The Slanted Screen

Today we headed to the Roxie Film Center on 16th and Valencia in the Inner Mission district to catch the documentary, “The Slanted Screen”. Written, produced and directed by Jeff Adachi (current SF Public Defender), it addresses and examines the stereotypes of Asian-American males in film.

I only found out about the film on Friday at work. I was in the lunchroom grabbing a yogurt out of the fridge and decided to browse through the Datebook (entertainment) section of the San Francisco Chronicle. When I checked the screen times, only evening times were listed. I didn’t want to be in the Inner Mission during evening hours, so I checked SFGate.com to see if they listed daytime hours. No luck there either.

I really wanted to see this film. Especially since I read that veteran actors Mako and James Shigeta were interviewed for the documentary. So I went to Google, entered “Slanted Screen” and found the website. I already prepared myself to wait for the DVD release. I e-mailed the address listed at the website to let them know to contact me once the DVD became available.

Within 2 minutes of my e-mail, I got a response back. It was from the writer and director himself, Jeff Adachi. WOW. I was talking to a celebrity. He said there were 5 screen times on Saturday and Sunday, which I replied back and asked when they were because we’d make time to go. I also wished him luck on his Q&A Friday night at the Roxie. Jeff replied back again very quickly, and said thanks for the support.

As a film lover, it was great to see so many movie clips during the documentary. Actors such as Sandra Oh, Ming-Na, Tzi Ma, Daniel Dae Kim, and Lucy Liu wouldn’t have the roles they have now if Nancy Kwan, Bruce Lee, Mako and James Shigeta didn’t pave the way for them.

image courtesy of “The Slanted Screen”