May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, celebrating Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Celebrate the diversity of identities that has enriched the country’s history and explore with your community the stories created by, about and for Asian Americans:
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs | Grace was a Chinese American philosopher, writer, and activist in Detroit with a thick FBI file and a surprising vision of what an American revolution can be. Rooted for 75 years in the labor, civil rights and Black Power movements, she challenges a new generation to throw off old assumptions, think creatively and redefine revolution for our times. Pick a book (or excerpt of a book) from The Essential Grace Lee Boggs Reading List, then meet Grace in American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs and discuss the reading with Grace’s philosophy in mind. Screen the film | Download the lesson plan | Download the discussion guide
Cutie and the Boxer | The Academy Award-nominated Cutie and the Boxer is a moving account of the chaotic and unconventional 40-year love affair and creative partnership between action painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko, also an artist. Ushio, who punches canvases with paint-laden gloves, is famous in Japan and in Manhattan’s art circles, yet wider recognition has eluded him. Noriko, 21 years his junior, put her artistic ambitions on hold to be a wife and mother and an assistant to her demanding husband. Now, Noriko’s acclaimed “Cutie” series of drawings, depicting the relationship between the title character and a volatile figure named Bullie, is turning their world upside down. Winner, Directing Award: U.S. Documentary, 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Screen the film | Download the lesson plan | Download the discussion guide
In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee | Her passport said she was Cha Jung Hee. She knew she was not. So began a 40-year deception for a Korean adoptee who came to the United States in 1966. Told to keep her true identity secret from her new American family, the 8-year-old girl quickly forgot she had ever been anyone else. But why had her identity been switched? And who was the real Cha Jung Hee? In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee is the search to find the answers, as acclaimed filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem (First Person Plural, POV 2000) returns to her native Korea to find her “double,” the mysterious girl whose place she took in America. A co-production of ITVS in association with the Center for Asian American Media and American Documentary/POV. Screen the film | Download the lesson plan | Download the discussion guide
Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story | Fred Korematsu was probably never more American than when he resisted, and then challenged in court, the forced internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Korematsu lost his landmark Supreme Court case in 1944, but never his indignation and resolve. “Of Civil Wrongs and Rights” is the untold history of the 40-year legal fight to vindicate Korematsu — one that finally turned a civil injustice into a civil rights victory. Screen the film
When I Walk | Jason DaSilva was 25 years old and a rising independent filmmaker when a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis changed everything and inspired him to make another film. When I Walk is a candid and brave chronicle of one young man’s struggle to adapt to the harsh realities of M.S. while holding on to his personal and creative life. With his body growing weaker, DaSilva’s spirits, and his film, get a boost from his mother’s tough love and the support of Alice Cook, who becomes his wife and filmmaking partner. The result is a life-affirming documentary filled with unexpected moments of joy and humor. Official Selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. A co-production of ITVS. Screen the film | Download the lesson plan | Download the discussion guide
Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy | What is it like to be torn from your Chinese foster family, put on a plane with strangers and wake up in a new country, family and culture? Stephanie Wang-Breal’s Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy is the story of Fang Sui Yong, an 8-year-old orphan, and the Sadowskys, the Long Island Jewish family that travels to China to adopt her. Sui Yong is one of 70,000 Chinese children now being raised in the United States. Through her eyes, we witness her struggle with a new identity as she transforms from a timid child into someone that no one neither her new family nor she could have imagined. A co-production of American Documentary/POV and the Diverse Voices Project, presented in association with the Center for Asian American Media, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Screen the film | Download the lesson plan | Download the discussion guide
