Sundance Shines (A Little Bit) on the Asia Pacific By Chetna Purohit With the arrival of the New Year, the crème de la crème of the motion picture industry, critics, and cinemaniacs in general, convened in Park City, Utah January 16-26 to applaud and recognize the achievements of filmmakers and other artists from around the world. The Sundance Film Festival provides the unique opportunity for independent visions worldwide to congregate and exhibit their innovative creations. What an ingenious avenue for disseminating fresh, diverse voices to a largely homogenous society, which could frankly use a little variety in their movie going experiences! Or is it? Out of hundreds of films nominated in the prestigious lineup at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, only 16 of these illustrious spots were bestowed to members of the Asia Pacific, out of which only two prevailed. These honors were conferred on the Japanese film, “100% Pure Wool,” and another to the Asian-American director, Michael Kang. These slim numbers should not be taken out of context though. It is still the dream of a lifetime for a director’s film to simply be recognized by a nomination within this eclectic array of genius. In that sense, all contenders of the Asia Pacific should pride themselves for achieving this historic status. Since many of us are lovers of the cinema, but are not graced with the opportunity of attending Sundance, let us preview three of the Asian oriented films nominated in this year’s festival within the World Cinema competition that are extraordinary in the universal messages they convey, but alas did not make the final cut. BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM: British-Indian director Gurinder Chadha, also known for “Bhaji on the Beach” and “What’s Cooking,” uses the conflicts of East versus West to structure the inspirational story about a young Indian girl living in England who aspires to chase her dream of playing soccer against the wishes of her traditional family in “Bend It Like Beckham.” BOLLYWOOD QUEEN: Along similar lines of globalization and the intermingling of different cultures comes the visually sumptuous story of “Bollywood Queen” by British director Jeremy Wooding, additionally hailed for a collaboration of shorts “Paris Brixton,” “Sari & Trainers,” and “Soul Patrol” to make up the “London Short film Trilogy.” Wooding employs fanciful cinematic techniques to tell the tale of star crossed lovers Geena and Jay, who discover the tumultuous journey of love that defies traditional Indian mores. MISSING GUN: Also within this genre of contest was Chinese director Lu Chuan’s “Missing Gun”, previously praised for his films “Old Photos,” “Touch,” “Gratified Young Men,” “The Perfect Life of Wang Shuzen,” and “7th Game.” This cinematic adventure takes viewers through a comedic whodunit about a detective who awakes to the frightening reality that his state-issued pistol is missing. This becomes extremely problematic in modern China where the government bans the ownership of all firearms except to soldiers, in order to preserve social tranquility. These three films, only minimally representative of the multitude of Asian talents, seemingly convey that Sundance judges don’t have an easy job. The Asian and Asian-American prize winners of this year’s competition were within the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers category, which was “created to support new independent voices in the international film community” said Robert Redford, Founder and President of the Sundance Institute. This year’s recipients include Michael Kang’s “The Motel” (USA) and Mai Tominaga’s “100% Pure Wool” (Japan). Since the award recognizes filmmakers from four global regions (USA, Europe, Latin America, and Japan) it is inevitable that Asia will always be glorified with at least one award to pacify their potential complaints of being under-recognized. Furthermore, another problem has surfaced in recent years with the penetration of commercialized Hollywood into this independent scene, which often results in highlighting the already legendary cinematic figures waltzing into Sundance. The presence of starlets like Jennifer Lopez veils other latent talents yearning to make their grand debut. This is not to say an immense injustice is being committed against a specific minority. If anything Robert Redford and his Sundance Institute has opened the door to many independent filmmakers and facilitated in shaping a director’s dream into reality. Each winner of the Sundance/NHK international filmmakers award, for example, receives a cash grant of $10,000 and an agreement with NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) to purchase the Japanese television broadcast rights upon the completion of their products. In addition to the cash award and the broadcast guarantee, Sundance works in conjunction with the recipients throughout the year by endowing them with assistance in seeking opportunities to finance and distribute their projects. Last year, Sundance embraced three Asian films into their illustrious family (“Daughter From Danang” by Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco, “Bus 44” by Dayyan Eng, and “The Man Who Wipes Mirrors” by Seisoku Kajita), and this year’s victors only magnify the exceptional cinematic artistry of the Asia Pacific. In spite of this, these numbers are still alarming. It is strikingly apparent that films in Asia are not a rarity. From Bollywood to NHK, and everywhere in between, Asians enjoy a night out at the movies, popcorn and all. These domestically produced films, as well as the blockbuster hits imported from the US obviously satiate the creative appetites of the Orient, yet the West is still largely oblivious to the marvels of our Eastern counterpart. There is more to the Asian experience than the dare devil acrobatics of Jackie Chen and the seductive temptress, Lucy Liu. It is through such film festivals as Sundance, where the virtuosity of other cultures is able to illuminate from the domination of big budget studios. For as Robert Redford affirms, “As our world continues to change, we must ensure that these voices continue to be heard, and the stories that teach us so much about our world continue to be shared.” It is very probable that more Asian Pacific contenders were not accredited with the bragging-rights of being a Sundance winner because their films were not up to par with those that did prevail. Either way, the fact that so many Asian films were distinguished with a nomination only concludes that Asians are pushing the envelope at what Americans have been good at for over half a century – doing the cinematic waltz!