Directed by Janice Tanaka • 1992 • United States
Through a brilliant collage of interviews, family photographs, archival footage and personal narration, Japanese American video artist Janice Tanaka documents her search for her father after a forty-year separation. The two reunited when Tanaka found her father living in a halfway house for the mentally ill. Telling the moving story of her search as well as what she discovered about history, cultural identity, memory and family, WHO’S GOING TO PAY FOR THESE DONUTS, ANYWAY? is a rare look at the connections between racism and mental illness.
Up Next in First-Person Asian American: 11 Documentaries
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a.k.a. Don Bonus
Directed by Spencer Nakasako and Sokly Ny • 1995 • United States
Starring Sokly NyWorking in collaboration with veteran filmmaker Spencer Nakasako, Sokly Ny (a.k.a. “Don Bonus”), an eighteen-year-old Cambodian refugee growing up in public housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, documents his sen...
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My America . . . or Honk If You Love ...
Directed by Renee Tajima-Peña • 1997 • United States
Starring Renee Tajima-Peña, Victor WongIntoxicating 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 n...
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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 ...
