By Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
How do we decide where is home? For millions of immigrants, loyalties are divided between the land of their birth and the country in which in they choose to live. Feeling increasingly isolated in her adopted homeland of the United States, accomplished documentarian Dai Sil Kim-Gibson travels to Cuba to discover stories from a relatively unknown group in the Asian diaspora. There, she meets Martha, a woman of Korean descent, who after the Revolution began identifying herself as Cuban, not Korean. Kim-Gibson then travels to Miami to meet Martha's emigre sister and her extended, multicultural family.
The filmmaker asks probing questions to both the Cuban and U.S. branches of the family about the issues of economic and social justice in socialism and capitalism, and about issues of identity. With extended interviews and photographs from the personal archives of her subjects, Kim-Gibson explores the complex ways in which we determine our ethnic, national and cultural loyalties. The stories of both women and their families weave a complex web that searches for an understanding of "motherland" in a globalized society.
Reviews
~ "A beautiful and deeply-felt exploration of identity, attachment and collective values in our age of global migration and displacement." - Charles Armstrong, Assoc. Prof. of History, Dir. Of the Center for Korean Research, Columbia Univ.
~ "If anyone can give a new twist…[on] the ubiquitous topic of identity in an original way…it's this veteran." - Catherine Manabat, Asia Pacific Arts
~ "Inspiring…Convinces me that solidarity…among immigrants…could create a new meaning for this world and make it a more peaceful home for all of us." - Mingwei Song, Asst. Prof. of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Wellesley College
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