Life for most young Vietnamese youth in the United States is a “life like dust.” This film goes inside the mind of Ricky Phan, once a gang leader in Southern California and now serving an 11-year sentence for armed robbery. Shot over a three-year period before Ricky’s arrest, BUI DOI… explores his memories of childhood in war-weary Saigon, his days in the U.S. as a “gangster,” and then his life in a state prison. Which is more violent: fleeing from a war-ravaged nation or trying to survive in an alien Western culture?
Tag: 1990s
Your Name In Cellulite is a six minute animated film about the disparity that exists between a woman’s natural beauty and the ideal set forth in popular culture. The body will only tolerate so much in the attempt to satisfy the demands of fashion before it takes matters into its own hands.
Etta is an elderly acrobat incarcerated in a care home. One night, a ghostly presence brings Etta into contact with Alice, a young night nurse. Etta discovers that Alice’s touch brings ecstatic, disturbing memories to life, but Alice has a morbid fear of physical contact.
Based on an autobiographical novelette by the well-known Kerala writer Basheer, this is a love story, set in a prison cell the 40s, between the imprisoned Basheer and a woman from the neighbouring prison compound. They are separated by a high wall so that they never see each other and have to devise ingenious ways of communicating. Produced for TV, the story is played out in confined spaces with a sense of claustrophobia and suppressed violence which enhances the emotional impact of the moving love story.
Mossane is a film about a beautiful 14-year-old girl from a rural Serer village, beloved by many including her own brother, and Fara, a poor university student. Although she has long been promised in marriage to the wealthy Diogaye, Mossane defies her parents’ wishes and pursues a relationship with Fara. The film shows the strength of a younger generation as they resist archaic traditions, and revels in their courage and their wish for emancipation.
A vengeful Native American woman hunts for the business tycoon who destroyed her life when she was only 12. Her ordeal began when he had her parents killed and then made it look as if she did it.
Vera and Heike are two friends who aspire for a dazzling lifestyle, but don’t own any savings to do so. Vera decides to start stealing from men while sipping drinks with them in bars. When Heike takes over her job, her technique doesn’t prove as successful and she ends up being caught at once.
Peter is a good-natured but socially inept young man who is madly in love with Erica, the sweet and devastatingly sexy girl next door. Peter desperately wants Erica as his girlfriend, even though she already has a boyfriend, the large and humorless Nick . Eager to prove himself, Peter takes up the advice of Nonno, his batty grandfather, and literally camps out on her front lawn, willing to wait out the entire summer until she gives him a chance to prove that he can be the man of her dreams.