Ghostlife of Third Cinema

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Ghostlife of Third Cinema

Asian American Film and Video

Glen M. Mimura

Table of Contents

$22.50 paper
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4831-3

$67.50 cloth
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4830-6

An interpretive history of Asian American independent media since the 1960s

Asian American filmmakers and video artists have created a substantial, diverse, and challenging body of work that reimagines the cultural and political representation of Asian Americans. Yet much of this work remains unknown.

For Glen M. Mimura, Asian American cinema is the spectral, ghostly return of the international film movement known as Third Cinema. Tracing contemporary Asian American cinema as a continuation of Third Cinema’s radical enterprise of making marginalized subjects visible in the First World, Ghostlife of Third Cinema examines such potent issues as diasporic identity, historical memory, and queer sexuality through sophisticated readings of a wide range of film and video projects, including Trinh T. Minh-ha’s experimental documentary Surname Viet Given Name Nam; avant-garde works by Japanese American filmmakers Rea Tajiri, Lise Yasui, and Janice Tanaka; and queer videos exploring the intersection of race, nation, and sexuality by Pablo Bautista, Ming-Yuen Ma, and Nguyen Tan Hoang.

In Ghostlife of Third Cinema, Mimura confronts the ongoing erasure of Asian American independent media and illuminates its cultural and political significance today.

“A deeply felt, carefully considered work on Asian American cinema and video, Mimura’s delicate, concise study examines independent Asian American filmmaking with grace and authority. Numerous frame blowups add to the value of the work.” —Choice

Glen M. Mimura is associate professor of film and media and Asian American studies at the University of California, Irvine.

216 pages | 27 b&w photos | 6 x 9 | 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction: What Is Asian American Cinema?

1. Diaspora, or Modernity’s Other: Theorizing Asian American Identity and Representation

2. In the Afterglow of Regenerative Violence: Third Cinema and Asian American Media Discourse

3. Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Spectrality and the Experimentalist Turn

4. Uncanny Memories: Post-Redress Media in Japanese American History

5. Diaspora Sexualities: Asian American Queer Video in the World System

Notes
Filmography
Index

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Ghostlife of Third Cinema *Asian American Film and Video* Glen M. Mimura Table of Contents		$22.50 paper ISBN: 978-0-8166-4831-3 $67.50 cloth ISBN: 978-0-8166-4830-6
An interpretive history of Asian American independent media since the 1960s Asian American filmmakers and video artists have created a substantial, diverse, and challenging body of work that reimagines the cultural and political representation of Asian Americans. Yet much of this work remains unknown. For Glen M. Mimura, Asian American cinema is the spectral, ghostly return of the international film movement known as Third Cinema. Tracing contemporary Asian American cinema as a continuation of Third Cinema’s radical enterprise of making marginalized subjects visible in the First World, Ghostlife of Third Cinema examines such potent issues as diasporic identity, historical memory, and queer sexuality through sophisticated readings of a wide range of film and video projects, including Trinh T. Minh-ha’s experimental documentary Surname Viet Given Name Nam; avant-garde works by Japanese American filmmakers Rea Tajiri, Lise Yasui, and Janice Tanaka; and queer videos exploring the intersection of race, nation, and sexuality by Pablo Bautista, Ming-Yuen Ma, and Nguyen Tan Hoang. In Ghostlife of Third Cinema, Mimura confronts the ongoing erasure of Asian American independent media and illuminates its cultural and political significance today. “A deeply felt, carefully considered work on Asian American cinema and video, Mimura’s delicate, concise study examines independent Asian American filmmaking with grace and authority. Numerous frame blowups add to the value of the work.” —Choice Glen M. Mimura is associate professor of film and media and Asian American studies at the University of California, Irvine. 216 pages \| 27 b&w photos \| 6 x 9 \| 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction: What Is Asian American Cinema? 1. Diaspora, or Modernity’s Other: Theorizing Asian American Identity and Representation 2. In the Afterglow of Regenerative Violence: Third Cinema and Asian American Media Discourse 3. Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Spectrality and the Experimentalist Turn 4. Uncanny Memories: Post-Redress Media in Japanese American History 5. Diaspora Sexualities: Asian American Queer Video in the World System Notes Filmography Index