First-time director Jennifer Phang describes her film Half-Life as “a supernormal tale about self-absorbed and disillusioned suburbanites who live in a futuristic time of natural disasters, suffocating air quality, and accelerating global cataclysms.” Throw in a sinister interloper, a closeted gay lover, and a kid with paranormal powers and you have a tale of a not-so-average Asian American family from northern California.

Brett Wagner’s short film Chief follows a Samoan chief who struggles to deal with the death of his daughter and questions the validity of his title as he works as a taxi driver in Honolulu.

The APA film with the most clout seems to be Udayan Prasad’s Yellow Handkerchief, which boasts Academy Award-winning producers, cinematographers, and actors—the film stars William Hurt—in its cast and crew. The film chronicles the journey of a group of strangers who drive through Louisiana, presumably learning about life along the way.

Independent film fave Gregg Araki has remastered his 1992 film The Living End, which made its original debut at Sundance. Araki’s buddy road movie gone terribly awry is part of the Sundance Collection, which preserves significant contributions to independent film for future generations at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

I haven’t seen these obviously, but I do hope that APA directors can leave the festival this year with opportunities to make films for wider audiences. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a Karyn Kusama or Justin Lin.

The Sundance Film Festival runs until January 27 in Park City, Utah.

This blog entry is graciously sponsored by Toyota Matrix, check out
their website devoted to the best in Asian American film.


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