We’re so honored that A Lot Like You is kicking off this film series,
Her Stories. Filmmakers With African Roots.
Feb, 21, 2013
7pm
Post-screening discussion (via Skype) with filmmaker Eliaichi Kimaro
Hosted by the Frauenkreise Projekt and Bildungswerk Berlin der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.
And because I can’t get over the thrill of reading about our film in other languages…
“I think it would be equally captivating to tell the “Korean” story–it may be painful in a different way, but enlightening–something we can learn from.
It made me think about the power of Love, of family/relationships.
How powerful!!”
(St. Louis, MO)
By Caroline Teng
(Original article posted at Schema Magazine)
A Lot Like You follows the journey of filmmaker Eliaichi Kimaro to the Chagga tribe in Mount Kilimanjaro to explore her paternal roots. Kimaro is an American-born Korean-Tanzanian domestic violence counselor, who despite her rich heritage considers herself very much American.
Growing up, Kimaro spent much of her time with her mother’s side of the family but she was dissatisfied with her hazy exposure to the Chagga culture. She decided to make this film to deepen her understanding and relationship with the culture and people.
The film, like the filmmaker, is multilayered; it explores conflicts not just between people but also within the individual. It presents a picture of a family that has changed because of politics, both national and familial. The filmmaker seeks the answers to questions like ‘who am I?’ and ‘where do I come from?’ and delves into bigger and more volatile issues that are handled sensitively.
A Lot Like You artfully discusses a wide variety of subject matter within the Chagga tribe such as education, history, politics, tradition, social hierarchies, marriage and rape. Kimaro interviews her aunts and uncles, revealing their distanced relationships in spite of them living within walking distance from each other. These interviews develop throughout the film and document the raw and honest opinion of the members of the family as they deal with issues of jealousy, the death of parents and more.
Kimaro eventually finds a connection with the women in her family. Kimaro identifies with her aunts because of their similar experiences of sexual abuse. Although the memories they harbor are unpleasant and painful to talk about, the acknowledgement of their pasts brings closure and peace. It also brings about questions of ethics and tradition that Kimaro later seeks opinion on. The viewer thus understands that there are no easy or simple answers that can neatly sum up any human experience.
It is apt, then, that Kimaro uses a mix of home video styled documentary, animation, interviews and voice-over narration, which combine to form a pastiche of sorts that speak of the complexity of any individual’s story. The combination of these with the equally mixed genre of music that accompanies the film and the unique content of the film remind the viewer of the nature of life – that even the most inexplicable of experiences will eventually find their meaning in the right context where one can finally say, “I understand, because I am a lot like you.”
In case you missed our broadcast on AfroPoP, A LOT LIKE YOU (53-min version) is available for online viewing HERE through 2/22. Enjoy!
Rainier Valley Filmmaker Featured at the
Seattle Asian American Film Festival
By Dominique Scalia, RVP Managing Editor
SEATTLE – From 2003 to 2007, Wes Kim directed the Northwest Asian American Film Festival in Seattle. This year, co-Directors Kevin Bang and Vanessa Au are bringing it back under the name Seattle Asian American Film Festival, and it’s taking place January 25-27 at the Wing Luke Museum in the International District.
On opening night, sold-out audiences were treated to a viewing of A Lot Like You, an award-winning documentary by Rainier Valley-based filmmakerEliaichi Kimaro.
Kimaro is a first-generation American. Her Tanzanian father and Korean mother were married shortly after interracial marriage became legal in the United States. A Lot Like You began as a project to document Kimaro’s father and his journey back to Tanzania. After many years of work, however, the film’s focused changed to Kimaro herself. The story features interviews with Kimaro’s Aunts in Tanzania, and engages issues around racial identities, trauma, and gender violence.
A Lot Like You has received numerous awards since its world premiere at theSeattle International Film Festival two years ago, including Best Documentary Feature at the 2011 Montreal International Black Film Festival and Best Documentary at the 2012 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The documentary was also screened at the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence 2011 Annual Conference, where Kimaro delivered the closing keynote address, as well as a variety of other conferences and festivals. She’s even exploring the possibility of a Columbia City screening this spring.
The ongoing project around A Lot Like You invites donations to fund a variety of efforts related to the themes of the film. More information about those projects can be found on the film’s blog. Thanks to a sponsorship by the non-profit NW Film Forum, donations over $50 are tax-deductible.
“I thought about violence within the family, and systemic violence. What is the connection? Could it be that some people in the US can experience less violence in their individual families because that pain gets externalized into large systems like the IMF? It seems that it exists in all of us, and just finds different expressions.
Thank you for this gift and for your bravery.”
“As a transracial Korean adoptee, this film spoke to me on the longing to discover myself in terms of culture and identity. Having White parents and growing up in a predominently White community, I lacked any real role models that looked like me or anyone that I could connect to. So I could understand the motivations behind wanting to search and find your place.”
Fri, Jan 25, 2013
Cross-cultural ties examined in documentary
By Sarah Stuteville
Special to The Seattle Times
“The bibimbap, is that dolsot?” asks documentary filmmaker Eli Kimaro looking up from the menu of Wabi-Sabi in Columbia City.
She’s trying to gauge the authenticity of the Korean dish in question. This version doesn’t come in the traditional heated stone pot (dolsot), but she goes for it anyway — calling the rice bowl a favorite “comfort food.”
Kimaro couldn’t be more at home ordering Korean food in a neighborhood with an African-American history and a growing reputation for international diversity.
Her father is Tanzanian and her mother is Korean. They both worked in international aid and development in Washington, D.C., and Kimaro grew up in a community where being cross-cultural “was the norm.”
But that norm was challenged when Kimaro left home for college. She says she sought to join a Korean Student Union and was met with skepticism from members who saw her first as a black woman, an experience that would be repeated as she was forced to grapple with other people’s assumptions about her background.
Outside of the international community Kimaro grew up in, multiracial families were uncommon in the 1970s. Her film “A Lot Like You” mentions that Kimaro’s parents were married only a few years after anti-miscegenation laws were overturned by the Supreme Court.
By comparison 9 percent of all marriages in the United States were interracial or interethnic in 2009 — double the number in 1980.
Kimaro, who identifies as a black woman and a “Tanzkomerican” explores these themes in “A Lot Like You,” which follows her journey back to Tanzania to explore her family’s roots in the Chagga culture while telling the story of her unique childhood.
But the movie, like Kimaro’s background, is complicated. What was intended to be a way of recording the traditions of the Chagga people also became a story of pervasive gender violence within the community. The film ultimately explores Kimaro’s own experience of sexual violence.
Kimaro is proud that the film can’t be “pigeonholed” as singularly about gender violence, mixed-race identities or multicultural families. And while it may not be what she set out to make, “A Lot Like You” is resonating with audiences. Continue reading →
We want to hear from you!
What stories, ideas, feelings did our story evoke? What did you leave our film talking about?
1) Click on image below to download:
2) Jot down your thoughts.
3) Take a photo and email it to info(at)alotlikeyoumovie.com.
[See what others are saying at The ALLY Project page.]
Add your voice to the conversation!