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SAN JOSÉ and SAN FRANCISCO– Stories from the Farther Shore: Southeast Asian Film Series (Day Five)
March 24, 2019 @ 3:30 am – 9:00 am
Free
Tuan Andrew Nguyen, The Island, 2017. Courtesy of Tuan Andrew Nguyen and James Cohan, New York. SAN JOSÉ– San Jose Museum of Art and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco co-present Stories from the Farther Shore: Southeast Asian Film from March 20–24, 2019, a special film program showcasing recent documentary, short, artistic, and feature-length films by Southeast Asian filmmakers. Topics range from struggles with transgender identity in Finding Phong (2015) by Tran Phong Thao and Swann Dubus to Malila: The Farewell Flower (2017), Anucha Boonyawatana’s meditation on love, loss, and mortality between two former gay lovers, to Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s The Island (2017), a dystopian art film shot on the Malaysian island of Pulau Bidong—the site of the largest and longest-operating refugee camp after the Vietnam War. Running from March 20–24, 2019, this free program of twelve films will screen at locations in both San José and San Francisco, including SJMA, Tully Library in San José, Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana/MACLA, California College of the Arts, and the Asian Art Museum. Screenings will be followed by conversations with filmmakers, scholars, and audiences. See accompanying screening schedule for full program details. A detailed listing of screening times, locations, and summaries of each film will be released in the coming weeks. Stories from the Farther Shore coincides with Dinh Q. Lê: True Journey Is Return, an exhibition organized by SJMA highlighting the acclaimed Vietnamese artist’s video and photography installations that gives voice to multiple, simultaneous stories about Vietnamese life and the aftermath of the Vietnam War. The films presented in this program offer a similarly nuanced portrait of Southeast Asia, focused on contemporary issues both at home and abroad. At a time of growing hostility to immigrant and refugee experiences in the United States, the films in this program will join the exhibition in giving voice to complex, humanized stories of identity and homeland, loss and survival, tradition and modernity. Check out the FULL SCHEDULE (13 films over five days, March 20 – March 24) Schedule for Sunday, March 24, 2019 Sunday, March 24 at 11:30 am Madam Phung’s Last Journey. 2014. Vietnam. Directed by Nguyen Thi Tham. Vietnamese with English subtitles. 87 min. San José Museum of Art, Wendel Education Center 110 S Market St, San Jose, CA 95113 Madam Phung is a canny businesswoman who got her start as a singer, and saved her money in the form of gold bars she would bury in the ground. Now she is something of a den mother to her largely transgender troupe—berating them when they drink or fight too much, warning them to stay out of trouble, and dealing with local police and occasionally hostile locals when necessary. It’s the classic carny existence: long hours; setting up and tearing down the stage; exhorting the crowd to buy raffle tickets and play games; putting on a show. This documentary takes us on a year-long ride with an itinerant troupe of cross-dressing performers, led by Bic Phung, as they travel the remote southern regions and central highlands of Vietnam. Sunday, March 24 at 2 pm Memories of My Body (Kucumbu Tubuh Indahku). 2018. Indonesia. Directed by Garin Nugroho. Indonesian and Javanese with English subtitles. 105 min. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Samsung Hall 200 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 Juno is just a child when his father leaves him in their village of Center Java. Abandoned and alone, he joins a Lengger dance center where men assume feminine appearance and movements. But the sensuality and sexuality that comes from dance and bodies, mixed with the violent social and political situation of Indonesia, forces Juno to move from village to village. Though Juno receives attention and love from his dance teachers, his weird aunt, his old uncle, a handsome boxer, and a Warok, he still has to face the battlefield that his body is becoming alone. Stories from the Farther Shore: Southeast Asian Film is organized by Rory Padeken, SJMA associate curator. This project is made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Asian Cultural Council. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
