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Coming Into Focus: Thirty Years Of Asian American Independent Filmmaking

With the current fascination with all-things-Asian in the popular culture but given the inherently fickle nature of fads, it is worth recalling that the art of independent Asian American film evolved from the political struggles and countercultural practices that attended the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Anti-war protest against the US-sponsored war in Southeast Asia, conflict over civil rights issues, widespread student revolt, and the crisis of political legitimacy influenced the early independent media work of Asian American activist-artists. A self-consciously Asian American filmmaking practice began to emerge along with other expressive forms such as fiction, journalism, music, theater, dance and criticism.

To support the ambitions of those who sought to subvert the condescension and anti-Asian racism characteristic of corporate film and television industrial product, community-based institutions were established to provide material support for independent media workers. Founded in Los Angeles during the summer of 1969, Visual Communications gave rise to the technically crude but grippingly powerful documentaries by Robert A. Nakamura, MANZANAR (1971) and Eddie Wong, WONG SINSAANG (1971). In 1976, Asian CineVision (ACV) came into being through the efforts of Peter Chow, Christine Choy and Tsui Hark. ACV began by training New York Chinatown residents in video production, but later shifted emphasis to the exhibition and distribution of independent films. The Asian American International Film Festival sponsored by ACV has served as a showcase for such filmmakers as Wayne Wang and Ang Lee, both of whom went on to achieve crossover success.

In San Francisco, the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA) was founded in 1980 with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). In addition to its mandate to develop original programming for broadcast on public television, NAATA has sponsored the San...