The ninth annual Asian American Showcase, presented by the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media and the Gene Siskel Film Center, runs Friday, April 1, through Thursday, April 14, with screenings at the Film Center. Tickets are $9, $7 for students, and $5 for Film Center members; for more information call 312-846-2600. Following is program information for April 1 through 7; a full festival schedule is available online at www.chicagoreader.com.
This leisurely paced tale of adolescent befuddlement owes its appeal primarily to Jeffrey Chyau, endearing as a Chinese-American student writer named–what else–Ernest. When he’s not penning stories or bickering with his younger sister, Ernest cleans and pulls night-desk duty at the rooms-by-the-hour motel operated by his stern single mom (Jade Wu). The mood picks up when a charismatic womanizer who’s down on his luck (graceful and sexy Sung Kang from Better Luck Tomorrow) checks in and decides to teach the boy to cut loose. There’s little originality in the joyrides, first kisses, and clashes with bullies, yet this debut feature by writer-director Michael Kang captures the small triumphs of a boy becoming a man. 76 min. (AG) Also on the program: the director’s 12-minute short A Waiter Tomorrow (1998). (8:15)
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Filmmaker Julie Mallozzi spent three years filming a trio of high school students in blue-collar Lowell, Massachusetts, all children of Cambodians who fled the Khmer Rouge. Her engaging video (2004, 65 min.) tracks them through graduation and beyond as they grapple with the usual adolescent issues as well as the burden of trying to assimilate and still honor their parents’ culture. Also focusing on a first-generation Cambodian is Michael Siv’s Who I Became (2003, 20 min.), about a troubled young man who grew up in San Francisco’s perilous Tenderloin district. Immersed in the local street culture, he seems destined to land in prison until the end, when an apprenticeship program in construction reconnects him to his culture’s strong work ethic. Three short video documentaries complete the program, which runs 106 minutes. (JK) Mallozzi will attend the screening. (3:00)
Short works about women and beauty. Jason Moore’s American Seoul (2004) features a Korean-American punk girl who explains how Asian women adapt to the U.S. In Li-Anne Huang’s elegant Singapore Girl, a woman training to be a flight attendant discovers what she’ll have to sacrifice for her career–her self-respect. Elizabeth E. Lee’s Good for Her, about the cosmetic surgery boom in South Korea, is interesting but repetitive. By contrast, Karen Lin’s seven-minute Perfection economically captures the pressure exerted on women to look good. Also on the program: Debbie Lum’s Chinese Beauty. 95 min. (HSa) (5:30)
SUNDAY 3
MONDAY 4
WEDNESDAY 6
