Among the many curated collections for the month of May on Kanopy, the Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month collection is a particular highlight. With films reaching all the way back to the silent era and up to the current day, this collection of films, documentaries, and series has plenty to enlighten and entertain. These cinematic works amplify underrepresented voices, encourage empathy, understanding, and a deeper appreciation of the vibrant heritage that shapes the Asian American and Pacific Islander experience.
You can find the entire Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month collection here.
Below you’ll find some highlights and deeper dives from the Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month collection, some recent and one dating all the way back to the silent era.
Driveways (Andrew Ahn, 2019)
You might know American actress Hong Chau from a variety of different roles, from her Academy Award nominated performance alongside Brendan Fraser in The Whale, the films The Menu, Asteroid City, or the television series Treme and Watchmen. In director Andrew Ahn’s Driveways, Chau gives a great dramatic and understated performance as a single mother, who along with her son, come to put the house of her recently deceased sister in order and strike up a friendship with the gruff, Korean War veteran neighbor, played by a fantastic Brian Dennehy in his final role.
Even with plot points that might feel a bit heavy, Driveways is a great drama with plenty of heart. It’s low-key and charming and feels lived in with characters that are well drawn and relatable. It shows the connection that can develop between neighbors when neighbors are more than just neighbors, where they become part of your family.
Driveways earned several award nominations after its release, including two Independent Spirit Awards nominations for Best Female Lead for Chau and Best First Screenplay for Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen as well as being recognized by the National Board of Review for its inclusion in its yearly Top Ten Independent Films of the Year. Many reviews pointed out Brian Dennehy’s standout performance as Del, the next-door neighbor and it’s truly a great performance.
Columbus (Kogonada, 2017)
Born in South Korea and moving to the US as a child, the filmmaker who goes by the pseudonym Kogonada got his start in filmmaking by crafting visual essays that explored and interpreted the works of some of history’s greatest filmmakers. These essays (which you can find on Kogonada’s website here) often have a poetic sensibility about them, looking at subjects such as the use of mirrors in the films of Ingmar Bergman or the recurring images of hands in the films of Robert Bresson.
His debut film, Columbus, stars John Cho as Jin Lee, a Korean American translator living in South Korea, who arrives in Columbus, Indiana, after his father, a well-known architect has fallen into a coma. Not knowing what to do, he wanders among the awe-inspiring architecture and art of the city. He also meets Casey, a young woman who works at a nearby library who’s having familial drama of her own. Together, as Casey takes Jin around the city, a friendship blossoms as they talk about what’s holding them back, family resentments, all with the city’s architecture acting as a backdrop.
While the film may be conversational focused, it’s all done amongst some of the most carefully composed and beautiful imagery in a film. If that’s not enough to entice you, upon its initial release, it ended up on many top ten lists for the year, including the Los Angeles Times, RogerEbert.com, and Esquire.
Also, if you’re so intrigued, and in the Columbus, Indiana area for a long weekend, you can stay at The Inn at Irwin Gardens, the same location that Jin stays at in the film, which like the city itself, has a style all its own.
Chan Is Missing (Wayne Wang, 1982) While he’s probably best known for The Joy Luck Club and the romantic comedies Maid in Manhattan and Last Holiday, writer-director Wayne Wang made his splash in the independent film movement of the 1980s alongside such filmmakers as Spike Lee and Jim Jarmusch. Born in Hong Kong and initially emigrating to the US to study and attend medical school, Wang made the switch to filmmaking, attending the California College of the Arts, much to the chagrin of his parents. This theme of traditional values, parent-child tension, and the Chinese American community are touchstones of his early work.
Chan Is Missing, Wang’s debut, follows two hapless taxi drivers, Jo and his nephew, Steve, as they try to track down the eponymous Chan Hung, who has disappeared with $4,000 that belonged to them. Their search for Chan sends them all over Chinatown in downtown San Francisco, where the ever-elusive Chan not only continues to evade them, but in talking to the locals they come across, Chan almost becomes an afterthought to film, as we learn more about their lives. Chan is different to each person they meet and like Chan, the Asian American community that Wang illustrates contains multitudes as well. It’s charming, lowkey, and an easy-going watch that’s more people-forward than mystery-forward.
Also of note, the film was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress for the United States National Film Registry in 1995, which select films that are ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,’ each year.
In addition to Chan Is Missing, Kanopy has a selection of films from Wang’s filmography, which you can find here, including Maid in Manhattan and the terrific Dim Sum: A Little Bit Of Heart.
Piccadilly (Ewald André Dupont, 1929)
Your mileage may vary when it comes to the wavelength of a silent film. It could be the languid pace, the over-emotive acting, or a general aversion to anything black-and-white or ‘old,’ but E.W. Dupont’s Picadilly is one you might want to check out.
Born in 1905 as Wong Liu Tsong, Anna May Wong is considered to be the first Chinese American star. With a glamorous image and a career that spanned from the silent era of Hollywood and to stage and television, Anna May Wong helped to not only legitimize, but also humanize Chinese American citizens. She fought for non-stereotypical roles and when she couldn’t find them in the United States, she moved to Europe and starred on stage and screen, and with this gained international acclaim and recognition. Anna May Wong’s legacy has only increased after her death with major retrospectives of her work, awards, as well as a United States quarter that went into circulation in 2022, and a Barbie modeled after her in 2023.
E.W. Dupon’t Piccadilly was one of those films Wong made in her time in Europe. Newly restored and present by the British Film Institute, the film is mesmerizing and looks great for being close to a hundred years old. Wong plays Shosho, a dishwasher who overcomes her station in life, and becomes a dancing sensation at a nightclub in London. From there, a love triangle and professional jealousy blossoms into what can only lead to murder.
These films not only highlight the distinctive stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, but they also provide a unique perspective on identity, migration, and perseverance.
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