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Have roles changed for male actors?
By Mark de la Viña
Mercury News
After nearly a quarter of a century of presenting films about every
aspect of Asian and Asian-American culture, organizers of the San
Francisco International Asian American Film Festival decided that
there was one subject they needed to put under the microscope.
The paucity of parts for Asian-American actors in commercial films
has long been a sore spot for organizers of the 24th annual festival.
This year's festival -- through March 26 in San Jose, Berkeley and
San Francisco -- will include everything from a retrospective on
actor James Shigeta to contemporary depictions of Asian-American
men in such films as ``Punching the Sun,'' by Palo Alto native Tanuj
Chopra.
Also among its 130 movies are the documentary ``The Slanted Screen,''
which examines Asian-American men in movies, followed by the panel
``Is Charlie Chan Dead?: Asian American Men on Screen,'' at the
Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco at 3 p.m. Sunday.
The festival opened Thursday at the Castro Theatre with ``Americanese,''
Eric Byler's adaptation of the Shawn Wong novel ``American Knees.''
The festival's ``centerpiece presentation'' is ``Water,'' the third
movie in the ``elemental trilogy'' by Deepa Mehta, which plays the
Castro on Sunday. ``Journey from the Fall,'' Ham Tran's look at
the aftermath of the Vietnam War from a Vietnamese perspective,
is featured as part of the festival's closing night gala at 7 p.m.
Thursday at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
The San Jose leg of the festival kicks off at 7 p.m. March 24 with
``Punching at the Sun'' at Camera 12 Cinema. A reception at Anno
Domini Gallery at 9 p.m. will follow.
The festival will have its usually broad mix of films from around
the world and the United States, but this year's look at the Asian-American
male resonates throughout the festival, says exhibition and festival
director Chi-hui Yang.
``Many of the films we're showing have much more complex and nuanced
roles for Asian-American actors,''' Yang says. ``It's meaty stuff
they can't get in mainstream Hollywood films.''
The tendency to paint Asian and Asian-American male characters
as either nefarious martial arts gangsters or effeminate dweebs
is nicely countered by programming that includes ``Only the Brave,''
Lane Nishikawa's feature film about a Japanese-American regiment
in World War II, and ``Punching at the Sun,'' a post-Sept. 11 look
at a South Asian-American teenager dealing with urban violence.
The movie by Chopra, a Palo Alto High School graduate, features
a teenage male character from Queens, N.Y., who was inspired by
youngsters the director tutored in East Palo Alto in 2000.
Chopra's film comes straight from the Sundance Film Festival where
the movie didn't secure a distributor even though it received positive
reactions from such publications as Variety. ``Punching the Sun''
is Chopra's follow-up to his short film ``Butterfly,'' which the
festival presented in 2003.
``I feel much happier showing this movie in this venue,'' Chopra
says. ``I don't want to say anything bad about Sundance, but here
I don't have to have a map in my hand and be all bundled up for
the Utah winter, so it feels good to be playing in San Francisco
and San Jose.''
By the numbers
Anniversary of festival: 24
Years screenings held in San Jose: 6
Number of venues: 5
Cities hosting screenings: 3
Total number of films and videos: 130
World premieres: 4
North American premieres: 3
U.S. premieres: 4
Last year's attendance: 27,000
San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/movies/14114387.htm
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