Tagline: For 17 years, the filmmaker confronts memories of migration and his once intact family.

Synopsis: Filmed over a 17-year period, this award-winning film gives an insider view on the contemporary Asian American immigrant experience, family psychology, and personal filmmaking. Director Alvin Tsang reflects on his family’s migration from Hong Kong to Los Angeles in the early 1980s – fraught with betrayal from his parents’ divorce, economic strife and communication meltdown between parents and children. This poetic exploration moves moodily across different channels and modes, bending into labor histories and Hong Kong’s colonial trajectories. Tsang turns the camera on his own family, cautiously prodding for answers, but fully acknowledging that the only closure he can get will be from deciding for himself how to move on.
 

ARTIST STATEMENT

REUNIFICATION was a 17-year personal journey to understand who I am and the hurt that kept me from moving forward since I migrated to America at age 9. The need to deeply understand drove me to ask my parents the difficult questions since it was their decision to emigrate and to break up the family permanently. I needed to understand them and the decisions they made. Self-exploration is daunting and I still feel it is a miracle that I took this on – revealing and sharing my pain and family history.

Since winning a Special Jury Prize at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, REUNIFICATION went on to screen at other festivals (Hong Kong Indie, DC Asian Pacific American, Macau), microcinemas (Northwest Film Forum, Maysles Cinema, Genesis Cinema UK), colleges (NYU, UCLA, Seattle U), and various libraries and art & cultural institutions (NYPLs, Chicago Cultural Center, Queens Museum, Gropius Bau Berlin). Without fail, during post-screening discussions, folks from all walks of life amazed me with their empathy and shared their similar yet unique heartfelt stories which fostered personal healing in everyone. It was also an honor to be able to share my experience at various workshops (NWFF) and talks (Sundance) on using family archival material for personal filmmaking.

Thank you for joining me on this journey.

-Alvin Tsang

P.S. I’m currently embarking on REUNIFICATION’s sequel entitled, WHEN HOME IS ELSEWHERE (WIP), reflecting on my father’s life as a war refugee, an orphan, a divorcee of several failed marriage, and a father. Looking forward to sharing this film with you once it’s done!