off the menu: ASIAN AMERICA
preceded by sugarless tea
|
|
Sunday, October 25, 2015,
3:00 PM Bright Family Screening Room, The Paramount Center 559 Washington Street, Boston MA (T: Park Street, Downtown Crossing, or Boylston) OFF THE MENU
2015 | USA | 56 mins | Documentary Directed by Grace Lee Off the Menu: Asian America is an exploration of food in changing communities, families, traditions, and faiths. In the one-hour documentary, Lee travels from Houston, Texas to New York’s Lower East Side, from Oak Creek, Wisconsin to Oahu, Hawaii seeking stories that reflect an evolving Asian Pacific America and the role food plays in peoples’ lives. “We wanted to find unexpected stories that embodied the Asian American experience,” Lee said. “Asian America is already such a vast, complex, and contested idea. Focusing on food was a way to explore the deeper connections of culture, family, and ideas of authenticity and adaptation that link us all.” Director's Bio: GRACE LEE's credits include directing and producing the documentary American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, which premiered at the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival before its broadcast on the PBS series POV. Other projects included documentaries Makers: Women in Politics (PBS 2014), The Grace Lee Project (2005) and feature film Janeane from Des Moines, which premiered at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival. Lee lives in Los Angeles. |
|
|
SUGARLESS TEA
2015 | USA | 6 mins | Documentary Directed by Saj Selvarajan Sugarless Tea takes viewers on a journey to India and Queens, NY, in a tale of separated brothers, chance meetings and identity. Sugarless Tea features watercolors paintings filmed using a stop motion technique that evokes travelogues and bedtime stories, and highlights the process of painting itself. Director's Bio: SAJ SELVARAJAN was born in Sri-Lanka on a Wednesday night during a coup d'etat. He grew up in Nigeria playing soccer and eating bananas. As a child Sai spent his holidays traveling with his family through Europe,India, and Sri-Lanka. His family moved to Dallas when he was nine. It was at this point that he fell in love with Texans and American pop culture. The moving image is the medium in which Sai communicates with the world. He brings a fierce passion for storytelling, coupled with great design acumen, resulting in stylistically intense pieces that linger through their emotional resonance. He spends his days at Lucky Post perfecting the American television commercial and his nights dancing to records with his wife and daughter. |
