I had the pleasure of meeting Eliaichi Kimaro when she submitted her feature film, A Lot Like You, to the 2012 Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival. We unfortunately were unable to fit this terrific documentary into our lineup that year, but Eliaichi lead a workshop on documentary filmmaking that was very well received.
Official synopsis, courtesy of www.alotlikeyoumovie.com:
Eliaichi Kimaro is a mixed-race, first-generation American with a Tanzanian father and a Korean mother. Once her parents retire and move back to Tanzania, Eliaichi begins a project that vividly captures the many layers of multiracial identity and grapples with the tangled ties children hold to their parents' cultures.
Kimaro sets out to document her father's return to his family and to Chagga culture. Along the way she faces her own uneasy relationship with Tanzania and learns more about a heritage she once took for granted as a child. As she talks with more relatives, especially her aunts, she uncovers a cycle of violence that mirrors her work and life in the United States. When Kimaro brings up the oppression her aunts endure with her parents, she finds a striking generational divide among immigrants over patriarchy and violence.
Here are the upcoming 2013 screening and speaking dates (check the website often for updates!):
October 23: ALLY screening/lecture events with filmmaker at University of New England(Maine).
October 17 @ 7pm: Director Eliaichi Kimaro speaks at Knox College (Galesburg, IL), in an event sponsored by the Center for Intercultural Life.
October 15-16: ALLY screening/panel/lecture events with filmmaker at DePaul University(Chicago), including Laura Kina‘s class on Mixed Race Art and Identity.
October 14: ALLY screening/lecture at Lincoln Land Community College (Springfield, IL)
October 8 @ 6:30pm: Vancouver Asian Film Festival presents A Lot Like You screening + discussion w/Director Eliaichi Kimaro. Alice MacKay room, Vancouver Public Library.
October 2: A Lot Like You screening & discussion w/filmmaker at California State University–San Marcos. Sponsored by Gender Equity Center and LGBTQA Pride Center.
October 1@ 7pm: A Lot Like You screening & discussion w/filmmaker at University of Redlands (Orton Center).
September 19 @ 7:30pm: Director Eliaichi Kimaro will be presenting at the 2013 Critical Ethnic Studies Conference, sponsored by The Institute For Research on Race and Public Policy at The University of Illinois At Chicago.
September 18 @ 7:30pm: Director Eliaichi Kimaro will speak at Venango College (PA) at the Rhoades Center (following ALLY campus screening on 9/16).