In John Fong’s article “Beyond Finishing The Game: A Look At Asian American Grassroots Outreach,” he expresses the struggles of having a successful Asian American film in American cinemas. Although, Asian American films have been doing well in the market recently, there are many obstacles that prevent these films from reaching its highest potential. The problem still lies within a company refusing to invest in a cultural film they lack cultural awareness in which leads to the usage of “grassroots outreach”.
Fong states that “Hollywood films have marketing budgets that would eclipse the entire production budget of most indies by many times – getting the word out is an expensive thing to do. And most Asian American films are not flush with cash reverses.” (p.3) Companies have no problem investing in other categories of movies. However, when it comes to a non-white film, they hesitate in providing their support because they have no clue as to how to market it to the audience. They also believe that there is less likely to be a big audience in the movie theaters when those films are released.
An important term that is used throughout this article is “grassroots outreach”. Due to the fact that Asian American films do not get much funding for production, Asian American producers and film directors have found an alternative way to advertise their films and bring in a more relatable audience. A few ways they advertise is by “asking the cast and crew for their personal time to travel and promote the film, and moving city to city, mobilizing their base audience.” (p.8) Some of the cast members and crew members make personal appearances at venues, film festivals, and colleges such as San Francisco State University, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley. These strategies help to engage an audience in their film which will eventually lead to more companies understanding the Asian American culture and there won’t need to be such labor intensive work in order to get funding for productions.
Arthur Dong’s film “Claiming a Voice: The Visual Communications Story,” is similar to this article in ways such as the limited promotional opportunities of Asian Americans film. The Visual Communications Organization was made up of a few UCLA trained filmmakers. Their goal was to establish an identity through the visual communication productions and educate others on the knowledge of different cultures. They wanted to be a voice for the community and they took into consideration of what the community needed to be told. When their film “Hito Hata: Raise the Banner”, a story that took place after WWII when the Japanese were being sent to concentration camps, was in production, they had to close down the streets of East Los Angeles in order to capture every detail vital to the film. Due to the fact that stores had to be temporarily closed for shooting, the Visual Communications Organization was in a lot of debt by the end of production. However, as “Hito Hata” gained more popularity around the world, other organizations pulled together communities to promote and fund the film. This action is what is meant by the words “grassroots outreach”.
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