The Asian Studies Center has an extensive collection of fiction and non‑fiction films available to borrow. Visit the center or contact us for more information.
Description: Michael (Michael Idemoto) and Lori (Eugenia Yuan) have a close relationship that verges on romance. While Michael pines for Lori, she prefers to keep him as a friend, opting to date the less sensitive, more sensual Justin (Matt Westmore) instead. When Michael finally decides to look elsewhere for love, he meets the intriguing Darcy (Jacqueline Kim). Soon the pairing of Michael and Darcy causes jealousy with Justin and Lori, leading to dramatic revelations.
Description: In this understated comedy from director Wayne Wang, Jo (Wood Moy), a cab driver in San Francisco's Chinatown, and his nephew, Steve (Marc Hayashi), have placed their combined savings into the hands of the shady and mysterious Chan. When this unreliable holder of their funds disappears, Jo and Steve become amateur investigators and attempt to track him down, meeting with resistance -- and plenty of humorous characters and situations -- along the way.
Description: Hollywood has a long tradition of cultural prejudice, particularly when it comes to depicting Asian peoples. For Asian actors, only limited roles are available, and they are often pigeonholed into depicting ethnic stereotypes. The struggle against these stereotypes, as well as the dilemmas facing actors forced to succumb to them, are explored through interviews with Asian actors and filmmakers and in a series of archival film clips covering a century of American film.
Description: In a 30 minute documentary, “Arabs, Jews, and the News” combines footage of the war and the demonstrations, with interviews with community leaders, journalists, performers, and people who were in the Middle East during the war, to present the Middle East conflict and the parallel conflict that erupted in Michigan.
Description: Disoriented is a unique and touching comedy about an immigrant family lost inside the American Dream. Twenty-something West Cordova is trapped in a waking nightmare. His overbearing mother is bent on molding him into a MD. His crazy, "wannabe-a-supermodel," Japanese girlfriend craves blonde hair and round eyes. And his long lost, jock brother just returned home having traded his high tops for high heels. If young "Doctor" Cordova can pass pre-med, mend his fractured family and revive his romance, he may just discover the cure for his own unraveling identity.
Description: This film the first in depth look at the lives of the intercultural children of Japanese and Americans from inside America as well as inside Japan.
Description: In MY AMERICA, the filmmaker recalls her childhood--back in the days when her vacationing family would cross five states lines without ever catching a glimpse of another Asian face. Returning to the road more than 20 years later, she finds that new immigration has suddenly put Asian Americans on the map. With Latinos, they have become the countrys fastest growing ethnic group. Tajima-Peña sets out to search for the new American identity that will arise from the multi-culti hoi-palloi that is America at the end of the 20th century.
Description: Searching for Asian America profiles the lives and experiences of three Asian Americans: Gary Locke, who became the first Asian American governor in the U.S. when he was elected governor of Washington in 1996; Martin Bautista and Jeffrey Lim, two Filipino immigrant doctors living in rural Oklahoma; and Lela Lee, a Korean American actress and creator of the "Angry Little Girls!" comic strip and website.
Description: Being Hmong Means Being Free highlights the history, culture and identity of the Hmong immigrants who have settled in the United States between 1975 and the early 1990s. The documentary looks at Hmong life in this country as seen through the eyes of the program host, seventeen year-old Lia Vang.
Description: This episode examines the relationship between the drug trade and war, detailing the involvement of the CIA in Vietnam and Afghanistan during the Cold War.