Que(e)rying the American Dream in Films of the Early Twenty-First Century
Que(e)rying the American Dream in Films of the Early Twenty-First Century
This chapter looks at a selection of post-2000 Asian American films that feature Asian American protagonists who are 1.5 or second-generation immigrants. The Debut (dir. Gene Cajayon), Red Doors (dir. Georgia Lee), Saving Face (dir. Alice Wu), and Charlotte Sometimes (dir. Eric Byler) question the professional and financial ambitions that were hallmarks of the model minority ideal of the economically successful Asian American established in the 1960s. The films depict protagonists who find themselves unable to fulfill what Sara Ahmed calls the "happiness duty" and experience melancholia and depression. A number of these independent Asian American filmmakers explore non-heteronormative and non-conjugal ways of expressing love and passion, revealing the shifting values, transcultural affiliations and desires that are now part of the multiplicity of Asian North American identity.
Keywords: independent films, Saving Face, Red Doors, queer Asian America, Filipino American film, sexuality, Sara Ahmed, depression, second-generation, youth
Illinois Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
