KUSAMA – INFINITY

Heather Lenz / Asian American Panorama / USA / 2018 / documentary / 78 mins

Yayoi Kusama wasn’t always the biggest artist in the world. Once a budding painter sending fan mail to Georgia O’Keefe, she arrived in New York City in her twenties, in search of supporters who could see her as more than just a woman or Japanese. Her journey from obscure outsider, to art scene trouble-maker, to one of the most iconic artists of her generation, is a true inspiration. As seen on the big screen, it is as wondrous as her hallucinatory polka-dots and infinity rooms.

MEDITATION PARK

Mina Shum / Asian American Panorama / Canada / 2017 / comedy, drama, family / 94 mins

Cheng Pei Pei, Tzi Ma, and Sandra Oh headline Mina Shum’s latest, a comedy of self-discovery about 60-year-old Maria, whose marriage seems the paragon of happiness until she finds a mysterious piece of women’s underwear in her husband’s pocket. Maria starts sleuthing around for answers, and in the process, learns to value life on her own terms, from her relationship with her adult children, to getting her first paying job in decades, to making new friends.

MINDING THE GAP

Bing Liu / Asian American Panorama / USA / 2018 / documentary / 98 mins

Growing up in an old Illinois factory town, Bing was always the videographer for his skateboarding friends, a group of misfits who saw in the broken bones and camaraderie a feeling of selfhood and freedom. As the three friends transition into adulthood, Bing’s camera starts to observe new experiences: young fatherhood, a first job. And soon, they brave unanticipated emotional ground, including the one that brings all three young men together: the specter of domestic abuse.

ULAM: MAIN DISH

Alexandra Cuerdo / Asian American Panorama / USA / 2018 / documentary / 80 mins

Chicken adobo with heirloom tomatoes. Guyabano sorbet. This ain’t your lola's Filipino food. It’s the culinary imagination of the second-generation Filipino American dropouts and dreamers who found in cooking a way to document personal journeys. They are united by similar beginnings washing dishes at American or European restaurants while asking a common question: what about Filipino food? To which they all responded with a common answer: why not?