Wide-Eyed and Wicked
Film series showcases APA experimental filmmakers
By Calvin Liu

As part of its Eyes Wide Open: New Curatorial Perspectives series, the San Francisco Cinematheque and the National Asian American Telecommunications Association present “Constellation of Home” and “Passion on the Edge,” two programs featuring recent short films and videos by emerging Asian American filmmakers.

Curated by Michella Rivera-Gravage, “Constellation of Home” is composed of works examining how immigration and cultural imperialism contribute to a sense of identity and belonging. In Ekleipsis, Tran T. Kim-Trang poignantly shares the suffering of Cambodian American women who became hysterically blind while living in the oppressive conditions under the Khmer Rouge. James T. Hong’s Behold the Asian is an urgent examination of Asian diaspora and pan-Asian identity. In Imagining Place, Anita Chang poetically fuses the stories of seemingly tragic individuals with fragmented imagery and rhetorical verse to answer an impossible question: “What does belonging feel like in America?”

Both Chang and Hong will attend “Constellation of Home,” which also includes screenings of Lourdes Portillo’s After the Earthquake as well as Camille Billops’ Take Your Bags.

While not engaging in any particular theme, “Passion on the Edge,” curated by Chang, showcases several provocative experimental shorts by West Coast filmmakers. Often bizarre yet witty, these works seem to question the fundamental absurdity of our passions. The best example is Matthew Abaya’s Earthworms, a dark comedy (in the Tetsuo: The Iron Man tradition) about a disturbed scientist’s obsession of caring for his worm -- and of finding it true love. I.H. Kuniyuki’s Splayd Molecular Time not only asks the viewer to question the conscious limits of sensory overload, but also begs a mental examination of the artist himself.

Tran T. Kim-Trng's Operculum screens this month at the S.F. Art Institute

The only work in “Passion on the Edge” with a serious tone, Tran T. Kim-Trang’s Operculum is a critical look at the consequences of social assimilation as we focus in on Los Angeles’ eyelid surgeons as they discuss procedures with Asian American females. Perhaps the most entertaining work in this program (not only for its ethereal music) is Camera Obscura’s refreshingly whimsical New Freedom, in which the protagonist finds a home remedy for menses overflow. “Passion on the Edge” also includes Greg Sax’s 28, Al Hernandez’s That Mission Rising!, Susan Brunig’s Francine Rises, J.G. Chapman’s Your Tax Dollars at Work and Etang Iyang’s Badass Supermama. Most of the filmmakers involved will attend the reception following the program.

“Constellation of Home” shows at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut St., San Francisco. “Passion on the Edge,” also showing at the San Francisco Art Institute, shows at 7:30 p.m. on June 26. Tickets are $7, $3.50 for students, seniors and Cinematheque members. For more information, call 415-558-8129.