Mixed-Remixed Festival: Short Films About Mixed Ethnicity

The third annual Mixed Remixed festival took place earlier this month at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. The festival provides a safe place for people to express, share, and explore their experiences as people of multiple cultures. My introduction to the festival came two years ago when I attended to support Brian and Angela Tucker, whose film Closure was screening that year.

Each year, the festival features stories, workshops, panels and films on a range of topics. As a film reviewer, I spend most of my time in the theater. This year’s festival included short films and a couple web series which be interesting to parents of multiethnic or mixed-ethnicity children. Children who have been adopted might also resonate with feelings of mixed ethnicity, and while these films aren’t geared towards kids, parents might use the films for some informal self-education to prepare for challenges their kids might eventually face, and identity-development work that their kids may eventually do.

Some of the highlights from this year’s films:

Almost Asian is a YouTube comedy series following Katie Malia’s daily life in Los Angeles as a woman of half-Japanese, half-German ancestry. (Find more here)

Maya Osborne: Confessions of a Quadroon introduces Maya Osborne, a spoken-word artist who has powerfully captured her thoughts on her biracial identity. (Hear Maya’s poem performed here). The documentary centers around Maya’s poem, and also asks her parents for their thoughts on their daughter’s developing identity. (See the 11-minute documentary here).

Good Luck Soup documents a grandson’s exploration of his famliy’s Asian heritage. (see the trailer here).

Invisible Roots interviews members of three families of African descent who have roots in Mexico but have moved to Southern California (find more here).

The festival happens each year, around June, in Los Angeles. Stay tuned on Twitter @mixedremixed or check out their website (mixedremixed.org) to learn about the next one; and hey, if you decide to come to LA for the festival next year, reach out and let me know. Maybe I’ll see you there!