Asian American Studies conference screenings

The Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) is holding its annual conference this year at UT-Austin from April 7-10th, and will feature two screenings: the films of Tadashi Nakamura and shorts by Texas-based filmmakers. These will be at the Omni Austin Hotel downtown. The link to the entire program for the conference is:

http://aaastudies.org/2010/schedule/FINAL2010AAASprogram.pdf

Here are the relevant screenings; the first night is more documentary-based.

Thursday, April 8
7:30pm – 9:00pm, Capital Ballroom B

Song for Ourselves (2008, 35 mins)
A SONG FOR OURSELVES is an intimate journey into the life and music of Asian American Movement troubadour Chris Iijima. Struggling to make sense of their father’s early death, his teenage sons learn that during the 1970s when Asians in America were still considered “Orientals,” Chris’ music and passion for social justice helped provide the voice and identity an entire generation had been in search of.

Pilgrimage (2003, 22 mins)
PILGRIMAGE tells the inspiring story of how an abandoned WWII concentration camp for Japanese Americans has been transformed into a symbol of retrospection and solidarity for people of all ages, races and nationalities in our post 9/11 world.

Yellow Brotherhood (2003, 18 mins)
YELLOW BROTHERHOOD is a short personal documentary about a friendship and finding community through a self-help group turned basketball team that began in the 1960s.

Tadashi Nakamura, Filmmaker
Tadashi Nakamura, in the three short documentaries screened here for the first time together, weaves together Asian American politics, activism, and community. “Pilgrimage” (2007, 23 min) retells the story of the first pilgrimage to the Manzanar internment site; “A Song for Ourselves” (2008, 35 min) highlights the poignant legacy of Chris Iijima, an indelible figure in American folk activism; “Yellow Brotherhood” (2003, 18 min) places the filmmaker in a recuperative space that traces Asian American political identity across ethnicity and generation. Nakamura never loses sight of the indelible mark of history and its political imperative at the same time that he reinvests time-honored stories with a compelling, contemporary visual aesthetics. He is an exciting young filmmaker whose lens is at once of-the-moment as well as grounded in a long tradition of documentary activism.

Friday, April 9
7:30pm – 9:00pm, Capital Ballroom B

North of Ojinaga (2006, 24 mins)
Rommel Eclarinal, Filmmaker
Two young immigrants, a Japanese woman and a Mexican man in search of their dreams, are smuggled across the US border from Mexico and abandoned in the vast unforgiving Texas desert. Lost and struggling to survive, they discover hope in each other.

"Untitled" (2009, 2 mins)
Nikki Eclarinal, Filmmaker
A quiet drive and big questions are asked on a Texas highway.

Krutie (2009, 4 mins)
Krutie Thakkar, Filmmaker
What's in a name? A young Indian American woman explores her multiple identities.

Texas Girl (2008, 20 mins)
Hyung Hyup Kim, Filmmaker
Mi-sook arrives in rural Texas, the happy wife of a military man who was stationed in Korea, only to be emotionally abandoned by her new husband.

Veedu (2009, 7 mins)
Chithra Jeyaram, Filmmaker
A young Indian boy learns a lesson in right and wrong with the help of a talking Ganish statue.

The Dilemma (2008, 5 mins)
Nicholas Martin, Abin Abraham, and Paul Yoon, Filmmakers
Why are Asian American males the LEAST married in America? Three Asian American students at the University of Texas strive to find out the answer.