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SAN JOSÉ– Stories from the Farther Shore: Southeast Asian Film Series (Day Three)
March 22, 2019 @ 3:30 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) Friday, March 22 at 11:30 am The Tailor (Cô Ba Sài Gòn). 2017. Vietnam. Directed by Tran Buu Loc and Kay Nguyen. Vietnamese with English subtitles. 90 min. Tully Library, San José 880 Tully Rd, San Jose, CA 95121 Highlighting the glamourous culture and lifestyle of Vietnamese women in 1960s Saigon, The Tailor tells the story of a young, arrogant girl named Nhu Y. The daughter of a famed áo dài tailor whose family has been in the same business for nine generations, Nhu Y prefers instead to design Western-style outfits. After trying on a beautiful áo dài made from fabric passed down from her ancestor, Nhu Y travels to the future and meets herself a few decades later. Witnessing the tragedy of her family’s trade after turning her back on the craft, Nhu Y learns to value the traditional Vietnamese garment. Friday, March 22 at 2 pm Finding Phong. 2015. Vietnam. Directed by Tran Phuong Thao and Swann Dubus. Vietnamese with English subtitles. 92 min. San José Museum of Art, Wendel Education Center 110 S Market St, San Jose, CA 95113 Phong is a Vietnamese transwoman who grew up in a small town in the center of Vietnam. As the youngest of six children, she always felt like she was a girl in a boy’s body. After moving to Hanoi to attend college at age twenty, Phong discovers that she is not the only person in the world who feels this way. Several years later, her dream of physically changing her sex becomes a reality. The documentary follows Phong’s struggle during these years, with excerpts from her intimate video journal, along with her encounters with family, friends and doctors—all of whom must come to terms with Phong’s physical transformation. Friday, March 22 at 6:30 pm Diamond Island. 2016. Cambodia. Directed by Davy Chou. Khmer with English subtitles. 101 min. [TBD] Location TBD Diamond Island is a symbol of Cambodia’s future: a sprawling, ultra-modern luxury housing development set along the river in Phnom Penh. In this stylish coming-of-age story, eighteen-year old Bora arrives from the provinces to work at the construction site. There, he forges new friendships, courts a local girl, and is even reunited with his older brother Solei, who disappeared from their village five years ago. Things grow ever more complicated as Solei introduces Bora to the exciting world of Cambodia’s privileged urban youth, with its girls, its nightlife, and its illusions. This project is made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. 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. 
