UCLA Asian and Pacific Islander filmmakers showcased their work and discussed the struggles the communities face at the API Film Night on May 9.

Four creatives, made up of a mix of UCLA alumni and current students, presented their films and talked about the process behind their work at the James Bridges Theater. Before the films were shown, two organizers explained the importance of events such as the API film night and expressed gratitude to attendees. Over three hundred people RSVPed, said Adelle Yan, an alumnus who studied communications. Nancy Wang Yuen, the moderator for the night, said the event is important because it focuses on short films during a time when attention spans can be limited.

“We’re in a TikTok world, and I feel like Gen Z is missing out on these very quiet, not a lot of words, not plot-driven kind of films, and being able to see a short film and sit through it is so vital, I think, to being able to think outside of easy answers,” Yuen said. “These filmmakers really writing their own lives into it, and also trying to, I think, express their angst and their existential crisis through their films allows us to stop and consider what we’re going through.”

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Yuen added that she thinks people do not want to think about their existential crises because of how painful it can be. For example, Luke Lace – one of the filmmakers who presented their work – explored the struggles of taking care of an abusive grandmother. When Lace, a UCLA MFA alumnus, spoke about how he thought no one else shared his difficulties related to an abusive grandmother, Yuen said she resonated with his struggles because her grandmother was also abusive. She added that Lace’s portrayal of an abusive grandmother also subverts the stereotype that Asian grandmothers are idealized as being sweet.

Another filmmaker who showcased his work, Joshua David, centered his film around his grandmother, who he refers to as “lola,” according to the description of his film. He said the film took a significantly different direction when his lola died. During the question and answers segment of the event, Yuen asked David how the death of his grandmother impacted his directing of the film, adding that she cried when watching the film and noticed the humor, love and heartache. David said the film was originally seven minutes instead of thirteen minutes and was primarily about his lola eating, loving and praying. He added that once she died, the film helped him grieve.

“If we’re thinking about process too, I think it was a way for me to process my own grief, because I was very close to my grandmother, and as I said, she was my bestest friend,” David said. “I didn’t want to remove the humor out of it (the film) because I do think she was the funniest person I knew.”

Shizue Roche Adachi, one of the filmmakers who presented and a UCLA MFA student, said women of color in films often face struggles related to insufficient resources as opposed to white women who more frequently tackle existential issues. Adachi added that she wanted to highlight the existential crises women of color experience in her project, “Soft Animal,” a film that explored themes of sexual assault and motherhood.

“I was really interested in not salting a wound with this film, but really exploring, ‘What does it mean to reclaim a body joyfully?’ Especially in Asian womanhood, which so much of the violence I have experienced as an Asian woman is through fetishization and through sexualization,” Adachi said. “To have a woman who is grappling with that experience, which I resonate with – that’s where that comes from. And to do it in a messy, loud, sharp-edged way that I think, as an Asian woman, we so often aren’t offered that capacity to process ugly and to process rage, and so that was really at the heart of this piece for me.”

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Yuen asked Adachi what the significance of the main character resting their head on the other character’s shoulder was. Adachi said that scene was the first she imagined from the film and that she thought of two women on a bus with a character trait the other person did not have. One of the characters was learning how to become “soft,” and the laying of the shoulder is associated with peace, Adachi added. Solidarity and communication can come with information and gesture, Adachi said.

Mary May, a recent graduate of UCLA’s MFA program, said she hopes the stories shown at the event showcase the strength and unity of the API community. Yan said sharing personal stories to an audience requires courage and appreciates the filmmakers, cast and crew present at the event

“Thank you for your vulnerability and thank you for allowing us to show your truth,” Yan said. “We hope that with your continuous support, we can continue to celebrate API stories on evenings like this for many years to come.”