Wednesday, March 29 - 6:30 pm
The
recipient of a Special Jury Prize at the San Diego Asian Film Festival last
year, Reunification documents the
legacy of a family's immigration to Los Angeles from Hong Kong. This feature-length
documentary gives an insider view on the contemporary Asian American immigrant
experience, divorce and family psychology.
Alvin Tsang turns the camera on his own family, cautiously prodding for
answers, but fully acknowledging that the only closure he can get will be from
deciding for himself how to move on. Reunification will be screened on
Wednesday, March 29 at 6:30 p.m. in Crowell Public Library’s Barth Community
Room.
The film presents a personal
narrative that not only investigates the financial and emotional struggles of
contemporary migration, but also offers deep insight into divorce and its effects
on children, parent-child relationships, communication gaps, and the children's
need for a healing narrative "after the storm." It is an exploration of many unresolved years
that moves across different channels and modes, bending into labor histories
and Hong Kong’s colonial trajectories. Engaging post-screening discussions have
allowed audiences from all backgrounds to share their own personal stories
surrounding immigration, divorce and family relationships, mental health, and
filmmaking as a way of healing.
Alvin Tsang is a graduate of University of California, San Diego’s Visual
Arts department where he also began his career as a film editor. He served as
co-producer and post-supervisor for Ermena Vinluan’s award-winning documentary,
Tea & Justice, about the first
female Asian-American NYPD officers on the force. Tsang filmed and edited a documentary short
profiling legendary independent film director John Sayles’s making of his film Amigo (2010) about the
Philippine-American War. He serves as a video documentarian for the pioneering
artist Meredith Monk and The Guggenheim Museum NYC, and has created promos for
several of Michael Kors’s fashion collections. Tsang’s other films include the
shorts Fish (2010) and Preservation (2011). Reunification
is his first feature. Come to Crowell Library on Wednesday, March 29 for an enlightening, cinematic experience with Alvin Tsang. Light refreshments will be served.
