Hey, Hip
Hapa Homeez. So much excitement is in the Spring air! Besides featuring
documentary filmmaker Jessica Chen Drammeh as our monthly Hip Hapa Homeez, Your
Hip Hapa also has a surprise for you. You can read it following our interview with
the Anomaly director.
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| postcard design, Joey Silayan/title treatment, Gino Tadiar |
Q:
Jessica, how did your parents meet?
A: My parents, who are now both deceased, met in
college. I'm second generation Taiwanese Chinese American and, at times growing
up, I got off-the-cuff questions about whether my father met my Asian mother
while serving in Korea. I would be surprised at the story people would try to
concoct--first of all, because my mother was not Korean; second of all, because
my father would have been too young to serve in the military!
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| Jessica, an anomaly at school |
So the real story of
how my parents met went something like this: my father's family
(English-German-Irish-Native American) is from Pittsburgh. My mother's family
is from Taiwan. My mother's aunt was the first of the family to come to the
U.S. She was a professor at a school in West Virginia, where she settled down
with another college professor. When my mother came over, she lived with my
great-aunt and great-uncle for a time. She went to one of the local colleges,
where my parents met on campus.
Q: What was it like
growing up mixed?
A: Well, the era that
I grew up in was pre-multiculturalism, pre-political correctness, etc. The
particular county in West Virginia was (and still remains) very
homogeneous--mostly native-born whites, very little ethnic diversity, and not
very many families had international roots. I was certainly made to feel
"different" from my earliest recollections of going to school. At the
time, it was commonplace for kids to sing racially offensive songs, and to
ostracize others for "looking different", whether that be eye shape,
skin color, etc. As an adult, I can contextualize it, but at the time it was
very alienating.
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| Jessica growing up in West Virginia |
Q: Did
you want to become a filmmaker first, or did you have a passion for mixed race
stories and then decided to make movies about them?
A: One
of the pivotal eras of my life was during high school, when I came to New York
on a thespian group trip, and discovered a city rich with people coming and
going from all around the world, unlike my little childhood town. So I ended up
moving to New York to attend NYU as a film major. This combined my interests of
photography, creative writing, theater, and music.
One
particular semester, I took a documentary course and wanted to explore a topic
I had first-hand experience with. I had picked up some of the early books about
multiracial identity and suddenly it struck me as a subject ripe for
exploration. I did some very preliminary work on mixed race personal stories
back then, but would need to return to it later. So, after graduating from film
school and finishing a thesis film, I came back to Anomaly (www.anomalythefilm.com) with an expanded
purpose. I also became involved in the post-Census 2000 network of mixed race
community organizations, conferences, panels and educational events geared
towards building awareness of issues pertinent to mixed race people and
communities.
Q: As the
recipient of many film awards, which do you think is the most important for
Anomaly?
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| Anomaly interviewee Pete Shungu as a child with his family |
A: One
of the awards that arrived during a pivotal early moment was the James T. Yee
Mentorship Award from the Center for Asian American Media. (http://caamedia.org/filmmaker-resources/caam-fellows-2012/) Through the James Yee
Award, I was connected to filmmaker Nicole Atkinson Roach, who collaborated
with the late Marlon Riggs on groundbreaking documentaries like Black Is, Black
Ain't (http://newsreel.org/video/BLACK-IS-BLACK-AINT),
which explored blackness through multiple lenses in an amazingly innovative
style. I had been looking at some identity films like Black Is, Black Ain't,
and Nicole became a wonderful mentor in developing Anomaly's focus, guidance in
applying to grantmakers and producing a trailer. So, Nicole and the mentorship
helped very early on, when a project needs to gain traction!
Q: Your
film seems so thorough and not just the usual angst about "What Am I?" Did you
first develop a script, or was it your interviewees that made it less emotional
and more intellectual?
A: While making the
film, we developed an “interactive” process of sorts, where we would shoot,
edit, and then have work-in-progress screenings for feedback. We'd repeat this
process over several stages. Many filmmakers don't like to do this because it
risks changing the vision of the film too early!
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| Anomaly interviewee Gabriella Callender and biological mother, Winnie McDonald photo, Ku-Ling Siegel |
We wanted community
participation, in fact. So from a 6-minute trailer, I shot more footage, developed
an outline, produced a 13-minute work in progress, shot more footage, revised
the outline. We did this over a few years! We shot over 100 hours of footage
with more than a dozen participants. During this process, we were desperately
raising funds to continue, and there hadn't been established interest in
documentaries about mixed race stories. Also, at the same time, characters'
lives were unfolding, and some moments we had to wait for to get on camera. For
example, you can't script when in a real person's life she will reunite with
her biological mother. Developing a rapport with the participants was
fundamental, because we wanted to get a real look at their personal lives.
Eventually, we ended up with an 80-minute assembly/rough cut, which ultimately got
trimmed to the 47-minute fine cut. As the saying goes, documentaries are made
in the editing room. We also had the insight of veteran filmmaker/professor Sam
Pollard (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0689498/),
who became a consulting editor to the project.
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| Anomaly interviewee Michelle Myers and daughter Myong (left) photo, Tyrone McCloud |
Q: Where
can we see Anomaly?
A: For folks in the
New York City area, our next screening is May 12 in Brooklyn. http://anomalythefilm.com/?p=745 It’s
being presented by Filmwax (filmwax.com),
singer-songwriter Gabriella Callender will be performing live, and it's
co-sponsored by Loving Day (http://www.lovingday.org).
It should be a festive community homecoming after being on the film festival
circuit. Anomaly will also be screening at UC Davis on May 9. In the fall, it
should be available for educational purchase. Information will be posted on our
website at http://anomalythefilm.com.
We also have a clip gallery online at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/anomalyJCD
Q.
What's your next project?
A: There's a running joke
amongst many documentary filmmakers that long-form docs take 10 years to
finish, so at 9 years in the making Anomaly is about average. Recently, I went
to a colleague's screening at the Tribeca Film Festival, and her film took more
than 15 years to complete. Wouldn't it be fun to finish a short doc in 3
months? So, some of the ideas I'm developing next may focus on an intended
short format, and outlets such as mobile devices.
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| Haruo McKinley all grown up |
You go, Jessica! What an
incredible story and speaking of, here’s another.
Around the time I first started
this blog in 2008, I wrote about a boy named Haruo McKinley whom I’d had a
crush on many decades ago in the fifth grade. In fact, half the girls in my
class liked him, too. The reason I remember Haruo so vividly is because my
mother gave me a diary that year and I filled it with my observations about
him. Over the years, I would re-read my diary and wonder what ever happened to
the boy whose name means Spring.
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| Haruo as a 5th grader |
Here’s the original blog entry: http://watermelonsushiworld.blogspot.com/search?q=haruo+mckinley
Not long after
my blog post, a man wrote me that he’d been in the Army with Haruo, but had not
heard from him in years. Well, just yesterday Haruo’s ex-wife, Pamela Lajeane Scott, or PJ, emailed me! After marrying and having
three children with Haruo, whom she calls “Mac”, presumably for McKinley, PJ
and he divorced. Haruo, she says, left Ft. Lewis where I had been at school
with him to move with his family to Ft. Polk Louisiana where she met him. After
winning a baseball scholarship, Haruo went to Northwestern University and was
drafted. Consequently, he enjoyed a highly decorated military career serving
around the world. Haruo also played drums in a band called—are you ready for
it?--The Mixed Emotions.
Here’s more from PJ:
Q: PJ, how did you discover I was looking for Haruo?
A:
I was checking Google for "Haruo McKinley" when I found your website. I found
your article on Watermelon Sushi World and was totally excited to read about
Haruo in the fifth grade. Since he and I met in the eighth grade, you had a
picture of him that I did not. That in itself was amazing as his late mother
left me all the pictures she had when Haruo was young.
When
“Mac” entered my world via eighth grade, he was quiet, resolved and very
interesting. I swore he would be my boyfriend. One day he was getting a
drink of water at the water fountain and I slapped him on the back and said,
"Hey, new guy!" Little did I know, he chipped his tooth on the water
fountain and did he ever let me know that he didn't think that was
cool. Cool or not, that broke the ice and from then on out until 1985, we
were inseparable.
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| Haruo's mom, Kura Otaka McKinley |
Q:
What was it like for Haruo growing up mixed?
A:
“Mac” had some problems adapting. He spoke broken English and I helped him by
correcting him. He always called me “bossy”. By graduation, he had mastered the
English language and became one of the most popular kids at school. His friends
loved him and lovingly called him the "Salem Kid" as he was a smoker
as early as ninth grade. As far as his Japanese cultural background, I
think it helped him as most people were interested in hearing stories about
Japan and his martial arts ability. Needless to say, he was not bullied
because they had seen him in action several times when other boys asked me out
and he let all my future dates know that I was his girl. That always
thrilled me.
Q:
Since you're also biracial, was being mixed a part of your attraction to each
other? Did it help your relationship?
A:
Haruo’s father is Irish American (still living in California) and came to the
U.S. when his parents left Ireland in the early 1900's. He lived in New York
for most of his life until he left home for the military. In the early 1940's,
he was stationed in Korea and participated in the Korean War. He was on R&R
in Kawasaki Japan when he met Kura Otaka (Mac’s mom) and from there Mac was
born and, later, his little brother in Germany.
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| PJ |
As
far as me being French and Choctaw Indian, I was born and raised in Louisiana
where most of the population is Cajun, Creole, Mulatto or Caucasian, so it was
never an issue with me.
“Mac”
seemed to like that I was also a little different. We meshed and I saw our
relationship as a great opportunity to know about another culture. His
mother taught me many things, including how to make and love Japanese
food--especially sushi and sukiyaki, my fave.
Thank you, PJ! Since it’s
Spring, Hip Hapa Homeez, let’s talk about the name Yayoi. Everyone speaking
Japanese assumes I was born in March, which most Yayoi’s are. But, my mother is
so rebellious she went ahead and named me Yayoi in spite of my May birth. Try
explaining that to Japanese nationals.
Remember to buy a Hapa*Teez t-shirt to support our Watermelon Sushi film. And, please like our Watermelon Sushi fan page, our Hapa*Teez fan page, and join our Hip Hapa Homeez group page on Facebook for interactive discussions about being an anomaly--and more. We’re also on
twitter, Google+, Pinterest, etc. Just look for "watermelonsushi" anywhere you're online, and you’ll find us.
And, finally, HAPA Haru
(Spring) to you all!
Your Hip Hapa,
Yayoi
