More guests; Good turnout for the tastings; AIFP Seminar

Director Robin Lee and lead actress Terri Kwan will be in attendance of Friday's screening of My DNA Says I Love You. They will stay afterward for a 15 minute Q&A session.

We had a great turnout for our free tastings following movies in our Eat, Drink, Film section. Monday's tasting was by Shokudo, and they served seared ahi and beef tataki sushi. Tuesday's was by 'Licious Dishes and they served a salad, plus stuffed mushrooms and another vegetarian sample.

The American Immigrant Filmmakers on Profile seminar lasted almost two hours yesterday. There were many questions asked of the five directors and actors (Justin Lin could not attend, unfortunately), but the discussion that most interested me was about how they were perceived in their home country after growing up or spending a lot of time in America. Because of their Americanized mannerisms, way of speaking and acting, they were set apart from other native people of their countries. In particular, Max Uesugi and Reiko Tahara were talking about how their daughter, who is growing up in New York, was teased and considered a bit of an outsider when she visited Japan. Also, Dustin Nguyen talked about the importance of passing down language, food and other cultural experiences to children.