I just learned that Amber Field will be at Pact Camp in July to show her new film about growing up Korean and queer in the Midwest. Below is an excerpt from a story about her:
“My teen years were really hard in the Midwest. I was adopted (in Korea) by a white American woman and also had an older adopted Taiwanese sister… I was sent to live with my grandmother in southern Illinois when I was eleven years old. It was a very white area (90%) with the remaining population of African Americans… I felt very much like an outsider, and I hated this feeling. People would make karate moves at me or spit on me or call me names, and these experiences were so shaming for me, that I would wish I could disappear. I never talked about them to my sister or my mom, and just held them inside. They were too painful and shaming, so instead I just tried to be white, and convinced myself that I was white like everyone around me…”
“This was also a hard time because it was adolescence, and I did not fit into gender norms. I felt tremendous pressure to conform from both my mother and schoolmates, and felt harassed and unaccepted for who I was. These experiences I didn’t really share either, but stored inside. I had no idea I was queer growing up. It was a very conservative, homophobic, military area, and even if I had any clue, I’m sure I would have suppressed it. Looking back the signs were there, but I was not conscious of being attracted to women. Basically, I swallowed most of these difficult experiences in the Midwest, and felt ashamed being different. Once I left the Midwest I had an awakening about being Asian, queer, and gender queer.”
Click here to read the whole interview. Reading this interview, I can imagine that her story makes for one amazing, powerful film! I am really looking forward to seeing it, and to meeting Amber at camp.
UPDATE: You can download for free and watch her 11 minute film here!
