Asian American Filmmakers Reframing Contemporary Cinema

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. To celebrate, we are highlighting four remarkable cinematic talents that have used their personal experiences to paint a portrait of life in America today. In addition to these four filmmakers, more powerful films are on the way, including Hayley Kiyoko’s Girls Like Girls.

Sean Wang

In transforming his experience growing up in the Bay Area into a poignant, coming-of-age comedy in Dìdi (弟弟), writer-director Sean Wang was duly recognized, winning both the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature and Best Screenplay. Set in 2008, the film chronicles the experience of a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy (Izaac Wang) as he navigates his identity on the internet, as well as his sympathetic mother (Joan Chen) and sharp-tongued sister (Shirley Chen) in real life. Wang, who was nominated for an Academy Award® for his short documentary Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Grandma & Grandma), finds his inspiration in his immediate community. Wang told The Hollywood Reporter that Dìdi (弟弟) started with the idea, “What if you took a movie like Stand By Me but set it in Fremont and had it star kids who looked and talked and felt like the kids that I grew up with?” The Observer writes, “Sean Wang's debut feature about a Taiwanese American kid growing up in the East Bay perfectly captures the emotional jumble of boyhood.”

Watch Dìdi (弟弟) now!

Justin Chon

In Blue Bayou, Justin Chon stars in and directs the story of a man, Antonio (Chon), fighting for his right to belong to a family, a society, and a nation. With a new baby on the way, Antonio finds his family—his wife, Kathy (Alicia Vikander), and stepdaughter, Jessie (Sydney Kowalske)—about to be wrenched away from him by factors beyond his control. Born in Korea and adopted at age three by American parents, Antonio learns too late that the details of immigration law do not prevent him from being threatened with deportation. His story is one that has happened much too often in real life. “These adoptees are getting deported—and it’s an injustice,” Chon says in the production notes. “I would love for this film to bring up a conversation that spurs some sort of reform to happen.” The Mercury News writes that the film, “a lovely and heartrending piece of filmmaking,” is “one of the year's best.” “Chon forces us to acknowledge how easily those who believe themselves settled can become in an instant displaced and dispossessed,” writes The New York Times.

Watch Blue Bayou on Apple TV and Amazon!

Eddie Huang

Born in Washington, D.C., the son of Taiwanese immigrants, Eddie Huang grew up between two cultures, a tension he has explored in autobiography, fashion, food, and cinema. In his feature film debut, Boogie, Huang tells the story of Alfred “Boogie” Chin (Taylor Takahashi), a teenager caught between his dream of being an NBA star and his sense of family duty. Huang connected with the film’s hero, telling The New York Times that in “coming of age in America, you have to ask yourself some very difficult questions. I know my parents do things this way, my culture does things this way, but what choices would I make?” Huang told NBC News, “This is not everyone's Asian American coming-of-age story. But it's mine." It’s one of many in America today. “As a story about a high-school senior unsure about his future, coping with a volatile family and falling in love for the first time,” writes The Wrap, “Boogie is genuine while weaving Black, Hispanic, Asian and White teenage New Yorkers together with effortless ease.”

Watch Boogie on Apple TV and Amazon!

Nisha Ganatra

As a young artist, Nisha Ganatra found inspiration in everything around her. “I was this nerdy Indian girl. Madonna, Raj Kapoor, the AIDS movement of the ’80s—all of that made me take up filmmaking as a career,” Ganatra tells The Indian Express. Having explored her Indian heritage in her breakout comedy, Chutney Popcorn, Ganatra used that empathy to explore other lives and worlds. She tells ELLE that directors like Ang Lee have taught her “you can tell a story in any language and in any culture and as long as you are true to the details.” In The High Note, Ganatra took on female bonding in the music industry as a musical superstar (Tracee Ellis Ross) and her under-appreciated personal assistant (Dakota Johnson) discover just how much they need each other. “The thing that is important to me is to show women turning towards each other, and being the greatest allies towards each other, helping each other achieve their dreams so that we rise together,” Ganatra tells the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.

Watch The High Note on Apple TV and Amazon!