June 1 event: Changing Media Images of Asian Americans

Join OCA-OC and MANAA for an evening with famous Asian American actors discussing their experiences in Hollywood and their efforts to change the way mainstream media portrays Asian Americans.

Date: June 1, 2010

Time: 6pm (Registration and Networking)

7pm (Panel Discussion Program)

Location: University Club, UC Irvine

801 East Peltason Dr., Irvine CA

Cost: $5 for members, $15 for non-members

For more information, email: rsvp@oca-oc.org

Screening of Saving Face on May 23

Join API Equality LA for a screening of Saving Face on May 23 1:30pm at Bruggemeyer Library in Monterey Park, 318 S Ramona Ave. Saving Face (2004, 96 min) is about a Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother who are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.

PANEL DISCUSSION FOLLOWING THE SCREENING
**Ming-Yuen S. Ma, Associate Professor in Media Studies at Pitzer College in Claremont;
**Tim Dang, Producing artistic director of East West Players, “the nation’s pre-eminent Asian American theater troupe”;
**Noel Alumit, Los Angeles Times best-selling author of Letters to Montgomery Clift and Talking To the Moon

The panelists will be addressing issues of Asian Pacific Islanders in cinema and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people in the Asian Pacific Islander community.

Free popcorn and kuri manju at the screening and discussion!

Saving face can't make you safe. Talk about HIV.

We recently heard from The Banyan Project about their new campaign, "Saving face can't make you safe. Talk about HIV." In honor of National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, we wanted to take this opportunity to share their public service announcement and some facts about the threat of HIV/AIDS in Asian American communities.

KEY FACTS ABOUT HIV AND A&PIs:

• 1 in 3 Asians & Pacific Islanders living with HIV don’t know it
• Over two-thirds of Asians and over half of Pacific Islanders have never been tested for HIV
• Between 2001 and 2004, Asian and Pacific Islander men had the largest percentage increase in new HIV infections, more than any other racial and ethnic group
• Between 2001 and 2006, the number of new HIV infections among young gay and bisexual Asian and Pacific Islander men more than doubled

To learn more about this project, please join the conversation at www.banyantreeproject.org

MANAA responds to Frank Marshall's UGO.com comments

The Media Action Network for Asian Americans would like to respond to Frank Marshall's comments that "Paramount has since been in regular dialogue with Asian American advocacy groups including the Japanese American Citizens League and the Media Action Network for Asian Americans to ensure that such a mistake does not happen in the future.” Although we are pleased to see that Marshall admit that their use of third-party casting agents resulted in casting language that was “poorly worded and offensive,” their dialogue with Asian American advocacy groups on the issue of discriminatory casting in The Last Airbender have been far from productive.

MANAA, Asian American advocacy groups, and members of the Asian American community contacted the producers of The Last Airbender in early 2009. In the letters, voicemails, and emails, producers were made aware that the casting language "Caucasian or any other ethnicity" was discriminatory, and that this language had clearly affected the initial cast of lead actors. After over a year of ignoring public concerns over this casting language as well as the production's cultural competency as a whole, it is disingenuous for Frank Marshall to trot out his iteration of the casting language to excuse the production's repeated gaffes. The phrase "Caucasian or any other ethnicity"—language that would be unacceptable for any job posting that was truly open to all races—was used on every major casting website and document, including Paramount's own. The resultant casting reinforces a double standard and glass ceiling where it is acceptable for a white actor to portray any ethnicity, but Asian American actors cannot even portray characters of their own ethnicity. M. Night Shyamalan’s recent dismissive comments to UGO.com that the casting is "more than [fans] could have expected" in terms of diversity are indicative of the production's failure to recognize the true discriminatory impact of their casting decisions.

In early 2009, MANAA and other Asian American advocacy groups repeatedly asked for a meeting to discuss the casting and depiction of cultures in the movie. The only response MANAA and other groups received was a letter from the production anonymously signed "The Producers." We have received no indication that "these mistakes will not occur in the future" because the production has never spoken with us. The production was not willing to meet with concerned Asian American advocacy groups, even though they were willing to fly Airbender fans to New York City for a catered breakfast with Shyamalan and lodging at a luxury hotel.

The “regular dialogue” Marshall mentions was actually the result of a protest over racial humor, hate crime jokes, and the use of the word "Jap" in another Paramount Pictures film, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. Due to outrage over this other Paramount production, we have been able to discuss the casting situation of The Last Airbender with the newly-promoted Paramount executives. In November 2009, Paramount promised MANAA diversity statistics and a pre-screening of The Last Airbender to assuage our concerns about the film's diverse depictions. Despite the fact that The Last Airbender has been prescreened to at least two groups, we have been repeatedly rebuffed in our requests to see the version shown to these groups. Although it has been five months since that November meeting, we hope Paramount still plans to live up to its promises.

all the great APAs on Lost

Two articles about Lost and all of our favorite Asian American actors on the show:

Melinda Hsu Taylor

In Part 1 of our Lost interviews, writer/producer Melinda Hsu Taylor talks about her favorite characters to write for and her affinity for the sci-fi genre.

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse

Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse talk about how Lost came to feature so many diverse Asian and Asian American actors.

Dancing Across Borders

The film Dancing Across Borders, a young man's journey from Cambodia to the ballet stage in America, opens in LA this Friday. Click on this image to enlarge for more info.

Landmark Nuart

11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, just west of the 405 Freeway

West Los Angeles, CA 90025

(310) 281-8223

Daily at 5:10, 7:30 and 9:50pm. Plus Friday and Saturday matinees at 12:30 and 2:50pm

*Filmmaker Anne Bass in person 7:30 & 9:50pm Friday, April 16 and Saturday, April 17, 2010

(Q&A after 7:30pm shows, intro only for 9:50pm shows)

Also Playing at:

Edwards Westpark 8

3755 Alton Parkway

Irvine, CA 92606

(949) 622-8609

Times TBD

2010 LA Asian and Pacific Islander Writing Contest

M. Night Shyamalan misses the point

M. Night Shyamalan on Racial Diversity in The Last Airbender

For those of us waiting for M. Night Shyamalan to address our concerns about the discriminatory casting in The Last Airbender, this latest article on ugo.com reveals some of his thinking on the matter. Unfortunately, it seems he really doesn't understand why everyone's so upset.

One good thing is that he admits that he's heard about the protest. But to respond to our calls for people of color as heroes, he simply points to the racial indeterminacy of anime -- as if that justifies the casting of only "European"-featured heroes. He completely neglects to mention that they specifically cast for white actors, instead implying that they were really trying to populate their world with a mix of races. Which would be hard to do with the casting announcement for "Caucasian or any other ethnicity."

He also states, "Maybe they didn’t see the faces that they wanted to see but, overall, it is more than they could have expected. We’re in the tent and it looks like the U.N. in there." False. We expected to see people of color as the heroes, rather than as the background actors and the villains, so we are not getting even close to these expectations. Also, if he were true to his metaphor of the U.N., he would have sat people of color at the table next to white people, as equals.

Finally, when prodded about how "the only characters of color are baddies," he responds "It's called irony." It's hard to read this remark since it doesn't make any sense, but the most disappointing thing is that he truly doesn't seem to take this critique seriously.

Kudos to Jordan Hoffman for getting responses to these "touchy" questions (except for the conspiracy theorist comment...), and a big thumbs down to M. Night Shyamalan for failing to respond appropriately.

Working your way up in TV: An Entertainment Career Workshop

For recent college graduates and early-career individuals:

You're invited to the annual Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Diversity Committee Career Workshop on the evening of April 19th. The event will be at the TV Academy, with check-in from 6:00 - 7:30pm. Event will start at 7:30pm and proceed until 10:00pm.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Entry-level people who are aspiring to become Network & Studio Executives, Producers, Agents, Writers, Directors, Production Staff; anyone seeking entry-level positions including PAs, assistants, interns, and those trying to move up the ladder. Come in business attire and bring a pen and notepad in a leather portfolio.

Our goal is to get new folks into the system, train them and nurture them toward a successful entertainment career and build more fresh creative voices which ultimately impact society.

MONDAY, APRIL 19, 2010

7:30 - 10:00 PM

ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES

Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre

5230 Lankershim Blvd.

North Hollywood, CA 91601

RSVP to: atascareerworkshop@yahoo.com

Join us online!

MANAA finally jumped on the new media/social software bandwagon (hey, it's never too late right?)...join us on Twitter and Facebook! We promise to have exciting updates on everything that we're doing. Join us and get in on the action!

50 Most Racist Movies

This list of the 50 Most Racist Movies in Complex magazine is pretty great. Of course, we disagree with the subtitle "you didn't think were racist," since MANAA's long been busy pointing out the racism in movies like Dragonball, 21, The Last samurai, 16 Candles, and of course number one on the list Breakfast at Tiffany's.

But it's always great to see a compilation like this. Reminds us all that racism is indeed systemic in our culture and particularly in the media, surrounding us daily with images that are stereotypical and problematic. Check out the list and then think about how many more movies could be added to the list every year. Staggering, isn't it? Most of all, we just agree with the list's imperative -- "Turn on your racist radars, people!"

Seeing ourselves in the media

If you're on Facebook, you might have noticed that your friends have lately been changing their profile picture to "their celebrity doppelganger." Something you might NOT have noticed is that people of color haven't really been playing along. Why not? Maybe because when they try to think of celebrities who look like them, the list is just too small. While most white people can think of a celebrity who shares their hair color and length, the shape of their eyes, their smile, it's much less likely that all of your Asian friends happen to look like Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, or John Cho. What are the odds, really?

Yet another moment when we realize that something is missing from our media landscape -- the faces of people who look like us and our friends. As it is, most Asian people have probably been told that they DO look like Lucy Liu or Sandra Oh, even if they look nothing like them (all look same right? wrong!). This Facebook meme offers a perfect opportunity to really think about what kind of people populate the media and what kind of people are missing. What would it feel like if you never saw anyone who looked like you, sounded like you, shared your experiences and histories in the media? If you never felt like one day you could be a famous celebrity?

Lunar New Year Celebration

MANAA is proud to be a Community Co-Sponsor of OCA-OC's 2010 Lunar New Year's Celebration this Saturday, Jan. 23rd at 6pm at the Atrium Hotel in Irvine, CA. Join MANAA and the Organization of Chinese American's Orange County chapter ring in the Year of the Tiger!

Please register at: http://www.oca-oc.org/?page_id=707

Jin Yoo-Kim Wins 2009 MANAA Scholarship

Jin Yoo-Kim and board member Lori Lopez meet at USC for congratulations on Yoo-Kim’s scholarship.

MANAA’s Student Scholarship Committee recently selected Jin Yoo-Kim to receive the 2009 scholarship of $1000. The committee was impressed with the professional quality of her numerous films, as well as the high praise given to her by her mentors.

“I was jumping for joy when I heard the news,” said Yoo-Kim. “The first thing I did was call my mom and dad because I wanted to tell them that I’m really an Asian American filmmaker and they don’t have to feel sad that I might not make it someday. I’m doing what I love.”

Yoo-Kim, an MFA student at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, has an impressive resume of films under her belt. Her work spans all genres and styles, from a documentary called Bearing Dreams on the prophetic dreams that Korean women have about the destiny of their unborn children, to Pretty, a fictional short about human trafficking and child prostitution, to Raider Nation, a humorous look at an obsessed football fan. She was also the recipient of an Armed with a Camera Fellowship at Visual Communication.

“My parents always wanted me to work in the family business,” she said. “But the turning point for my dad was when I had my picture in a Korean American newspaper promoting a film festival. He bought all the newspapers he could and gave it to all his family members. I saw how proud he was, and I knew he was going to let me do this now if I just push harder.”

One of Yoo-Kim’s goals with her work is to combat the stereotypical images of Asian Americans in films today. Although she is one of only three Asian Americans in her semester at USC, she strives to use all Asian American actors and crew. On her last set, all but 3 of the 20 or so crew members were Asian American. It’s a role that she thinks will land her the humorous award of “Most Asians in a Film” from her classmates, but she’s proud to take it on.

“The most Asian Americans I’ve seen in films is during my Asian American studies classes when they showed documentaries, and it just felt so natural,” she said. “I wanted to do that. I wanted to make Asian Americans look like part of society and not use them for any other reason.”

Working with Asian American actors is a pleasure for her because they are so excited to be working in an industry that often rejects them. She is also impressed with their creativity and thankful for their contributions to each project, which she feels are very collaborative in nature.

However, sometimes she struggles to convey her perspective in a world where Asian American experiences and identities are so misunderstood. On past films, her advisors have suggested that she add more ninja noises, gong sounds, or bonsai trees to her set dressing—Asian stereotypes that she refused to accept. Yoo-Kim also recalled a moment in class when the professor began talking about responsibility as a filmmaker.

“He said we should feel no responsibility about what we do because we’re creative and we shouldn’t hinder the artistic side. I totally disagreed with him,” she said. “I stood up and said I think as filmmakers we have an immense sense of responsibility because people watch film all over the world and it’s really powerful.”

Yoo-Kim’s latest film, called Cut the Fat, tells the story of a Korean girl who is bringing home her Korean boyfriend to meet her parents for the first time. She’s scared of her dad’s reaction, but she finds the strength to stand up to him. The film is based on some of her own experiences in seeking acceptance for her choices, and she’s excited because it’s not only what she considers her best work, but she is also planning on showing it to her dad at an upcoming screening.

“My parents are always worried about me. They tell me this industry isn’t right for me, that it’s not good for women. It’s a struggle,” she said.

Hopefully the MANAA Scholarship can help to validate her work and her struggles, and encourage her to continue bringing her unique perspective and talents to an industry that can definitely use them.

Hollywood Chinese

MANAA attended a sneak preview of the Hollywood Chinese exhibit at the Chinese American Museum in LA and we were thrilled by the impressive collection of memorabilia. Strolling past the countless images of Fu Manchu, yellowface, Charlie Chan and other early representations of Asian Americans was a reminder of the fact that the things we are fighting for today -- fair representation, Asian American heroes, non-stereotypical roles -- are historical battles that have affected Asian Americans ever since the first immigrants entered this country. We definitely recommend checking it out for an educational and entertaining afternoon.

Also be sure to mark your calendar for this Thursday -- a screening of the documentary will be followed by talk with Arthur Dong himself. If you can't make the screening, copies of the DVD are also available for purchase.

Hollywood Chinese Film Screening and Curator Talk with Arthur Dong
Thursday, December 3, 2009 / 6–8 p.m.
CAM at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument

MANAA letter regarding Red Dawn remake

photo courtesy of www.reddawn2010.com

November 15, 2009
Dan Bradley, Director
c/o International Creative Management
10250 Constellation Boulevard - 7th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90067

Dear Mr. Bradley:

I am writing on behalf of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) because the plot of your new film “Red Dawn” has recently been brought to our attention by concerned community members. We are a non-profit organization dedicated to monitoring the media and advocating for balanced, sensitive, and positive depiction and coverage of Asian Americans. Since 1992, we have consulted with movie studios and met regularly with the top four TV networks to convey the importance of diversity in the media.

We are wary about the upcoming remake of 1984 Cold War classic “Red Dawn” because of the decision to portray China as the primary military invading force. Having enemy Chinese soldiers on screen without providing positive Asian American representation as a counterbalance propagates anti-Asian American sentiment for viewers of the film. The Asian American community has long been plagued by racial profiling and is among the largest growing target of hate crimes in the United States. There is a danger in depicting large groups of individuals of Asian descent as a common enemy.

Hollywood films seldom feature Asian Americans in positive prominent roles. This remake of Red Dawn contains a plot that makes prudent casting especially crucial to avoid sending a wrong message about a war between races. Our intention is not to prematurely condemn the film, but to prevent potentially ill-informed decisions that could adversely affect the Asian American community. Therefore, we would like to invite you to meet with us and to contact us as a resource. Again, we only wish to urge the filmmakers to make their casting decisions with care and sensitivity. Your time is greatly appreciated and we look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Phil Lee
President

cc: Contrafilm

Thanksgiving Day Greetings

Ha, I don’t know if anyone is actually reading this on Turkey Day, but since it’s been a while since I’ve posted something as MANAA President, I’m taking a break from the cooking and eating to wish you all a “Happy Thanksgiving!” And also to post some news after last week’s monthly meeting.

The group had a fun time discussing Asian Americans in television, including shows like Glee, So You Think You Can Dance, Trauma, Three Rivers, and Law and Order: SVU. Generally, the reports this month were positive, but of course, that’s just a small percentage of what’s out there! (If you have a show that you want to report on, come out to the next meeting!)

Speaking of reports, the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition will be releasing their annual TV diversity report card in early December. The report card rates diversity (regarding Asian and Pacific Islanders) for all the major TV network companies. We’ll be posting more info about that on the blog shortly, and we can use your help to publicize it!

A couple weeks ago, we posted the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) release about the big meeting with Paramount, but at the MANAA meeting, we got to hear even more of the details. It’s too much to write here, but it was a productive meeting, with both The Goods AND The Last Airbender being talked about. Plus the outlook for future communication with Paramount is looking pretty good. I really would like to thank the folks at MANAA, as well all our friends and colleagues, for all their hard work to keep the dialog going about both those movies.

And speaking of thanks, that brings us back to “Happy Thanksgiving!” I hope that all of you out there have a great holiday weekend, and remember that there is a lot to be thankful for.

Phil Lee
President, MANAA

P.S. Ninja Assassin is out this weekend! Is anyone going to see it? Someone pointed out to us that all the billboard ads for this movie cut off the main character’s image above the nose, and questioned why they didn’t include his whole face: was someone worried that it looked “too Asian” or just not tough enough? It’s an interesting question. Actually, I believe even back in Korea, when Rain was starting out, the studios rejected him because they didn’t like his look! Of course, he's come a long way since then. As much as we like to see Asian American actors get starring roles (the American studios often pick established stars from Asian hoping that it leads to more box office globally), I think it would be great if Ninja Assassin leads to further success in the U.S. for the Korean pop star.

Happy with BD Wong role lately

We were so excited to see BD Wong given more meaty roles lately on Law & Order: SVU. He had very substantial roles in the episode involving child pornography and also the one involving a therapist who controlled the minds of teenage children. We look forward to seeing him in future substantial roles as opposed to his usual role of offering brief psychological interpretations in a single scene. Maybe someday he'll also be given a scene opposite Joel de la Fuente, who is also a great actor!

We wrote a letter to the show runner to express our excitement at Wong being featured. If you'd like to do the same, feel free to send it to:

Mr. Dick Wolf
Creator, Law & Order: SVU
Wolf Films, Inc.
5801 West Side Avenue
North Bergen, NJ 07047

MANAA and JACL meet with Paramount

From JACL:

(Left to right: Bill Imada, Katie Martin Kelly, Guy Aoki, Adam Goodman, Craig Ishii, Floyd Mori)

On Thursday, the JACL was represented at a meeting with Paramount Pictures by Floyd Mori, National Executive Director, and Craig Ishii, Regional Director of the Pacific Southwest District. Paramount Pictures President and CEO, Adam Goodman had invited Mori to meet to discuss problems of racial stereotyping and racial casting by Paramount. Bill Imada, CEO of the IW Group (formerly Imada Wong Communications Group), and Guy Aoki, co-founder of MAANA (Media Action Network for Asian Americans), also attended the meeting that included Paramount executives, Sharon Keyser and Katie Martinelli. The meeting was a result of a letter Mori wrote to Goodman condemning the negative stereotype portrayed in the Paramount movie, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.

Goodman, who became the CEO of Paramount after the filming of the movie, had apologized for the racially demeaning scene and with this meeting had made good on his promise to meet with Mori and other community leaders. In the meeting Goodman committed to further dialog and requested that ongoing meetings be held to monitor and evaluate Paramount's performance in providing a diverse platform in their productions.

Mori was pleased with the outcome of the meeting and stated, "Adam Goodman was receptive to our concerns and expressed an attitude of further cooperation to make Paramount a model for reflecting the diversity that exists in contemporary society. We look forward to a close working relationship with the studio in eliminating the perpetuation of negative stereotyping of ethnic minorities. Through this dialog, we hope to avoid the type of debacle which resulted from The Goods."

Letter regarding "The Weapon"

MANAA recently heard that David Henrie, a white actor, had been cast in the film version of "The Weapon" as the Asian American hero Tommy Zhou (thanks, folks at Racebending!). It was frustrating to hear that yet another opportunity for an Asian American lead actor had disappeared, and we wondered what was to become of the strong elements of Asian American issues that had characterized the comic book. We are hoping that there is still a chance that the part will be given to an Asian American man, or that the Asian American elements of the story can still be heard.

----------------------------

October 2, 2009

Randy Greenberg
Platinum Studios, Inc.
11400 West Olympic Blvd, 14th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90064

Dear Mr. Greenberg:

I’m writing on behalf of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) because we heard about the recent casting news for your film adaptation of “The Weapon.” We are a non-profit organization dedicated to monitoring the media and advocating for balanced, sensitive, and positive depiction and coverage of Asian Americans. Since 1992, we have consulted with movie studios and met regularly with the top four TV networks to convey the importance of diversity. To the point, it was extremely disappointing to learn that Tommy Zhou, the Chinese American main character from “The Weapon,” is being made into a Caucasian lead for your movie, and we would like to request a meeting to talk about these concerns with you.

You might be familiar with the controversy over the movie casting for the live-action adaptation of Nick-elodeon’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” While the original show was clearly inspired by Asian and Inuit influences and populated with Asian characters, Paramount cast three of the four main characters with Caucasian actors (initially it was all four). There has been a tremendous backlash from fans of the show, resulting in lost goodwill and support for the movie (e.g. www.racebending.com). Although The Last Airbender will not be in theaters until 2010, we’ve already seen one other movie tank at the box office after deviating from the source material and ethnic characters: Dragonball Evolution.

There have been signs of progress over the years. For example, Disney includes an Asian American character in the movie Up, and in various Disney Channel programs. Nevertheless, the Asian American community, as well as the movie-going public at large, are generally used to seeing Asian men depicted as villains. We rarely have the opportunity to see Asian American heroes we can celebrate.

We urge you to reconsider the decision to turn Tommy Zhou into a Caucasian character. Audiences do support diverse casting, as well as compelling stories of minority heroes like Tommy, whose Asian heritage is integral to the plot itself. You have the opportunity to break down barriers and do something historic. Platinum Studios can also avoid doing a disservice to the fans, as Paramount has done with Avatar.

We are more than glad to be a resource to you, and invite you to have a meeting with us. We would like to have a dialogue and help make The Weapon a movie that comic book and superhero fans will be excited to see.

Sincerely,

Phil Lee
President