394 WORDS / 3 MIN READ / ORIGINALLY POSTED JUNE 1, 2015 (EDITED)
To wind up my coverage of AAPI month 2015, let me mention three other PBS programs that might be worth looking out for (disclaimer: I only watched part of each):
9-Man covers the Chinese-American version of volleyball, specifically invented to allow shorter members of their community to compete). As their tournaments grow in popularity and more people want to join, they attempt to restrict players only to full-blooded Chinese, starting public debate about race, ethnicity, and inclusivity. This reminded me of the contrast with our PBA and the Arab joke, that our national basketball team will never win a game because the players can’t understand the coach’s accent (hah.)
Our Voices: Cambodian Son follows a young Cambodian-American deported to Cambodia, a country he has never known, after he completes his 16-year US sentence for attempted murder. In prison solitary, he begins to forge the voices in his head into poetry, reciting them in the dark of his jail cell, encouraged by other prisoners he cannot see. After deportation he is chosen over 6,000 nominated poets to participate in the arts adjunct to the 2012 London Olympics. This film is a testament to the healing and redemptive power of Hip-Hop.
Pacific Heartbeat: Road to the Globe covers an effort by a theatrical group of New Zealand Maori to mount Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare’s supposed “noir” play, in which he debunks the Iliad) at England’s famous Globe Theater. It’s a very muscular version transplanted to a Maori village. Unfortunately, its audience is limited because it’s staged in the Maori language, sans subtitles. A film about how and why this decision was made might be more interesting.
And while we’re on the subject of translations, here are two songs from my childhood that I remember my mother and my Auntie Nena singing: Dungial:
And Inciong Calbo:
I’d appreciate it if the Ilocano speakers among you (you know who you are) could provide a simple translation (might be easier to translate into Tagalog rather than English). Times like this, I really miss my sister Girlie. Fluent in Ilocano, she did some work as translator for the New York Criminal Court System.
I believe these three PBS programs may be available in full on YouTube. You’ll just have to suffer commercial interruptions, but hey, it’s AAPI month, right? We can tolerate that!