AKA DAN

Directed by Jon Maxwell

Asian American Panorama / South Korea, USA / 2014 / Documentary, Drama, Family / 85 mins / English, Korean with English subtitles / HD

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AKA DAN

UltraStar Mission Valley
April 19, 2014 3:35 pm

AKA DAN

UltraStar Mission Valley
April 21, 2014 6:35 pm

Description

Filmmakers scheduled to attend

Tickets come with free download of DAN aka DAN’s album Stuntman, redeemable after day of screening

“Is anybody out there?” So wonders rapper Dan Matthews on his latest album, though it could be the question of his life thus far. Born in Korea and adopted by a white family in Los Angeles, Dan sought an answer last year and found his biological parents. The search yielded not just anybody, but a twin brother he never knew existed and a community of fellow adoptees whisked across continents by the fateful whims of globalization.

AKA DAN follows the SDSU and SDAFF alum on his Seoul trip, less a homecoming than an initiation by booze, laughs, and camaraderie. Asian American cinema has no shortage of adoption documentaries, but AKA DAN proves unique in its depiction of discovery timed to a pop beat, with the pep of a scavenger hunt and the wide-eyed wonder of a travelogue.

At its best, AKA DAN is a diary of a young man re-examining what it means to be a son, seeing the person he could have been in the face of his twin, and discovering the power of his music. In the process, Dan encounters the “anybody out there” in himself, ready to face a future with two families and a confident new sense of who he can still be. –Brian Hu

Presented by Kramer Holcomb Sheik LLP