Asian-American cinema is coming of age as a new generation of directors as well as established filmmakers agonize less over identity, and instead cross borders to explore more universal themes.
These fluid frontiers and global dynamics are being showcased at San Francisco's 26th annual International Asian American Film Festival, the largest of its kind in North America, which opened on Thursday.
"So many Asian-American filmmakers are looking abroad for stories and actors and financing," said festival director Chi-hui Yang.
He points to films such as "Both Never Forever" about adultery in a marriage and "West 32nd" which have both Korean and Asian-American actors.
They also have Korean financing, Yang said, highlighting the kind of international co-production which is happening more and more.
This crossover is helping to blur the lines between Asian and Asian-American cinema, said assistant festival director Taro Goto.
"Increasingly, I see that Asian-Americans no longer need to explain who they are," he said. "It's just a given and a subtext, not the subject matter."
"Pretty to Think So", which premiers at the festival, is an example of this trend, focusing on a love story set in the economy of post dot-com New York, rather than on the ethnicity of the main characters, Goto stressed.
At the same time, Asian-Americans are returning to their roots and heading back to Asia, he said, pointing to such actors as San Francisco Bay Area native Daniel Wu who has moved to Hong Kong and become a superstar of Asian movies.
"Movie makers are graduating from the identity phase and embracing a more direct connection with Asia," said Goto. "'Always B-Boyz' is set in Korea, 'Amal' is set in India and 'Santa Mesa' was made in the Philippines."
Wu leads the cast in "Blood Brothers," set in 1930s Shanghai, which will be among the 120 movies screened at the 10-day festival.
The San Francisco festival opened Thursday with a Wayne Wang movie "A Thousand Years of Good Prayer" about a father from Beijing coming to America to try and connect with his daughter.
It marks a return to independent films for the director of "The Joy Luck Club" after making such Hollywood hits such as "Maid in Manhattan" with Jennifer Lopez and "Last Holiday" with Queen Latifah.
Wang's first feature "Chan is Missing" was screened at the inaugural festival in 1982, and Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Spencer Nakasako said even then the movie stood out.
"In the beginning most of the movies were docs," said Nakasako.
"Then there were some experimental films and a few short dramatics and then Wayne busted through with a feature. I remember sitting in the audience, going, 'Damn, it's a real movie.'"
Other film highlights this year are "The Home Song Stories," with actress Joan Chen, who stars as a nightclub singer in Australia, and "West 32nd," a noir-style movie set in Manhattan's Koreatown with John Cho.
Playwright and filmmaker Phillip Kan Gotanda, who is a juror in the narrative competition, said the festival, in this city with a population that is about 40 percent Asian, helps to define what it means to be Asian-American.
"Borders are not dissolving, but they are becoming more fluid," he said.
"Asians in America are coming of age and America is more than just black and white. Asians are becoming part of the fabric of the country."