Students Curate “Independent Visions: New Asian American Images on Screen”
Part of the Arts Alive SDSU Discovery Series, the School of Theatre, Television, and Film is showcasing and discussing select films from the 2020 San Diego Asian Film Festival.
by Gabriela Romero
October 22, 2020
October 22, 2020
“Independent Visions: New Asian American Images on Screen” highlights new independent films from the 2020 San Diego Asian Film Festival, curated by SDSU students enrolled in “Cultural Aspects of Media,” to foster a conversation about ethnicity and identity.
This 90-minute panel discussion will take place Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 4 p.m. with panelists, Brian Hu and Llewelyn Labio, and features guest artist Jiayan “Jenny” Shi. This event is part of the Arts Alive SDSU Discovery Series and is supported by One SDSU. Free access is available to the SDSU campus community here.
Brian Hu, assistant professor in the School of Theatre, Television, and Film says “the students are taking on a brave and meaningful task of sorting through dozens of short films to arrive at this final program for their peers.”
Hu hopes to create a series of conversations about ethnography and communication, media representation and the sociopolitical dynamics of a community through interviews with filmmakers and commentary by students. Conversation will be inspired by the documentary film “Finding YingYing,” a feature length documentary by Jiayan “Jenny” Shi.
Although he is not dictating which specific conversations will arise, Hu says he is “looking forward to how students frame these concerns and priorities themselves. The idea is that they will use the curatorial act as a kind of argument-making of their own.”
“As a scholar of Asian American cinema, I’d venture that some important topics will include issues of immigration, assimilation (or not), globalization, language, family, justice and identity,” Hu says.
Through this project, students will link contemporary media practices to a long history of non-theatrical filmmaking in the United States — films that are not designed to be shown in commercial theaters, but rather for community and local education, uplift or entertainment.
Register to attend this virtual, one night event which is available to the SDSU campus community here and watch the San Diego Asian Film Festival here.
More information about the Arts Alive Discover Series can be found here.
The content within this article has been edited by Lizbeth Persons.
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