AAPI filmmakers blend music and visuals to narrate stories of love and family
In a film, there is always an invisible main lead: The music. It tells us how to feel and steers us through the story. Now, it’s taking center stage in this series of music videos by Asian American Pacific Islander creators.
(Image Credit: Lili Fang)
ISLANDS
Watched by: Daniel Oliver Lee
In a culture where expressing love outside of a heterosexual binary is seen as a polarizing act, director Lili Fang and musician Ellie Kim, otherwise known as Superknova, provide a dreamy escape with their new project “Islands.” Blending an ethereal performance by Kim on guitar and piano with footage of a completely LGBTQ+ cast, “Islands” transports the viewer to a heavenly and unapologetically queer ’scape, celebrating the various forms that queer and transgender love can take.
The melancholic love song which underscores the piece, delivered exquisitely by Kim’s musical talents, meditates on the human desire for loving connections. Paired with Fang’s direction, “Islands” evokes a wistfully contemplative feeling in the viewer as we observe Kim performing alone, basking in colorful lights as she carries out her solitary performance. Complimenting the sequences of Kim are DV vignettes displaying the multifaceted nature of queer love, from couples embracing to practices of self-love, and just pure unadulterated queer joy that comes from free expression. “Islands is a celebration of queer and trans joy, love, and community. It is a reminder that you are not alone in this universe, that we have been and always will be here to stay,” Fang said.
This film marks the return of Superknova to the Asian American International Film Festival after the music video for her song, “Goals,” was selected for the 44th year of the festival in 2021.
(Image Credit: Lo Lam)
HEI, I’M HOME
Watched by: James Ochoa
This short musical film directed by Lam Lo explores the reach and extent of unconditional love. Faced with the decision of possibly giving his distant father a liver transplant, the title character, a musician named Hei (Eric Man Lok Chow), raps his feelings out, spitting a verse that asks why he, the abandoned son, should be the one who saves a person he does not know, even though said person is the one that brought him into the world. Throughout the short film, Hei gets to know more about his father through the testimony of his equally distant uncle at his bedside. In a heart-wrenching and heartfelt experience, Hei learns the truth of why his father was so distant, and that he and his father have more in common than he initially thought.
(Image Credit: Jess X. Snow)
SUBLIMINAL
Watched by: Daniel Oliver Lee
From the title track of her 2022 debut album comes Hollis’ “Subliminal,” a soothingly meditative music video directed by Jess X Snow. “Subliminal” begins with a pensive Hollis in a dark room. As she begins singing, we are transported with her to a dreamy plane filled with a rich blue sky. It is here that she embarks on a journey to reconnect with her inner child, the two engaging in a beautiful dance, both guiding and mirroring each other’s movements.
In order to convey the themes of reuniting with your inner child, the filmmakers drew inspiration from, “breathwork, the magic hour sky, slow Asian cinema, and magical realism.” The breathwork lead choreography is performed gorgeously by Hollis and her younger counterpart portrayed by Madison Wong-Tend. The pair dance across the Harper Dessert, a location that perfectly imbues the film with the oranges and blues of the magic hour sky, setting the film in what feels like a peaceful otherworldly realm within Hollis. All of these aspects are captured by cinematographer Sheldon Chau on dazzling 16mm film, which saturates the film with a wonderful texture and unmistakably nostalgic feeling.
(Image Credit: Rosie Choo Pidcock)
THE BODY OF MY NAME (名自字体)
Watched by: Daniel Oliver Lee
For those of us who have had to grapple with assimilation by taking on an English name, Rosie Choo Pidcock’s “The Body of My Name” provides a refreshing and rhythmic celebration of all the facets that make up the immigrant identity. “The Body of My Name” follows five Chinese Canadians as they reclaim their Chinese names in the nostalgic setting of an elementary school through an effervescent display of rhythmic dance. We spend moments with Kallie Hu, Jennifer Tong, Johnny Wu, Katrina Teitz, and Alger Liang in familiar spaces, from classrooms to a school gymnasium where they write out their respective Chinese names.
After experiencing her mixed-race identity through a variety of names, Choo Pidcock initially found inspiration for this piece in China where they witnessed that many elders would write their names on the grounds of parks, a public practice that is not prevalent in the West. “The characters themselves being written out in this way that was being appreciated by people in a public casual setting, not in a gallery, not on a stage always stuck with me,” they said. Upon returning to Canada, Choo Pidcock began developing their filmmaking practice, eventually securing the opportunity to actualize “The Body of My Name” with friends they had made within the Asian film and theatre communities. For many of the actors, creating the film provided them with the opportunity to learn or relearn how to write their Chinese names. The movement was choreographed by the artists in a collaborative manner, with them sharing not only the dance but also their Chinese names with one another for the first time.
“It’s been really affirming to see that it resonates with so many people and it translates across not just Chinese immigrants but Korean immigrants and other folks who have this similar dual identity with their name,” said Choo Pidcock.
(Image Credit: Katherine A. Baguio)
I WISH I DIDN’T CARE (LIKE I DO)
Watched by: James Ochoa
This Katherine A. Baguio-directed piece is a trip inside the mind of Katherine Storm. Bound in the security of a straitjacket, Storm takes us on a dark, deep emotional rollercoaster through the turmoil of a mind experiencing heartbreak and regret. Beginning in a posh living room littered with empty alcohol containers, to a dimly lit room with an electric chair and a graffiti-decorated motel room, Storm gives visual aid while she sings about the regrets of a past relationship. The extremity of the visuals Storm provides viewers, such as her in a straitjacket, explores her sanity while she mourns her love and experiences regret and despair.
(Image Credit: Xiao Han)
SO BEAUTIFUL, SO LONELY
Watched by: James Ochoa
The fast pace and dreamy atmosphere of this drum and bass track make for a chaotic video that tests all the senses. From the stark, white hallways of the TWA Hotel, to the bright lights of Times Square, the city of New York is the neo-futuristic venue for this video directed by Xiao Han. Throughout the visuals for this dreamy and fast paced Fifi Zhang song, we see the artist alternate between three different versions of herself while they traverse an empty city to try to reach for a telephone. The fast cuts set to the fast pace of the track combined with the visuals of city lights, futuristic architecture, and Zhang’s outlandish outfits reel you into a near-nauseating and trippy kaleidoscope world, giving viewers a double dose of euphoria within the span of two minutes.
ATTACK, DECAY, RELEASE
Watched by: Isabella Tecson
H.P. Mendoza’s musical triumph, “Attack, Decay, Release,” is not just a movie. It is a family get-together with the strangers you experience it with. Created by a Filipino director based in San Francisco, this 93 minute long adventure through the history of humanity was commissioned by The Svane Project as a part of their “Ark” series, where they asked several artists from varying disciplines to give their interpretation of carrying all of humanity to a better place. Mendoza’s response to this prompt was a revolutionary three-screen dance party that follows an astronaut as they grapple with whether earth and humanity are worth saving. I spoke to Mendoza on the 28th of July, 24 hours before he performed his piece to a packed audience at The Asian American International Film Festival. Read the full interview here.
The “Music Night Out!” shorts block screened at the 46th Asian American International Film Festival