(Santa Barbara, CA) – The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation (SBTHP) is pleased to present the seventh annual Asian American Film Series, a three-part event held on Fridays in July. Pre-film box dinners available starting at 6:00 p.m. each night. All films will begin at 7:00 pm in the Alhecama Theatre (914 Santa Barbara Street, Santa Barbara). Receptions follow each film.

 

During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries the area in and around the Santa Barbara Presidio included communities of Chinese and Japanese, residing in what was a unique and culturally rich neighborhood. The Asian American Film Series at the Alhecama Theatre includes films with themes common to the experience of these communities in the effort to connect a modern audience with the history of the Asian American experience in Santa Barbara.

 

Friday, July 8: Chinese Couplets (2015, 57 min), Alhecama Theatre
Part memoir, part history, part investigation, this film spans two centuries, three countries, and four generations of women in this intimate story that reveals the impact of America’s Chinese Exclusion Acts on filmmaker Felicia Lowe’s family.

Q&A with director, write, and producer Felicia Lowe.

Pre-film box meal from Madam Lu Chinese Restaurant will be available for $10 starting at 6pm. Call SBTHP (965-0093) or email (education@sbthp.org) to reserve a box. Please specify your choice of Chicken Chow Mein or Vegetable Chow Mein.

 

Friday, July 15: Documented (2013, 89 min), Alhecama Theatre

In 2011, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas outed himself as an undocumented immigrant in the New York Times Magazine. This film chronicles his journey to America from the Philippines as a child, his public struggle as an immigration reform activist/provocateur, and his journey inward as he reconnects with his mother, who he hasn’t seen in 20 years.

 

Special panel discussion after screening

Pre-film box meal from L&L Hawaiian Barbecue will be available for $10 starting at 6pm. Call SBTHP (965-0093) or email (education@sbthp.org) to reserve a box.

 

Friday, July 22: Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story (2010, 50 min), Alhecama Theatre
A Nisei born and raised in Utah, Wat Misaka was the first person of color to be drafted by a professional basketball team. Through press footage and interviews with Misaka, his teammates, and Japanese American friends, this documentary follows his career during the WWII era

Pre-film box meal from L&L Hawaiian Barbecue will be available for $10 starting at 6pm. Call SBTHP (965-0093) or email (education@sbthp.org) to reserve a box.