Me Love You Long Time

I am 1 of several artists of Southeast Asian descent who is included in a group multi-media art show @ Aljira (Newark, NJ) that features artists using “various media and complicated visual strategies to upend or explore gender expression, sexuality, sex work, and new subjectivities.”  Curated by Edwin Ramoran, it’s appropriately entitled Me Love You Long Time after the lines from Stanley Kubrick’s film Full Metal Jacket where a Vietnamese prostitute hustles two American GI’s and initially asks if they have girlfriends in Vietnam.  One soldiers replies, “No–not just this minute.”  She continues, “Well, baby, me so horny.  Me so horny.  Me love you long time. You party?”  Her lines were then geniusly re-sampled and made infamous by 2 Live Crew.  Ahh, the power of Artists to transform everyday socio-political stuff into Art…

Why am I included?   I used to work as a stripper several moons ago and am currently in production on the documentary License to Pimp which chronicles three strippers and the choices they make as they respond to illegal labor conditions.  Many of my films explore queer female sexuality.  My first documentary Straight for the Money (1994) was about lesbian and bisexual women doing sex work.  What am I showing?  I’m showing a short experimental film called ent-homo-philia (2003) about a woman who’s undergoing a transformation.  On April 4, 2012 during Aljira’s day-long symposium, I’ll show an excerpt from License to Pimp.  If you want to stay current with progress on this film or my work, please sign up for my mailing list.

ME LOVE YOU LONG TIME

February 16th, 2012 – April 14th, 2012

http://aljira.org/

April 4, 2012 @ 6pm in NYC:   Third Streaming (10 Greene St., 2nd floor, NY, NY 10013)

April 14 @ 11am @ Aljira:  Symposium with Artists

ARTISTS in SHOW:  Diyan Achjadi, Reza Afisina, Tai Chi Alfonso, Nicole Awai, Hima B., Yason Banal, Anjali Bhargava, Isauro Cairo, Lynne Chan, PierSath Chath, Vanna Chin, Susan Choi, Cecile Chong, Young Chung, Jon Cuyson, Cirilo Domine, Oasa DuVerney, Richard Fung, Permi Gill, Vicente Golveo, Akintola Hanif, Skowmon Hastanan, Swati Khurana, Andrew H. Kim, Naruki Kukita, Viet Le, Sokchanlina Lim, Mail Order Brides/M.O.B., Yeni Mao, Zavé G. Martohardjono,Tala Mateo, Gabby Quynh-Anh Miller, Ivan Monforte, Gloria Shuri Nava, Hoang Tan Nguyen, Phuong Linh Nguyen, Sokuntevy Oeur, Mariko Passion, Tomiko Pilson, Johanna Poethig, Pulang Alakdan, Clifford Landon Pun, Ling Quisumbing, Vanessa T. Ramalho, Rico J. Reyes, Larilyn Sanchez, Maitree Siriboon, SLAAAP! (Sexually Liberated Asian Artist Activist People!), Joel B. Tan, Teresa Nasty, The New Sound Karaoke with Black Waterfall & Bobby Service, Nodeth Vang, Nathan Lam Vuong, and Maria Yoon.

Me Love You Long Time @ Aljira 2012 (work by Mariko Passion)

RIP, Anna Jackson. You were a Warrior.

HIV Sisters: Anna Jackson (2008)

I was sucked into the Facebook vortex this past MLK weekend when I saw an update from Anna Jackson.  It was actually posted by her daughter, Rissa.  The updates here posted as if Rissa were speaking directly to her mother.  I was in shock.  Anna passed away on January 12, 2012.  Rissa was mourning the loss hoping to channel her mother and received tremendous support from Anna’s circle of family and friends.   It was difficult to believe that Anna is no more.  Her personality just filled up the room that it’s hard to imagine that we no longer get that.

I met Anna Jackson in the summer of 2008 while doing an artist residency with members of the New Jersey Women & AIDS Network (NJWAN).  I wanted to collaborate with women and girls who were infected, impacted, & at risk for HIV/AIDS and who felt comfortable sharing their stories for a video project that would become a living, digital HIV/AIDS quilt called HIV Sisters.  It wasn’t easy finding women and girls who wanted to participate in spite of trying to recruit people for a few months.  But Anna stepped up to the challenge without any hesitation: she was fearless.  Anna knew her story was important and wanted to share it with others to make a difference.

Hello world!

This is the production journal for Hima B., an independent filmmaker.

Stay tuned for updates on projects that I’m directing.