UNC Mixed AAPI Student's Heritage (MASH), in its efforts to promote Asian-American and Pacific Islander culture, will host its first ever UNC CineMASH event on Friday from 6:00 to 9:30 p.m. The Asian-American film festival will be complete with dumplings and a discussion panel to talk about the issues brought up in the films after the event.
Josh Jiang, UNC student and MASH’s political chair, had the idea for CineMASH after interning with an Asian-American film and media company called Visual Communications.
During his internship, Jiang helped the film group put on the annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Jiang explained that his experiences with Visual Communications this past summer are what inspired CineMASH.
“I was like, 'Hey, why shouldn’t we have this here, too?'” he said.
Some of the films to be shown next Friday at CineMASH were also screened at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival this year.
People who plan to attend the festival should expect a varied mix of six thought-provoking short films, ranging from five to 30 minutes long, about issues Asian-Americans face.
In addition to the screenings, attendees should expect free food. MASH will be serving homemade dumplings for anyone who attends.
“We wanted the food part to be meaningful. We could’ve just done pizza, or something that we knew would be popular," Harrison Lee, MASH’s main events coordinator, said. "In MASH, we have a lot of different backgrounds from all over Asia, and one thing that seemed to be in common was that many of these countries have some sort of dumpling-type dish. It’s something that, this demographic that we’re shooting for, that they can all enjoy, and they can all connect to.”
CineMASH was made possible by MASH, the Carolina Union Activities Board and the Carolina Asia Center. It is part of a month-long series of events called APIAutumn, aimed increasing awareness and catering to the needs of the Asian-American community in Chapel Hill.
