The scene at the Kabuki for the last night of the Asian-American Film Festival was jam-packed, with three movies all starting at the same time, and people dressed to the nines for the closing party. We were in attendance at the sold-out show for part three of the thirteen-part series , a labor of love for Chinese-Canadian director Cheuk Kwan, who has eaten in Chinese restaurants around the globe -- including Israel, South Africa, Mauritius, Cuba, and Turkey -- and sought to learn the stories of how the proprieters came to live in these unexpected places.
Chinese restaurants are a constant source of fascination -- the co-sponsor for the screening was the Chinese Historical Society, which is currently showing an ecstatically-reviewed photography exhibit of Indigo Som's pictures of Chinese restaurants in Mississippi. (You may also remember Som's other project, collecting all the Chinese takeout menus from across America.) The movies screened on Thursday -- Three Continents and two shorts, BBC House Special and Selling Louie's Village -- all explored the role of the Chinese restaurant in representing the Chinese diaspora.
Egg Foo Young, a Chinese restaurant in Norway, and Chinese people with Liverpudlian accents, after the jump.
Images from Three Continents
