Seeking Asian Female

Wednesday evening I was at the San Francisco premiere of local filmmaker Debbie Lum's documentary Seeking Asian Female, playing at CAAMFest this week. The film follows Steven, a white man in his 60s, gleefully unabashed about his obsession with young Asian women. Online, he meets 30-year-old Sandy from Shenzhen, & she comes to the States to marry him. The director Ms. Lum finds herself compelled by Sandy's situation & gets so involved that the relationship cannot succeed without her intervention as translator, marriage counselor, & confidante. The film has many uncomfortable scenes. We watch Sandy & Steven struggle with communication difficulties, money, & life as a couple. Ms. Lum occasionally throws in censorious questions of her own. You're never quite sure if things are working out, so it makes for compulsive viewing,

This was an added screening & sold out. I waited in the rush line with about 20 others & got in moments before the movie started. Many women were in the audience, but not as many mixed race couples as I would have thought. Ms. Lum was present & answered questions afterward. We learned that Steven & Sandy are still married, & that Sandy is in school, nearly fluent in English, & has a driver's license. Ms. Lum initially profiled 5 men with yellow fever, but only Steven found a woman. Once Sandy came to the US, Ms. Lum decided to focus the entire film on Steven & Sandy's relationship.

It's the kind of movie that you immediately want to talk about, so it's appropriate that the Saturday screening is followed by a panel discussion. Ms. Lum will also release a related series of on-line films.

§ Seeking Asian Female (2012)
Debbie Lum, dir
82 mins, USA

CAAMFest
Pacific Film Archive Theater
March 15, 2013 7:00 pm

Sundance Kabuki Cinemas
March 20, 2013 6:30 pm

New People
March 23, 2013 5:00 pm