Anarchy In Asian America: After Party W/ Sisu & Low On High

For the second part of the night, the action moved to Tommy's Place, where Los Angeles shoegaze band Sisu & Jon Moritsugu/Amy Davis' Low On High performed. Tommy's Place was the perfect place for these bands to perform, the stage, the lights, but most important the energy from their performances was the perfect way to close this fun Friday night.

Sisu

Sisu

Sisu

Sisu

Sisu

Low On High 

Low On High

Low On High

Low On High

Low On High

Low On High

Low On High

Low On High

For their Performances:

Sisu:

Low On High: 

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Anarchy In Asian America: Sex, Punk, and Transgressive Cinema

Independent film in the 1990s saw the birth of Queer Cinema, along with more DIY "punk rock" films, most of them would not even qualify as films to the more snobby film afficionados, more in the realm of an "Art Film" or "Cult" banner. What all these movies had in common was that at their core there was a  Fuck Society/Fuck the System attitude, each with their own style and message. On Friday, March 22, 2017, three of these independent auteurs were part of the event, moderated by Strand Releasing's Co-Founder/Co-President Marcus Hu on a "make up" panel, with Gregg Araki, Roddy Bogawa & Jon Muritsugu, since all of them couldn't make it before.

Moderator Marcus Hu (Strand Releasing) asking the though questions, Gregg Araki, Jon Muritsugu & Roddy Bogawa

Gregg Araki

Gregg Araki, Jon Moritsugu, Roddy Bogawa

Amy Davis, Marcus Hu, Gregg Araki

Amy Davis, Gregg Araki, Jon Moritsugu

James Duvall

Marcus Hu, James Duvall, Gregg Araki

Marcus Hu, Gregg Araki, Jon Moritsugu, Roddy Bogawa

The night started with clips from each panelist highlighting their career, followed by stories of how they met and their individual contributions to independent and Asian cinema (though that would be questionable as many of their films don't have Asian leads), with some guest speakers popping up to fill in the tales, Amy Davis, Jon Morisugu's muse and co band member and James Duvall, Gregg Araki's lead on the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, but don't let me paraphrase the night, you can see it below:  

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Menace II Society Q&A

On March 21, 2017, USC's School of Cinematic Arts' Movies We Love series, screened Menace II Society with a post Q&A with Co-Director Albert Hughes and Writer Tyger Williams.
Menace II Society was considered one of those films that weren't in tune with other "Black" films from the era, even a disservice to the Black community given its depiction of gang/drug life in the hood. The film still holds to this day, whilst it wasn't the better made of the 90s gang films, it tries to stay true to life in South Central, what causes people to turn to drug dealing, violence and gangs.
After the film, Hughes and Williams (unfortunately, producer Darin Scott and actor Tyrin Turner, who were scheduled to attend couldn't make it) who were both in their 20s when the movie was made, explained how they got a movie made. They spoke about their work in music videos, told the audience about the production of the film, Tupac's involvement, altercations with Halley Berry, amongst many, many more anecdotes.

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