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TO OCT. 7
The pang of exile, the clash of cultures, the conflict between tradition-minded parents and children who embrace the ways of a new land—these are themes that don’t apply just to Asians in the Americas. So this year’s DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival doesn’t set its boundaries narrowly. Among the highlights are I for India, a documentary about a Punjabi doctor and his family who moved to Britain in 1966, intending to return; the film was assembled by youngest daughter Sandhya Suri from home movies made by her father and his sister, who stayed in India, and snippets of BBC coverage that suggest how unwelcoming the UK was. Set in 1970s Vancouver, the magical realist Eve and the Firehorse (pictured)follows the search of two first-generation Chinese-immigrant girls for spiritual comfort after their grandmother’s death; while Eve is inclined to meld Eastern and Western beliefs, as her mother does, older sister Karena becomes a zealous Catholic. Inspired by a traditional Vietnamese poem, Kieu is the tale of a recently arrived Vietnamese woman who finds work in a San Francisco massage parlor; the movie was produced as part of a filmmaking workshop that relied on a collective screenwriting and interviews with massage-parlor workers. Sita, a Girl From Jambu melds street theater and docudrama to reveal the plight of Nepalese girls sold into sexual slavery. There are also several films about immigration issues and cross-cultural romance, as well as four programs of short films. The D.C. Asian Pacific American Film Festival runs to Saturday, Oct. 7, at various venues. See Showtimes for venue information; see apafilm.org for a complete schedule and pricing information. (202) 330-5496. (Mark Jenkins)