Photos from Entertainment Communications Don
Duong plays Tai Tran as manager of the Camp Pendelton
refugee camp in Timothy Linh Bui’s film "Green Dragon."
By Louise Chu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
A distinct Asian American voice is emerging with the increasing
prominence of Asian Americans in mainstream media.
Since 1985, Visual Communications, a Los Angeles-based
non-profit Asian Pacific media arts organization, has nurtured this
voice and provided a venue for independent filmmakers through The
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film & Video Festival.
VC Filmfest 2001, which ends tomorrow at the Japan America
Theater in Little Tokyo, highlights the unique stories of Asian
Americans.
“The most distinctive thing (about this year’s
films) is that they’re just straight-up, in-your-face
American, but told from an Asian perspective,” said David
Magdael, co-director of the VC Filmfest. “I think this
generation, in particular, is really hungry about seeing things
that look like them and stories about them.”
Each year, the festival picks up more momentum, attracting
younger audiences from the growing number of second-generation
Asian Americans. Many of the festival’s films attest to the
fact that this demographic is particularly eager to turn the camera
on themselves and add a new dimension to the American
experience.
 Timothy Linh Bui (left) directs
Don Duong on the set of "Green Dragon."
“It’s a culture where you’re not raised to
grow up to be in the arts. In Asian cultures, (you’re raised
to be) doctors and stuff like that. So you find people with those
passions and dreams but don’t really pursue it,” said
director Timothy Linh Bui, whose film “Green Dragon”
opened the festival last Thursday.
Thanks to supportive parents and the burgeoning Asian American
arts scene, Bui and his brother Tony managed to pursue their
passion. Recently, the two formed their own production company so
that they can develop stories that are important to them.
Magdael said that more and more Asian Americans are going behind
the camera and spearheading their own projects rather than waiting
for Hollywood to take notice.
“Yes, it’s a little more difficult because
it’s expensive to do, but if the community comes out and
supports these films, then we can prove to Hollywood that we do
have an audience,” he said.
Written, produced and directed by the Bui brothers, “Green
Dragon” (starring Don Duong, Patrick Swayze and Forest
Whitaker) tells the tale of Vietnam War refugees who were housed in
an “orientation camp” at the Camp Pendleton Marine Base
in 1975.
“Everything that’s associated with the war tends to
be ugly and one-sided because it’s been told through the
Americans and POVs,” said actor Dustin Nguyen, who served as
the master of ceremonies on opening night. “So I personally
feel that it’s been quite an eye-opener for mainstream
Americans who get a chance to see it through the lens of the
Vietnamese refugees.”
“Green Dragon” follows the Bui brothers’
unprecedented success with their first film “Three
Seasons,” a triple award-winner at the 1999 Sundance Film
Festival and the first film to win both the Grand Jury Prize and
the Audience Award, as well as Best Cinematography.
Its placement in the festival not only marks the emergence of a
unique American perspective but also a new voice within the Asian
American community.
“I think Vietnamese Americans are probably a fraction of
the Asian American population ““ a very new corner of the
filmmaking community,” Nguyen said. “Chinese Americans
and Japanese Americans have been here a lot longer and
they’ve had a chance to express themselves and their stories.
They’re a few years ahead of us.”
A maturing aspect of the VC Filmfest that has taken center stage
this year is the increase of stories from diverse sectors of the
Asian American population.
“If there’s one thread that’s come out,
it’s the new stories from communities you’ve never
heard from before,” Magdael said. “We’ve got the
Indian story, the Filipino story, Asians who are secluded and
isolated in Kansas, the gay Asian community. You’ve got all
the different fabric that makes up the Asian American
community.”
Magdael points to films, such as “American Chai” and
“The Flip Side.”
“American Chai” is a coming-of age comedy about a
young college student torn between traditional Indian values and
the pursuit of his artistic dreams. Directed by Anurag Mehta, the
film won the Audience Award at the Slamdance Film Festival.
“The Flip Side,” directed by Ron Pulido, was the
first Filipino American film invited to the Sundance Film Festival
and the first film to sell out at the VC Filmfest.
With the wealth of young filmmakers featured in the festival,
organizers decided to close the week long event by resurrecting the
1976 telefilm “Farewell to Manzanar” for its 25th
anniversary.
Based on the book by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston,
it is the first feature-length film to tell the story of the World
War II internment of Japanese Americans from a unique first-hand
perspective.
The screening comes just the day before the premiere of a more
widely anticipated World War II film.
“”˜Manzanar’ having a 25th anniversary coming
up the same time as “˜Pearl Harbor’ is really an
interesting irony,” Magdael says. “I haven’t seen
the whole film, but being an Asian American person seeing the
trailer, I don’t see anybody that looks like me. I see little
white children playing baseball and these planes coming by, and
I’m thinking, “˜Where are the island
children?'”
Despite some skepticism with Michael Bay and Jerry
Bruckheimer’s interpretation of the World War II experience
in Hawaii, many still see a growing potential in mainstream
acceptance of the Asian perspective, as shown by the surprise
box-office and critical success of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon.”
“Asian foreign films have been accepted now. Right now,
we’re accepted as exoticized and foreign, but at the same
time, I think it’s still opening doors as America is more
comfortable with seeing us on the big screen, then we can still
keep on pushing those doors open,” Magdael said. “Our
challenge for the filmmakers here is to utilize the door that Ang
Lee has opened with “˜Crouching Tiger’ and just work
that as much as they can.”
FESTIVAL: VC Filmfest 2001 runs through May 24.
All remaining films will be screened at the Japan America Theater,
located at 244 South San Pedro St. in Los Angeles. Tickets are
$8.50 general and $6.50 students. For program information log on to
www.vconline.org/filmfest2001.
For tickets call (213) 680-3700.