All I know is that I'm gonna back this and I hope you do too because this film needs to be made.
Writer/Producer and former executive at the Japanese American National Museum Koji Steven Sakai and filmmaker/cultural anthropologist Mustafa Rony Zeno, and producer Phinny Kiyomura are looking for your help to fund their newest film Executive Order 13800. This is a project that touches upon both of their passions for social Justice and for telling compelling human dramas.
Executive Order 13800 is inspired by the internment of Japanese American during World War II. But instead of happening 75 years ago, it is happening today with Muslim and Arab Americans.
EO13800 follows an Arab American family after a second major terrorist attack to hit the United States in one month. President Trump issues Executive Order 13800 which gives all Muslim Americans two weeks to report to a government site to register. During those two weeks, the family's world turns completely upside down. With the executive order, they instantly lose their civil rights -- such as new curfew laws prohibit them from going out after dusk, they are no longer able to gather or pray together, they can’t express their faith publicly and not to mention the constant threat of violence against them.
Both Koji and Mustafa have been working on this project for the past year. However, they abandoned it a year ago because it seemed too far-fetched. However, because of the results of the recent presidential election, they both now see that the scenario found in EO13800 could actually happen. Koji, being a descendant of a camp survivor, believes this is one of his most important projects he's ever worked on. He has made it his life's work to educate people about the camps and to ensure that what happened to his family never happens to anyone ever again.
It has a flexible goal and one month for the campaign down at Indigogo and seems to be making some nice traction which already shows the interest in this project, albeit they still have 85% of their goal to get too - so get on out and support this film project if this is down your alley.
As I was posting on my morning on FB this morning, it reminded me of a post I was going to do and the general thought that I do like to write and catalog things in the moment. I keep a lot of things for me, or just between family and close friends, just because they're normal day life, or things you don't need to share with other people, or are thinking about etc. - but I think there's a value in sometimes talking in that moment.
After you reflect on things, sometimes that visceral feeling, which is basic to so much gets lost and you can't always go back to it to truly do something with it. Sometimes there's rationalization versus reflection - at least for me - and I think there's value in sometimes showing those vulnerabilities - because life isn't always a win and sometimes that's what fuels it all. To do better. And sometimes it's those common losses, or hard days, or not out of the ordinary - but unexpected times - saying them - letting them know they exist - I think there is a power to that.
It's not always pretty. May not go as expected. But nothing is perfect. Sometimes you still have to weed. Sometimes it's just a different POV and you can't fix what you can't acknowledge and in a way you can't celebrate either because you haven't acknowledged what you're celebrating for.
First off I'm not gonna say I don't have things to learn, things to work on, etc. - not trying to play that game. And I'm not gonna say I don't listen to some old school rap at times that's like...err - I don't think I can defend that. Not saying that at all (but I also don't listen to it a ton anymore).
But with new music, new vibes, I just feel like when I hear Asian American dudes rapping and they're all like "I was fucking these bitches" - I just get turned off by a slick tune that has some lines in it like that.
In some ways I don't have this completely formulated and I'm kind of just thinking through a thought I was having a few weeks ago (or at various times throughout time) and all I can think to myself is - "Well, if someone's fucking you, you should be nice".
It's like if someone's tossing them some salad, that's really nice of them - because not everyone likes salad.
I'd be like "She's my queen."
She can still be nasty as a MF, but she can still be a queen (and I'm sure that in itself can be deconstructed - as can posts in this blog).
At the same time, I don't have anything against women like Raven Felix with that LatinX vibe going on doing what they do - because it's really none of my business in some ways, and I look at it as taking it back, etc. (although I've had conversations on whether or not a feminist can like the song and video above).
Like I said - I don't have this thought out - and I'm not saying all the dudes are misogynistic assholes - I just feel like they can say things differently, because it just kills the vibe.
And yes - I realize what I just did.
Which I guess just begs the question of language in general (for instance should I have starred everything above in the title?).
Just in case you haven't checked any of the AKA stuff out, you can watch aka SEOUL down at NBC News America right now for free (which I guess is the way it's supposed to be, because if they started charging, I would be like - what?). I know not everyone has dug everything - but sometimes the old ones just don't get the new ones, and the new ones, just don't respect the old ones, or the old ones don't think they respect the old ones.
Here's to one day the old ones and the new ones sitting down and having drinks and figuring some shit out.
No matter what you may think of the new film Moana - some people like it, some people don't - I thought I'd throw this out there from MANAA. I personally haven't seen the film and don't have a ton of thoughts on it myself right now.
LOS ANGELES-The Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) is enthusiastically supporting the new Disney motion picture Moana for using Pacific Islander talent at multiple levels in order to accurately reflect the values and culture of Pacific Islanders.
The computer animated film, which opens Wednesday, stars newcomer Auli’i Cravalho of Hawaii as the title character--the 16 year old daughter of the chief of Motonui who leaves the island to help save her people from starvation, seeking out the demi-God Maui (played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). It is directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, who oversaw The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), and Hercules (1997).
Five years in the making, the producers journeyed to Fiji, Samoa and Tahiti to do research, met with various Pacific Islander communities, hired initial writer Taika Waititi and Opetaia Foa’i to compose songs (along with Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mark Mancina), and Pacific Islander actors to voice just about every speaking character (Alan Tudyk plays a rooster and a villager).
“Moana is the gold standard for how movies should be made,” says MANAA board member Rakshak Sahni. “If you are making a film about Pacific Islanders, it is a given that you should hire Pacific Islanders both in front of and behind the camera. Yet in the past and present we have seen studios creating stories about Asians and Pacific Islanders but hiring White writers and White actors to perform or voice the roles.
“Christine Cadena (Senior Vice President, Multicultural Initiatives at The Walt Disney Studios) allowed MANAA and Pacific Islanders to see the film ahead of the critics, and we were touched and moved. It was humbling to see how producer Osnat Shurer and her team went to other cultures, learned as much as they could about them, and in collaboration with people from these communities created something beautiful of which they all can be proud.”
“Contrast that with the recent animated movie Kubo and the Two Strings,” says MANAA Founding President Guy Aoki, “where an extended Japanese family from medieval times was voiced entirely by white actors like Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Rooney Mara, Ralph Fiennes, and Brenda Vaccaro.”
“When many Pacific Islanders spoke up during a Q&A with Moana producer Osnat Shurer, they were in tears,” reported MANAA Vice President Miriam Nakamura-Quan. “They felt that Disney had somehow managed to combine three different cultures and values into one and present it accurately and authentically to a wider audience. Many related with the feisty, rebellious Grandma (Rachel House)--who encourages Moana to ignore the warnings and to ‘journey beyond the reef’ in order to save the people of Motonui—because they have grandmothers like that.”
Adds Aoki, “There isn’t a single white person in the entire movie. Disney had confidence in their story that they didn’t have to compromise--as many filmmakers do--feeling they needed a white character for the audience to identify with. We’re confident that children of all ages and backgrounds will identify with Moana, a girl who fearlessly accomplishes the seeming impossible because she feels it’s her duty to help her people. She’s certainly an inspiration and a role model for girls. Moana doesn’t even get a love interest in this story. She stands just fine on her own.
“The studio has gone out of its way to depict a culture that makes up only .5% of the U.S. population. We have to support such an endeavor, because it proves that in such ethnic stories, there are universal truths and experiences that audiences of all backgrounds can relate to. It’s a great movie to take the entire family to. I swore they combined real photography to shoot the ultra-clear beach scenes, but they were all computer-generated. We hope everyone will support Moana this Thanksgiving weekend.”
Disney has had a solid record of staying true to the Asian/Pacific Islander cultures it depicts in animated movies. MANAA gave Media Achievement Awards to Mulan (1998) and Lilo and Stitch (2002) and was very supportive of Up (2009), which co-starred then-8 year old unknown Japanese American actor Jordan Nagai as Russell, even though the part didn’t necessarily call for an Asian American.
MANAA, the only organization solely dedicated to advocating balanced, sensitive, and positive depiction and coverage of Asian Americans, was founded in 1992. It led nationwide protests against the film Rising Sun in 1993 and challenged Sarah Silverman’s use of “Chinks” in her joke on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” in 2001. Since 1999, as part of the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition, MANAA has met annually with the top four television networks pushing for more inclusion of Asian Americans. In 2015, it also promoted that vision with talent agencies ICM Partners, WME, Paradigm, and CAA.
Just a quick note on emails and releases, etc. - if you sent me something - err - I'm a little slow these days on some of those things...catching up soon.
If all of these White People coming out of the woods are just - well - here now (versus being put back under the rocks where they should be - and it truly doesn't surprise me at the end of the day that White America stood up for its White Ways, even though I had hoped for the better) - so be it.
But don't think I'm not coming out at you. I can puff out my chest just like you can White America.
You aren't walking all over me and I won't even come close to saying that you've won because everyone is looking to quash what's out there. If you haven't noticed no one is sitting down for this, and while you can point to a Trump Presidency for rationalization of your racism, guess what?
You're still going to lose your job. You're still going to be called out because it's already in motion - a better world than the one you're fighting for. You're still going to lose business because you don't get it. Voting for Trump - in secrecy and not admitting it may have won him the election, and there are definite repercussions, but thinking that it allows you on a personal level to get away with that?
It'll be denounced in the light of day when cowards always show that they are indeed cowards - because people still need to eat. They'll secretly vote for Trump and snicker in their back rooms, but they won't back you publicly.
I can't say I always do this, but I think at the end of the day, it's what I try for at the core - which is to add another viewpoint and voice because I believe that representation as an Asian American, on any level, in whatever view or speech, is important.
A lot of other people have shown me that just by example of living their lives and doing what they do as Asian Americans and sure, what's being said matters too - but sometimes only to a degree.
The slantyapolis/seftre blog has served millions of views trying to help in its own way, to give voice to the Asian and Asian American community, as well as document it, over the last 18 years. Sometimes op-ed, sometimes straight news, sometimes off the beaten path--the continued impetus remains that there's power in sharing voices and in sharing your own voice and reflecting that back into the communities you belong to.
If you're looking for the 2008 In Review Posts, the link list has been moved out, but you can still get to them all by following this link which pulls them up by label (they'll be in reverse so go to the oldest post to read them in order).
2007 In Review Posts
If you're looking for the 2007 In Review Posts, the link list has been moved out, but you can still get to them all by following this link which pulls them up by label (they'll be in reverse so go to the oldest post to read them in order).
