In the article, Moving the Image: Asian American Independent Filmmaking: 1970-1990 by Renee Tajima, the author’s main thesis is that Asian American filmmakers struggled to develop feature films and gain popularity throughout the years. This struggle was due to expressing the Asian American experience while trying to gain popularity and trying to develop their own form of cinema. The author also shows this through the development of Asian American films as mainstream media evolves.
In the late 1960’s and 1970’s, when minority groups began to vocalize their struggles and beliefs, Tajima states that many Asian American filmmakers striven for their works to “[embody] the energy of the Asian American political movement and sought to be a voice for Asian American people” (Tajima, 14). Although these films “[succeeded] in portraying Asian American culture working class” (17), Asian American filmmakers were not accepted into popular media institutions at the time. In order to gain the finances to be accepted into more popular media institutions such as theaters, and public television carriage, Asian American filmmakers needed to broaden their audience because “the Asian American community itself could not, and would not provide the sufficient financial basis to support production” (21). By working with coalitions of local community organizations, the filmmakers were able to show local screenings of their films, and their sponsors grew in the early 1980’s as they gained more favor. This shows that Asian American filmmakers needed to improve on their works in order to gain more interest from their audience and sponsors, but they also had to still had to maintain the voice they held for the Asian American community.
Tajima describes the different types of styles Asian American filmmakers went through over the years. One of the first film styles they used were “often raw by necessity and even, consciously so” (20). At this time, most films were artistic and fluid, so this style was unique and challenged the normal cinema practice. The filmmakers chose this style because they were more interested in a social change rather than the artistic portion of films. Due to this style being “anti-slick,” many of the films created this way were unsuccessful. This goes back to the point where filmmakers had to balance between being a voice for the community and having a mass audience.
A key concept Tajima references is the Asian Americans following along with other minority groups’ advancements. When institutions wanted minority groups to speak about their issues, many artists of color, including Asian Americans, were skeptical. The author makes references about affirmative action and how it resulted in Asian American cinema. This inferences that Asian American filmmakers rose in popularity alongside other artists of color. Tajima also states that many Asian American film making had a “duel heritage” (14). Many of the films created had a mix of Asian American ideologies and other minority group ideologies.
Another concept referenced was the Asian American voice. Tajima states that Asian American films were supposed to show the ideologies of the Asian American community. She goes more in depth with this topic as she explains the different styles Asian American filmmakers had. She shows the development of films being purely for social change to ones that mix different film elements to express Asian American culture. This shows that although the filmmakers developed different techniques over time, the message behind them still stays the same.
The authors idea of challenging the norm connects to the documentary, Forbidden City, U.S.A. directed by Arthur Dong. The documentary talks about a nightclub called the Forbidden City where Asian American singers and dancers performed. The nightclub became popular because Asian Americans performing was unheard of at the time. Along with that, performers challenged the norm by performing different cultural dances that weren’t Asian. This connects to Tajima’s idea because both Asian American filmmakers and performers were unpopular at the time. They both had to compete with Caucasian rivals who gain more publicity and popularity due to racial boundaries. However, both became more popular overtime; however, they became popular is similar, but different ways. The nightclub challenged the stereotype by performing different cultural dances while filmmakers challenged the media industry by developing different styles of film making in order to express the ideology of the Asian American.