Sunday, April 25, 2010

Disorient? What?

I was notified of a film festival called DisOrient?
Hmmm is this a festival showing films of people who have no sense of direction?

dis·o·ri·ent (ds-ôr-nt, -r-)
tr.v. dis·o·ri·ent·ed, dis·o·ri·ent·ing, dis·o·ri·ents
To cause (a person, for example) to experience disorientation.

Adj. 1. disoriented - having lost your bearings; confused as to time or place or personal identity; "I frequently find myself disoriented when I come up out of the subway"; "the anesthetic left her completely disoriented"

2. disoriented - socially disoriented; "anomic loners musing over their fate"; "we live in an age of rootless alienated people"

So I find out that it's an Asian film festival.. this is what their about us page says:

DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon is a community, grassroots, and volunteer-run film festival committed to presenting honest portrayals of the diversity of the Asian American experience. We believe in the power of film to educate, positively transform our community, and challenge the negative stereotypes of the 'Oriental' presented by mainstream media. We use the W.E.B. DuBois standard of "for us, by us, or about us" when selecting new and exciting films for our festival.


For us, by us, or about us sounds pretty selfish to me. And how is it that an Asian role in an American movie is stereotypical but a movie with 100% Asians is not? Are these 100% not doing Asian things? Are they doing stereotypical white things?

I looked through the film program and the movies look pretty good. It truly is an honest portrayal of the Asian American experience. I don't think we need to show our diversity or show that we're DisOrient! whatever that means.

Silly name for a festival.

No comments: