The Slanted Screen
I got my last Netflix pick a few weeks ago and it’s been sitting around since then. I popped the DVD into the player tonight and watched the hour long documentary. If you have not seen the film, it is worth the rent. It is about Asian-American males in film and television. Obviously I know that Asians are not seen on screen very often (unless you count porn) but I didn’t know much about the history of Asian-Americans on screen. The documentary doesn’t go into great detail about the films but there are a lot of interviews with several Asian-American actors and other film related people. Some I know of like Bobby Lee from Mad TV and the guy from “21 Jumpstreet”. I loved that show by the way and now have an urge to rewatch all of the episodes. The other interviewees are older and I have never seen them or their movies. I now need to do some Netflix hunting down of these movies and catch up on some Asian-American history.
Despite my excitement of seeing “21 Jumpstreet” clips, watching this made me pretty sad. I realized how little I see Asians. I flip channels and stop on any Asian face I see even if its the worst show ever written. Even if its some Asian woman on QVC selling the latest collection of crap. The film brings up the fact that there isn’t much of a niche in Hollywood for Asian actors. A study was done about what roles were expected of different minorities in Hollywood. For African-American and Latinos expectations were to see them as janitors, criminals- the stereotypical roles. For Asians there were no expectations. We are unseen and unheard. It almost feels as though we are invisible, non-existent. Too foreign to know what American culture is, therefore how can we portray it? Pretty depressing, huh? Even in our modern, PC preaching society, the struggle remains.
If you rent or buy this, let me know what you think. Watch the extra features also. The panel discussion is interesting, especially if you’re interested in film.
