 "Photo: Michael Baldon/The Daily Texan")
Angela Chen’s family said they will support her filmmaking career when she becomes the next Oscar-winning Ang Lee.
The radio-television-film senior drew inspiration from her upbringing in a strict and deeply traditional Chinese family to illustrate gender roles in her short film “Mr. Cupcakes.”
“It’s based on a Chinese saying about how raising a daughter is like water spilling,” Chen said. “It means a daughter isn’t yours because she’s going to be married off. It doesn’t matter what she does or what career she chooses because eventually, she’ll marry and have to take care of her new family.”
“Mr. Cupcakes” was shown before the Austin premiere of “White on Rice” at the Texas Union Theatre on Friday as part of the sixth annual Austin Asian American Film Festival. The premiere was co-sponsored by the festival and UT’s Asian American Culture Committee. Chen was one of more than 40 filmmakers who showcased at the festival.
From Thursday through Sunday, more than 40 Asian-American films filled the screens at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar and the Texas Union Theatre. The films featured a wide range of Asian and Asian-American characters, including teenage thieves and traveling revolutionaries, out-of-touch fathers and lesbian artists.
Without the festival, many of the films would not have been able to reach audiences in Austin, said festival director and filmmaker Masashi Niwano.
Being an independent filmmaker is tough already, but Asian-American filmmakers face even more challenges since they represent a minority demographic that is not typically on the media’s radar, Niwano said. Asian-American filmmakers have to accept that under current conditions, they will be limited in finding a place for their work, he added.
“I could make the same film with white actors and it would have more visibility, but I don’t want to do that just for sake of finding more screens,” Niwano said. “Knowing that you’re going to be limited, that’s why you have to be passionate about your work.”
The main theme of this year’s festival is not to whine about wanting change but to celebrate the distinct backgrounds of a rapidly growing minority in Austin and stand up for what makes them proud of their culture, Niwano said.
Festival organizers spent a year looking for both old and recent films that not only feature Asian-American directors or characters, but also universal themes of relevance to the Austin community. The festival showed four films featuring Vietnamese culture because of Austin’s large Vietnamese-American community, Niwano said.
“This festival created a platform for Asian-American filmmakers to get the word out,” Niwano said. “It’s the only way to succeed. We can’t wait for the world to realize we exist and our films are important too.”
Other festival events included a Bollywood dance party on Friday and a free outdoor screening of “Persepolis” at Town Lake, which featured a variety of Asian cuisine and a performance by Iranian indie rock band Tehranosaurus.
On Saturday, director and screenwriter H.P. Mendoza showed the Austin premiere of “Fruit Fly,” a musical comedy which takes place in the arts and clubbing scene of San Francisco’s Castro district. The film stars L.A. Renigen as a Filipina struggling to find a home for herself as she fends off her gay roommate’s name-calling of “fag hag.”
Mendoza said he is not the type to make blatant statements, but social commentary is implied in the film based on the characters’ actions and words. Misogyny, and sometimes even racism, runs rampant in the gay community from both whites and Asians, he said. Women are often stereotyped in gay media just as much as in mainstream media, he added.
“This festival is a way for us to prove [Asian-American filmmakers] exist, too,” Mendoza said. “Right now, people don’t see us as a movement.”
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