Stories from the Farther Shore: Southeast Asian Film

The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, co-present Stories from the Farther Shore: Southeast Asian Film, a special film program showcasing recent documentary, art, 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. For more information about the film program, go to sjmusart.org/stories.  See accompanying screening schedule for the full program.

“As we expand our programming beyond SJMA’s physical borders, we are thrilled to partner with the Asian Art Museum, California College of the Arts, MACLA, and Tully Library to share these quality films for free to a wide audience. Stories from the Farther Shore: Southeast Asian Film affords us the opportunity to screen groundbreaking films relevant to today’s global society," says Oshman Executive Director S. Sayre Batton.

Additionally, SJMA has commissioned Bay Area artist Robin Lasser to create a site-specific outdoor video mapping installation, a new component of her ongoing project Migratory Cultures. Titled San José’s Stories: The Vietnamese Diaspora, Lasser’s video mapping installations feature interviews with individuals from the San José’s multi-generational Vietnamese-American community whose stories of migration reveal a more complex narrative of the largest Vietnamese diaspora in the United States. The installation will be shown outside of SJMA in the Circle of Palms, March 21, 2019 at 8pm.

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.

Light and Belief: March 20, 5:30pm
Directed by Dinh Q. Lê. Vietnam 2012. 
California College of the Arts, San Francisco 

Owl and the Sparrow: March 21, 11:30am
Directed by Stephane Gauger. Vietnam 2008. 

Flapping In the Middle of Nowhere: March 21, 2pm
Directed by Nguyen Hoang Diep. Vietnam 2014. 

The Island: March 21, 6:30pm
Directed by Tuan Andrew Nguyen. Vietnam 2017. 
MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, Castellano Playhouse 

San José Stories: The Vietnamese Diaspora: March 21, 8pm
From the series "Migratory Cultures" by Robin Lasser + G. Craig Hobbs. USA 2019. 

The Tailor: March 22, 11:30am
Directed by Tran Buu Loc and Kay Nguyen. Vietnam 2017. 
Tully Library, San Jose 

Finding Phong: March 22, 2pm
Directed by Tran Phuong Thao and Swann Dubus. Vietnam 2015. 

Diamond Island: March 22, 6:30pm
Directed by Davy Chou. Cambodia 2016. 
3Below Theaters & Lounge 

Vientiane in Love: March 23, 11:30am
Directed by Anysay Keola, Phanumad Disattha, Vannaphone Sitthirath, and Xaisongkham Induangchanthy. Laos 2015. 

Malila: The Farewell Flower: March 23, 2pm
Directed by Anucha Boonyawatana. Thailand 2017.

Nailed It: March 23, 6:30pm
Directed by Adele Free Pham. USA 2017. 
MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, Castellano Playhouse 

Madam Phung’s Last Journey: March 24, 11:30am
Directed by Nguyen Thi Tham. Vietnam 2014. 

Memories of My Body (Kucumbu Tubuh Indahku): March 24, 2pm
Directed by Garin Nugroho. Indonesia 2018. 
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco 

Ticket info
For more information about the films and to reserve your free tickets, visit sjmusart.org/stories.

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.