Two Stories That Take Us Back
March 23, 2007
Much of Asian Pacific American history revolves around the notion of displacement. Whether it’s physical displacement as we arrive as immigrants or a psychological displacement as we try to forge an identity that reflects who we truly are — neither completely Asian nor American, yet both at the same time — we as a community are still in transition as we try to define these issues.
It is in the realm of art where displacement collides with other forces to help create a true sense of identity. That’s why a work like Keo Woolford’s new one-man show I Land, which premieres at East West Players in Los Angeles this month, interests me. It’s an attempt to take that sense of displacement and develop something unique from it — in this case, fusing traditional Hawaiian culture with hip hop.
“I Land is an account of my life growing up in Hawai‘i and how I find my heritage through the traditional Hawaiian dance form called hula,” explained Woolford, who wrote and stars in the show. “I grew up in a landscape heavily influenced by the hip-hop scene from the continental United States, from MTV, and pop radio. The show is a juxtaposition of how the contemporary and the traditional can embody one being and deconstructs stereotypes.”
While living in Manhattan and traveling back home to O‘ahu, Woolford began to notice the similarities between the two islands and their indigenous art forms, particularly hula and hip hop.
“The main thing I hope people get from this show is that people, places and ideas shouldn’t be marginalized,” Woolford says. “Every single person has a story, a history and a life beyond what we see, whether it’s a kid on the street with baggy pants and his underwear showing, to a man dancing on stage wearing a hau skirt.”
Also opening this month is another work of APA art that tackles displacement and identity but in a very different way. While I Land offers the intimate experience of seeing one man on stage, writer/director Ham Tran’s first feature film Journey from the Fall is an old-fashioned epic film. This one features Vietnamese faces struggling to survive after the fall of Saigon, both in Vietnam (many of Journey’s most harrowing scenes take place in a communist prison camp) and in the streets of Southern California.
Though shot with a fraction of the money of even a low-budget Hollywood production, Journey evokes the epic scope of films like Lawrence of Arabia without losing the intimate focus of the story.
Despite the film’s ambitious reach, it is still a study of one family’s struggle for survival. It is 1975 and Long Nguyen (played, coincidentally, by an actor named Long Nguyen) decides to stay in Vietnam to fight for his country, but sends his reluctant wife (Diem Lien), mother-in-law (The Joy Luck Club’s Kieu Chinh) and young son (Nguyen Thai Nguyen) to the safer shores of America. After the communists take over, Long is sent to a re-education camp while his family experiences their own ordeal as refugees in a strange land. After learning that his family is alive in America, Long attempts a daring escape to reunite with his family.
Journey from the Fall is by no means perfect, for one thing, it’s too long and could have benefited from more judicious editing, but it’s a watershed film in the annals of APA independent cinema. Instead of taking the traditional route of telling a small, personal story his first-time out, Tran strives for something bigger. He’s a filmmaker to watch and one that should be supported by the community.
I Land runs until April 8 at the David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso St. in L.A.’s Little Tokyo, (213) 625-7000.
www.eastwestplayers.org
Journey from the Fall opens in San Jose, New York and Orange County on March 23 with other cities added in coming weeks. www.journeyfromthefall.com
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