S U N D A Y , M A Y 1
PROGRAM 31, 5-1, 5:00 p.m.
Directors Guild of America, Theatre One

WHAT'S WRONG WITH FRANK CHIN?
(United States, 2005) Dir./Wtr.: Curtis Choy

ìWl'come a Chinatown, Folks!" Beginning with Frank Chin reading from his groundbreaking play ìThe Year Of The Dragon," Curtis Choyís first extant film in over 22 years paints a compelling, testyósometimes repulsiveóbut always engaging drive-by examination of the career and perspectives of the Asian American literary communityís most singular voice. A staunch advocate of re-representing Asian American history and culture without compromise, Chinís approach has had both a uniting and polarizing effect. To wit: he arrived with the first wave of Asian American student activists to teach and produce guerilla theatre; sought out other Asian American writers including Sean Wong, Lawson Inada, and others to ultimately publish the groundbreaking Aiiieeeee!; had two plays produced in New York; forms his own theatre companyóonly to be dismissed in a power struggle; engages in a now-legendary running argument with Maxine Hong Kingston over alleged falsifications to text exposed in her novel The Woman Warrior; suffers a stroke in 1999; digs up dirt on the Japanese American Citizens Leaguesís complicity in the roundup and encampment of American-born Japanese during World War II, and unveils its leader, Mike Masaoka, as a government spy; and publishes his documentary novel Born in the USA: A Story of Japanese America, 1889-1947. WHATíS WRONG WITH FRANK CHIN? brings clarity to a legendary yet contradictory voice in Asian American arts and literature, and will surely provoke heated discussion from both oldtimers and neophytes of Asian American history.
Video, 99 minutes, Color, Documentary

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