SFIAAFF `09

So I went to the Asian American Film Festival with my boyfriend and we watched "Family Portraits" at thee Kabuki Theater down over in Japan town. This film shows a variety of short films by different artists and portrayed Asian American lifestyles. I'll just talk about some of the films I saw that really captivated me, but I felt that all of them were really cool.

The first film showed a picture of a Korean family - a mother and her two young daughters posing in front of a mountain. It then showed a film of them trying to take the same picture again 35 years later. In the first photo, they wore more traditional clothing and looked more foreign, while in the film, they were more Americanized where they wore jeans, etc. While the film progressed, the mother of the 2 started crying and it was emotional for me. I guess the film was trying to show how much the mother went through after leaving her homeland for the Americas. It showed that although people become more Americanized, their cultures from their parents are still a big part of their lives and who they are.


Another film showed the struggles of Indian American families here in the US. The story mainly revolved around three generations - a girl, her mother, and her grandmother. Her grandmother was the most traditional with the way she dressed and talked. She struggled to stay connected with her family in India and strongly held to her cultural values. The mother was a mix of both Indian and American culture. She struggled to move away from her traditional life as a housewife in trying to apply for a job as a police officer. The daughter was more Americanized than she was traditional as her grandmother. She struggled in her acting career and found it hard to put herself out in the world because her culture held her back. This film showed that every generation struggles with the idea of being an Asian American in various ways.

The last film was the most captivating, but its story was the longest. It was even made by a graduate student at SF State, so that's cool! It's basically a story about a Korean woman who during the war, lost her baby daughter due to malnutrition and fled to America with her son. Although she lived in America for the rest of her life, she could never forget that day she lost her child.

I really liked these films because it they all showed the importance of family especially in Asian American cultures and how we try to balance our lives between these two cultures.

-Angel