Lying somewhere between dream and nightmare, American immigrants face a tenuous existence in a land that never quite feels like home. Whether regularly fighting deportation or struggling with the monotony of life on alien soil, the films in our program Uncertain Movements represent reality for those who have found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place in the so-called land of the free.
The filmmakers featured in this short film program chatted with us about their films and their dreams.
Keep Saray Home (Best Documentary Short Nominee)
Director: Brian Redondo
Without spoiling anything, describe your film in 7 words or less.
Redondo: Southeast Asian families face deportation with courage.
Do you have a favorite memory from making this film? Were there any challenges that you had to overcome?
Redondo: While filming the climactic scene of the film, I got emotional and once you see the film, you’ll know why. I was operating the camera and the footage gets wildly shaky because of my reaction. Normally this footage would be unuseable. But we decided to go with it anyway because the emotion rings true even though the shot was “ruined.”
What do you hope to see in the future for the film industry? How do you see yourself and your work playing a role in this future?
Redondo: I want to see a much broader range of stories, story formats, and story-tellers. For the medium to continue growing, fresh ideas and fresh perspectives are key. In the documentary world, I hope to continue making films for and about Asian Americans and people of color, and give voice to topics not normally discussed. But I also hope to do this in new, challenging ways that stretch the genre itself.
What’s next for you?
Redondo: I’m editing a short documentary about an experimental nature program at prisons in the Pacific Northwest.
Passage
Director: Asavari Kumar
Without spoiling anything, describe your film in 7 words or less.
Kumar: A woman recounts her immigration journey.
Do you have a favorite memory from making this film? Were there any challenges that you had to overcome?
Kumar: The fact that we were able to make this project with people who we love and respect was inherently a magical experience. Passage unfolds very much like a personal essay where a series of events are retold– warped and colored by memories and emotions. The biggest challenge for us was creating the visual language of the film. We wanted to strike a balance between being deeply specific and personal, while still being abstract enough so that the viewer could project their own journey onto the story.
What do you hope to see in the future for the film industry? How do you see yourself and your work playing a role in this future?
Kumar: I hope to see more representation and nuanced depictions of diasporic identity in mainstream media. As a creative practitioner that is medium agnostic, I hope to use every feasible opportunity to push for this transition through collaboration, community support, and collective action. Our production company Supernova Design, in addition to prioritizing the hiring of women and POC artists for our creative projects, sets aside resources to help non-profits and give back to organizations that help POC and minority communities.
What’s next for you?
Kumar: We are in development for a feature animation project and are collaborating on developing an animated series. Both projects are targeted at adult audiences and highlight South Asian voices and experiences. We were recently awarded a grant from Adobe to create an augmented reality short film titled ‘A New Normal’. This project was created during quarantine with a team of remote artists and has made us curious about exploring narrative work in the XR space. Over the next few years, we are hoping to explore different mediums and continue creating short and long-form projects that highlight the voices and stories of the South Asian diaspora.
Transplant
Director: Zheyu Liang
Without spoiling anything, describe your film in 7 words or less.
Liang: Tenacious Chinese immigrants try to find a home on alien soil.
Do you have a favorite memory from making this film? Were there any challenges that you had to overcome?
Liang: Being able to just stay with, observe my subjects’ daily lives, and see how they hold each other’s hands to get through the hardest time together, is definitely my favorite memory when I was filming. It’s an observational doc and I got tons of footage, so it was kind of hard when I was in post-production. It just took me a while to finish the film.
What do you hope to see in the future for the film industry? How do you see yourself and your work playing a role in this future?
Liang: I hope the film industry can create a free and supportive environment for our young Asian and Asian American women filmmakers and that we can get more chances to speak our own stories into the world. I will keep pursuing my passion-turned-career as a film director and making films that challenge and inspire the world with my distinctive voice and personal experience. As a young Asian woman director, I will also continue to commit to telling diverse stories of the underrepresented and bringing to the foreground the struggles of the Chinese and Asian experience in America.
What’s next for you?
Liang: I am currently working on my first feature documentary “Mother Love”, which is about three Chinese “only child” families. After almost a lifetime’s sacrifice and “unconditional love” for their only child, three mothers finally let go and embark on a journey of pursuing their own lives while navigating their tense mother-son relationships. Taking an observational approach, the film explores issues about expectation, loss, loneliness and pressure that have largely been hidden in plain sight. The film will uncover the underrepresented stories about how One Child Policy affected millions of families and impacted people for a lifetime.
To watch this short film program, Uncertain Movements, you can purchase access here. This program is available from November 5th – 15th.
Watch the recorded Q&A here, conducted on 11/6 at 3:00PM EST over livestream with featured filmmakers of this program.
