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Reviews
Drifting in Los Angeles (2013)
Intriguing documentary about Chinese students trying to find their own "Hollywood Dream" in LA film schools
What is the "Hollywood Dream"? Is it different for a person that was born under the assumption that we know exactly what this phrase means and a student that knows the American culture only through learning and marginal experience? How does trying to discover this impossible idea change who we are as people? Who we are as a not individuals, but groups with different cultural identities? This is the most basic concept behind "Drifting in Los Angeles", a documentary by Zhāo Lewis Liú, as it examines the lives of several Chinese students attending film school in Los Angeles, California.
Money, equality, social opinion, and happiness are among a few of the subjects touched upon in this film, as well as techniques and tools of the trade that shape every young film major into what they hope to become. For me, one of the most interesting arcs of the film is the general idea of how they're experience in America has impacted these students in the way in which they not only view the film industry, but how they view themselves. Some of the students interviewed straightforwardly admitted to wanting to go back to China instead of trying to stay and try to work in America. Here, not only do some of the students feel that they are discriminated against, but they feel as though the film industry is pushing towards taught conformity and ideals, only the truly great able and willing to stand out and go against the grain. As an American, I had not thought of this before. Is what we consider the film industry merely a byproduct of what a few intellectuals want us to believe? These experiences have become a time in these students lives in which they find pieces of themselves in how others react and respond to them in a different culture.
But, by far, the thing that interested me the most was that this film did not merely reflect upon how these students feel that they are outcasts, but the near epiphany of the director that most of the students he spoke to felt hindered, handicapped, in the American society because of where they came from and how others treat them for this. Throughout the film there are splices of works from the students interviewed, powerful and beautiful original pieces of film that reflect this differential treatment and the impact it has on these students. As the director himself so aptly puts: " (the short films of the students) all featured a character with a disability or severe illness. This shared theme reveals their collective experience of being a Chinese in America, an alien ethnic minority excluded from the mainstream." Thoughtful and interesting, I enjoyed this short film. As a lover of both American and International films, after watching "Drifting in Los Angeles" I cannot help but to wonder what the concept of "Hollywood" has made on foreign film workers. Is it just an idea that they are reflecting upon when they try to reproduce our iconic images, or are they reflecting upon their own personal experiences here in America and how it has changed their beliefs of what "Hollywood" and cinema, beneath the stars and glittering lights, truly is?
At Home (2012)
Interesting fictional portrayal of Asian male Lu's experience with life, race, and religion on a certain, peculiar day.
The first thing that caught my attention was the sound/music that was used throughout the film. It sounds appropriately like a metronome, like the gentle repetitious back and forth of life and time
like this all happens A LOT, which is what we get from Lu's plight, especially when he gets locked out by Britney and meets a missionary named Joshua that seems desperately interested in trying to share the word with Lu, a Buddhist. From bra flicking and whistling while he pees, offering his roommate food he cooked even though he knows she'll say know, this is all seemingly enacted weekly, if not daily. The same music is heard when Lu explains he feelings about the Bible, which is taken from the others with awkward silence and looks that suggest that they feel shame not in their being wrong, but in Lu being wrong. When we cease to hear the music, it's almost as if THIS is when the true story waiting to be told begins, THIS is where something out of the ordinary will happen. And it does. No more silly Lu mistakes. No more day to day.
Another large aspect of the film that stands out is the use of race. There are three races of men characterized in the film: a Chinese man (Lu) who is laid back, forgetful, redundant, and with a general lack of bias and pretense; a Caucasian man (Joshua) who is persistent in wanting to talk with Lu and Britney with obvious ties to the Christian religion and biases; a black man (Michael) who also comes off as slightly aggressive in delivery, as well as goofy and potentially obnoxious with his own sense of bias. This is not to say that the film portrays one race as superior to others, but rather works interestingly off of what could be stereotypes and potentially the writer's own experiences. This is similarly seen in the religion aspect of the film.
Other small things that I really liked were the minute eye rolls on the behalf of Lu, almost a coping mechanism, helping for the watcher to relate, the breaking of the fourth wall at one point during the conversation of religion, pulling the viewer into the debate and causing us to feel judged as well, and the simplicity of the title that adds to the monotony.
The biggest problem that I had with "At Home" was in some of the line delivery by some of the actors, a few parts not entirely clear at first listening, as well as a few moments when the actor didn't present the lines in a way completely believable to the character.
Overall I thought it was a fun, short film to analyze.
City of Literature (2011)
A short documentary about Iowa Ciy, Iowa as one of the few "cities of literature" through residents from around the world.
I think one of the things that I liked the most about City of Literature was that I didn't feel as though the director was trying to justify WHY Iowa City is one of the very few cities of literature. That is to say, it wasn't all "nice" things about the city, but rather some of it wasn't even about Iowa City at all but instead the people there and their individual experiences, good or bad. There were comments that didn't directly reflect Iowa City as a serene place as some might have earlier suggested, the majority of the camera shots detailing the place in a candid and almost ideal way. Each person had something different to say. In addition to this, the documentary did not focus on the history of the city nor the writing programs offered, but rather on the people that help to make it such an articulate and literary locale, reflecting the city through the eyes of the individuals that brought it to such a level of fame as well as those that this honored title attracts. The city is not merely one of books and art but of sciences and law too. This fact is illustrated through the anecdotes of the various residents from around the world that call Iowa City "home".
The one thing that I am certain that I loved the most was that there is an undeniable, subtle underlying sense of façade and something not so pretty beyond all of these colorful trees and poetically inspiring words that transcend languages and all typical meaning.