As the sun set on the Sundance Film Festival, I was left in awe of the original storytelling and new perspectives showcased in Park City, Utah. Having shared space with other creators, actors, and journalists from both the AAPI community and broader POC groups at Sunrise House, I returned energized and inspired to tell genuine stories where our identities are not the main offering nor just a topping, but thoroughly mixed into the narrative, plot, and characters.
Award-winning filmmaker and a Sundance 2024 juror, Mira Nair (“Mississippi Masala,” “Monsoon Wedding”) said at a fireside chat hosted by Sunrise Collective, “We are very acerbic [straightforward] and astute about our own societies. When people come from the outside or even from within trying to make it more palatable to the West or to the international scene, I have a very high antenna for that.”
Like Nair, I prefer “real people with real dilemmas and real beautiful feelings.” In the films I had the privilege of viewing, I encountered stories of badass women, youth perspectives of family, particularly relationships with one’s mother, and searches for romance and budding desire.
These are five films that caught my attention for their deep attention to humanity and nuanced portrayals of Asian experiences around the world.
“And So It Begins”
Before President Barbie … came Leni Robredo. The former vice president of the Philippines, Robredo kicked off her presidential campaign in 2021, and wherever she went seas of pink supporters followed — seriously, it looks like a BTS concert with phones lighting the tens of thousands in the audience. If you have never seen a Filipino presidential campaign, Ramona S. Diaz’s “And So It Begins” is a great introduction to the spectacle of elections in the island nation. It is also a documentary that accounts for the rewriting of history as Robredo’s main competition was Bongbong Marcos, the son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
In addition…
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