Directed by Renee Tajima-Peña • 1997 • United States
Starring Renee Tajima-Peña, Victor Wong
Intoxicating and irreverent, Renee Tajima-Peña’s award-winning documentary takes inspiration from Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” recapturing the novel’s spirit in a fresh and different journey through a new American subculture. In MY AMERICA, the filmmaker recalls her childhood back in the days when her vacationing family would cross five state lines without ever catching a glimpse of another Asian face. Returning to the road more than twenty years later, she finds that new immigration has suddenly put Asian Americans on the map. Tajima-Peña sets out to search for the new American identity that will arise from the multi-culti hoi polloi that is America at the end of the twentieth century.
Up Next in First-Person Asian American: 11 Documentaries
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First Person Plural
Directed by Deann Borshay Liem • 2000 • United States
Starring Deann Borshay LiemIn 1966, Deann Borshay Liem was adopted by an American family and sent from Korea to her new home. Growing up in California, the memory of her birth family was nearly obliterated, until recurring dreams lead Deann ...
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I Was Born, But . . .
Directed by Roddy Bogawa • 2004 • United States
Taking its title from a silent classic by Yasujiro Ozu, this uncompromisingly personal diary film from Roddy Bogawa finds the director journeying through his memories, from his childhood in Hawaii to his involvement in the LA punk scene of the 1970...
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Oh, Saigon
Directed by Doan Hoang • 2007 • United States
Starring Nam Hoang, Van Tran, Anne HoangDoan Hoang’s family was airlifted out of Vietnam on April 30, 1975, on the last civilian helicopter to leave the country at the end of the Vietnam War. Years later, she sets out to uncover their story. Her fat...
