Blog 2 post – John Fong “Beyond Finishing The Game”

The main thesis of this article is that with all the challenges present, especially getting out to make people aware of, Asian American films had used grassroots strategy to achieve and succeed. As mentioned in the article by Fong, “the biggest challenge for Asian American cinema has been one of access – finding a way for the films that are being made to reach the eyeballs of people” (page 3). The difficulties include unawareness of Asian American film festivals, companies reluctant to invest due to unfamiliarity, expensive to do marketing and outreach, and insufficient cash reserves for the film production. At that time, grassroots strategy came out to be the perfect solution.

Grassroots strategy is a marketing strategy that relies on as well as focuses on its own community (Asian American community in this case), which came out to be a no-frills, low-budget strategy that can be more effective than billboards or tv commercials. According to the article, the application of this grassroots strategy is “via emails from film directors asking for support, campus visits, connections with community-based organizations, opening night parties, entire screenings bought out by employee groups, street teams, major on-line/social networking pushes and appearances by cast and crew, this labor-intensive approach, while not perfect, has evolved into a useful tool” (page 4).

To further explain the application of the grassroots strategy, the author gives out some examples in the second half of the article. In 2000, film workers created APA First Weekend Club to alert people to watch the first weekend when some Asian American films were released, therefore, to generate box office numbers high enough to ensure a second weekend, and so on. In 2001, the film “The Debut” used self-distribution strategy by utilizing part of a film festival and concentrating on a certain racial group (Filipino American in this case). Some of the methods they used were street rally, mass emailing, and immersed meetings and presentations. In 2002, to effectively market “Better Luck Tomorrow”, the director and other related workers galvanized the sentiments of desire to be part of something, to know who they are and their positions amongst the younger Asian American generation. In 2007, to further push the grassroots strategy, Lin, his crew and the cast all went out to promote the film at the time “Finishing the Game” by visiting campuses and holding events in the Bay Area.

The author’s idea connects very well to the cultural idea that the Asian American films, which represent certain cultures in the US should be promoted amongst the cultural/ethnic groups for faster growth as well as putting cultural awareness into the society.

Xiangtian Rey Luo