in me and my writing were the good folks at Visual Communications, who put on the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival every year. Through their Armed with a Camera (AWC) fellowship, they helped me [...] Continue »

While stories about the wealth and influence of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been widely publicized, many AAPIs aren’t rich and struggle in dangerous surroundings.  This video tells the story of Pelenise Faataui, who teaches Samoan dancing in front of her home despite living in the violent San Francisco area of Bayview/Hunter’s point.  She is the daughter of Kirisimasi Faataui, who was one of the first Samoans to migrate to the area through the [...] Continue »

Jason Chu is back with a new spoken word piece for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2013. Filmed by Jason Poon and with help from Marc Liu, this piece is done “in memory of those who came before – their names, their stories, their journeys. Our history.” From Jason Chu: With May being Asian Pacific Heritage Month, I recently wrote a piece reflecting on culture and family. I decided to record the piece as a [...] Continue »

People of color, especially Asians, form associations around their race for every topic– blogging, voting, golfing, farming, realtors, lawyers, doctors, chess players, musicians, journalists, kidney donors, Republicans, Democrats, pole dancing, basketball, you name it, there is probably a group of Asians who have formed an association. Yet there are no Asian American tarot associations, no gatherings of Diasporic Asians who are interested in tarot. Why not? Let’s back-peddle a bit. What is tarot? Tarot is a deck [...] Continue »

Hot Docs, North America’s largest International Documentary Festival opens its doors April 25th – May 5. Held in Toronto each year, the festival buzzes with filmmakers and industry agents sharing their untold stories and bringing issues to light for all the world to see and judge for themselves. This year boosts 205 films form 43 different countries. I’ve always had a soft spot for the documentary filmmaker. Rarely is there any lure of glitter, glamour [...] Continue »

Come kick off the 15th Season of one of the longest running free public arts series in downtown Los Angeles, highlighting new work in visual and performance arts from the Los Angeles and Asian American artistic community in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. Now celebrating 15 years, the Tuesday Night Cafe series is one of the longest-running free arts spaces in Downtown Los Angeles/Little Tokyo. The space features multidisciplinary arts and performances, including music, poetry, theatre, [...] Continue »

“A Woman Named Canyon Sam” is a testament to a woman who passionately committed herself to social change from a young age, chronicling her first coming out as a young Asian American lesbian in the seventies — one of the first “out” Asian American lesbians in North America — to publishing her award-winning 2009 book, Sky Train. “A Woman Named Canyon Sam” is now available to the world for free on Youtube. At a run [...] Continue »

With less than a week away, I am looking forward to attending the Center for Asian American Media’s Film Festival, better known as CAAMFest. As a Jeremy Lin fan, I’m of course looking forward to seeing LINSANITY, the documentary, which has been covered extensively with generally rave reviews. But I’m also looking forward to the open night party at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum as well. There is plenty going on, as CAAMFest 2013′s [...] Continue »

This was originally published at LA Stage Times and has been republished at 8Asians with the author’s permission. Christmas in Hanoi is currently running at East West Players at David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles. Wed-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm. Ends March 10. $26-$36. 213-625-7000. By Eddie Borey My parents never talked about the War. My mother was born in Vietnam. My father, Irish-Catholic from upstate New York, met [...] Continue »

UPDATE 2/13/2013: Congrats to Jacqueline Wu! So here’s the deal. I’m on the Board of East West Players (EWP), the largest producing organization of Asian American artistic work and the longest running professional theater of color in the country. Since I’ve been on the Board, I’ve tried to attend every Opening Night of EWP’s mainstage performances. This time, I’ve saved a pair of tickets for the opening of Christmas in Hanoi by Eddie Borey and [...] Continue »

We talk so many times about conflict between ethnic groups that it is refreshing to hear a story where two people from what seem to be vastly different backgrounds find common ground.  Author and photographer Tiburon tells this story of an Indian Ice Cream man whose kindness to him when he was a little boy was impossible to understand until many years later.  This story is part of Silicon Valley Debug’s multimedia series on our [...] Continue »

By Dominic Mah I used to be a theater guy. Up to the early 00’s I ran a Bay Area theater company specializing in original rock musicals. I moved to Los Angeles to pursue films, and lately I’ve been working on a new YouTube-based web series, Paranormal Status (a parody of ghost hunter shows and the horror genre). Though I started the series with mainly tactical “career” motives in mind, I was surprised to find [...] Continue »