Get Your Reps In: This Week’s Picks Honor Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

All five documentary and narrative features are made by AAPI filmmakers that skillfully highlight significant issues in their respective communities.

Movie - Gook A film still from Gook by Justin Chon, an official selection of the NEXT program at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Ante Cheng.
By Mia Vicino

While local rep theaters are out of commission, we’ll be putting together weekly watchlists of films readily available to stream. As May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we’ve rounded up five illuminating documentary and narrative features made by AAPI filmmakers that skillfully highlight significant issues in their respective communities.

American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (2013)

Grace Lee Boggs was a writer, civil rights activist, feminist and one of the most important figures of the Asian American sociopolitical movement. Her astonishing and long life, which includes over 75 years of radical leftist activism, is exquisitely documented here by filmmaker Grace Lee (no relation). Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes, PBS, Vudu, YouTube.

Gook (2017)

This black-and-white drama centers on a pair of Korean American brothers who help run their father’s shoe store in central L.A., as well as their unlikely friendship with an 11-year-old Black girl. Set on the first day of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the film deftly examines the strained, complicated relationship between Korean and Black communities. Amazon Prime, Hoopla, Kanopy, Roku, Tubi, Vudu.

Seadrift (2019)

Along the Gulf Coast in 1979, a Vietnamese fisherman shot and killed a white crabber in an act of self-defense. With racial tensions in Texas already high due to an influx of Vietnamese refugees, this event was the catalyst for an eruption of hate crimes perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan. Directed by Tim Tsai, this 68-minute documentary tells a vital and little-known story. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Kanopy.

Lingua Franca (2019)

Up-and-coming triple threat Isabel Sandoval writes, directs and stars in her feature debut—a warmly intimate drama about Olivia, an undocumented Filipina trans woman (Sandoval) working as a caregiver for Olga, an elderly woman in Brooklyn. Brimming with empathy and compassion for its subjects, Lingua Franca shines a light on the harsh realities of marginalized American immigrants. Netflix.

Minding the Gap (2018)

In this highly acclaimed and Oscar-nominated documentary, Bing Liu filmed himself and his friends over the course of 12 years as they bonded over a rabid passion for skateboarding in Rockford, Ill. The trio copes with family issues, but at the local skatepark, all of that melts away. An essential coming-of-age tale about racial identity, generational trauma and the perils of modern masculinity. Hulu.

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