Story by Charmaine Ng

Photo Courtesy of DisOrient.

From April 23 until April 25, DisOrient, Oregon’s premiere Asian American film festival, will be running at Eugene’s Bijou Art Cinemas. The Chinese American Benevolent Association program will kick off its fifth-year anniversary with Mr. Sadman – with director Patrick Epino in attendance – and an opening reception at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art afterward.

DisOrient’s selection this year jumps across many genres. Friday night features a satire involving a Saddam Hussein body-double seeking happiness in the United States. Sunday afternoon’s series livens things up with an audacious short on middle-aged Hawaiian women obsessed with a Korean actor’s jaw-dropping looks. Ethos grabbed a sneak peek at a few films, so read on for a preview and interviews with the directors. Check out the PDF of the full schedule.

Why Am I Doing This? – Saturday 2:45pm – 118 min.

Sponsored by the University of Oregon’s Asian Pacific American Student Union.

What do actors and comedians both face every day? Rejection. Driven by his experiences with failure, director/writer/editor/actor Tom Huang takes a lighthearted, yet stark, look at the ups and downs of following your passion in Hollywood. Lester (Anthony Montgomery, Star Trek: Enterprise) cracks jokes about Jews being judged at hot dog stands, while doling out parking tickets. Tony (Tom Huang, freshmen) auditions for roles that automatically require an accent, paying the bills by donning a Spider-man outfit at children’s birthday parties.

Huang has been there: “I discovered that even at UCLA, which is like almost half-Asian, there were no parts for me. The only parts I could audition for was as a delivery boy or…as a girl. Seriously.”

Huang is currently gearing up for the film’s Los Angeles theater run in May and the DVD release in July. He is also working on a comic book/supernatural movie/web-series with Harry Shum, Jr., from Glee.

See the Why Am I Doing This? trailer.

A Village Called Versailles – Saturday 6:00pm – 68 min.

The focus of post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans has been the lives of affected African Americans—but what about the Vietnamese? After being displaced by the flood, the Versailles neighborhood of war refugees and young adults flocked back to their homes and dreamed up a redevelopment scheme. Suddenly, Mayor Nagin declared plans to dump toxic Katrina debris in a landfill, located only two miles away from Versailles. Follow a community that unites across ages and backgrounds as they fight back against an overextension of political power.

Director S. Leo Chiang hopes that the documentary will show people who feel voiceless that they can take action and overcome unfairness.

“You need to find a way to be sustainable, which is going to allow you to make more films,” Chiang advises.

If this resonates with you, drop into Lillis 111 at 4:30PM Friday for a workshop on the experience of social justice filmmaking and the obstacles that creators face.

See the A Village Called Versailles trailer.

Read Charmaine’s firsthand account of the event.