美國

DADDY & PAPA is a one hour documentary exploring the personal, cultural, and political impact of gay men who are making a decision that is at once traditional and revolutionary: to raise children themselves. Taking us inside four gay male families, DADDY & PAPA traces the day-to-day challenges and the larger, critical issues that inevitably intersect their private lives-the ambiguous place of interracial families in America, the wonder and precariousness of surrogacy and adoption, the complexities of marriage and divorce within the gay community, and the legality of their own parenthood.

Despite all these obstacles, America is in the midst of a “gayby boom,” with thousands of gay men across the country making the conscious decision to become fathers. DADDY & PAPA enters into the heart of the debate over gay fatherhood, examining the value of alternative households, the effects of gender and sexual orientation on children, and the changing face of the American family.

This is a film on a Japanese hiphop musician, Shing02 grown up outside Japan. He thinks earnestly about the issues of world peace, his nation and own identity, which attracted me a lot and let me to trace the world of his lyrics. Through this film, people will encounter “a new type of Japanese”.

Seasons of Migration is a dance about culture shock, and the film combines the performance with the choreographer’s and dancer’s commentary, and stories of the troubles and triumphs of Cambodians who emigrated to Long Beach, California. Sophiline Cheam Shapiro grew up in Pol Pot’s camps; as a teenager she trained as a Cambodian classical dancer, later emigrating to the United States where she continued her dance studies at UCLA and began choreographing work that used the idioms and vocabulary of the Cambodia court dance to explore contemporary themes. She settled in Long Beach, the largest Cambodian city outside Cambodia, and founded the Khmer Arts Academy. Her work has toured in the US and Europe. This dance work, performed by dancers from Cambodia, made a ten city tour of the US.

The tremendous grassroots effort led by Black Mesa Trust to stop Peabody Mining Company from pumping pristine drinking water to transport coal was accomplished on December 31, 2005. With the termination of coal revenues the Hopi villages considered their future survival, reflecting on the traditional beliefs that have carried them through similar hard times over a millennium in the Southwest. The Hopi found the right prayer for the villages and for all people: running. In the documentary, Hopi runners carried a gourd of water gathered from international waters in the attempt to convey the message that “Water is Life” to the Fourth World Water Forum in 2006. The runners’ footsteps and breath vibrate in the wind approaching the critical moment which will result in the release of energy. In the Hopi belief this energy released into the environment is the real message to and from water! The message is shared now, in Paatuwaqatsi.

Having visited tribal communities in Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Washington and the Amazon to produce this film, director Victor Masayesva says, “Coming from a village which became embroiled in the filming of Darkwind, a Hollywood production on the Hopi Reservation, I felt a keen responsibility as a community member, not an individual, to address these impositions on our tribal lives. Even as our communities say no, outsiders are responding to this as a challenge instead of respecting our feelings….I have come to believe that the sacred aspects of our existence which encourages the continuity and vitality of Native peoples are being manipulated by an aesthetic in which money is the most important qualification. This contradicts the values intrinsic to what’s sacred and may destroy our substance. I am concerned about a tribal and community future which is reflected in my film and I hope this challenges the viewer to overcome glamorized Hollywood views of the Native American, which obscures the difficult demands of walking the spiritual road of our ancestors.”