A Seeker

In this experimental short mixing Super 8 film footage, computer-generated images, scanned photographs and moving text, filmmaker Kian H. Kuan compares and contrasts his "ordered" upbringing in a middle class Chinese family with his "chaotic" life as a gay Asian-American. Calling himself a "seeker," Kuan is searching for "reasons and understanding" as he finds himself, today, fully belonging to neither the Asian nor the gay world. Although technically impressive, the brief commentary doesn't a) rise above the soundbite level ("I find myself an outsider"), b) tell us near enough about Kuan's own personal journey, or c) support some of the sweeping generalizations made about gay life in San Francisco (I understand that words like "discord," "lies," and "secrets" work well in Kuan's order vs. chaos paradigm; I'm just not convinced that they accurately describe gay life in S.F., circa 1999--or even, if the reference applies to single's dating, whether the words couldn't just as easily be used to describe the heterosexual experience.) Not a necessary purchase. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)