Shop. Let's see: Cassandra pouring songs about little warmth deaths like molasses in my ears and through my soul. Beholding Akira's blissed-out, enamoured expression after he had a little warm death (or several) with Daphne. Cassandra's songs that make me want to kiss. Those kisses between Akira (James Kyson Lee) and Daphne (Emayatzy Corinealdi). Cassandra teasing, "You better come on/in my kitchen/'cause it's gonna be rainin' outdoors." Akira sauntering to Daphne and whispering before his mouth touches hers, "You hungry?"
Love me some Cassandra (even had tickets for the show), but I saw Akira instead. And fell in love with the film just that much more. I also had the great pleasure of meeting and talking with the director, Joe Doughrity. Here's our interview.
AJ Plaid: Congratulations, by the way.
Joe Doughrity: Thank you.
AJP: Your inspiration for the film was what?
JD: My inspiration for the film was when I was traveling. I was in Japan for the first time in 2004, and I experienced a very vibrant hip-hop culture in the clubs. I’d go to these cafes, and there were these old men in their 70s and 80s—and there was the uncensored Biggie and Tupac playing. Hip-hop is alive and well in Japan, and there was no threat of violence, so the club scene is very vibrant. I also had some friends who were illegal immigrants, and I thought [that] it would be interesting to do a film about a Japanese illegal immigrant who loves hip-hop. That was sort of the basis.
AJP: That was the basis, but there’s also the sexual perspective of it--which is, as you said, rare to see in the United States an Asian or Asian American men romantically and/or sexually involved with Black women. Why did you decide to take that on as well?
JD: Well, we see a lot of Asian women with Black guys, but very rarely do we see the reverse. So I wanted to ask myself why: why don’t you see more Asian men going outside their community? Not only do Asian women date Black guys, they’ll date white guys, almost any race or ethnicity—they go out of their race moreso than any other group. So how come the Asian men don’t go outside their race? That exploration led to the events of Akira and why it exists. Would his parents be against it? What are his feelings on it? And the story came out of that.
Since then, there’s MySpace, Facebook, and all of these groups that have come up. At my screening in Los Angeles, I [met] a Japanese guy and a Black woman who met in high school and they have three beautiful kids. So, even though it’s a rare combination, it does exist.
AJP: In your opinion, why don’t Asian men and Black women commingle?
JD: There was an email that was sent out called “The Totem Pole”—
AJP: Which is?
JD: “The Totem Pole” was an email that stated Black women and Asian men were on the bottom of the totem pole of the social hierarchy, meaning that they were the least desirable. Not only was that offensive, but it was more ammunition to say what’s going on with this and what would caused these two people to come together. And, obviously, hip-hop is a unifier among all cultures. I’m also a fan of a Japanese film called “Tampopo”—
AJP: Yes! I love that film.
JD: --that was about food and sex, and I wanted to riff on that. I wanted [Akira] to be a Japanese film made by a Black guy. I don’t think that’s been done too much. That was my goal with the film.
AJP: Actually, another audience member and I were talking about Daphne’s outfits. We said that Daphne always looked good. If her tops were off-the-shoulders, her midriff was showing…
JD: Yes.
AJP: She always looked good so, of course, Akira would go back to her. Why did you dress her in a way that some viewers may see as objectified?
JD: Well, Daphne is beautiful—
AJP: Yeah, she’s hot.
JD: She’s beautiful in and of herself. Black women’s sexuality as always been maligned, and I wanted to show that she was a beautiful woman and a sexual creature, but not objectify her in a music-video sort of fashion. But I also didn’t want hide her. In fact, a lot of brothers see the movie and see that love scene and say, “Hey, man! You didn’t show her from the back enough! I couldn’t check her out!” I want this big, beautiful Amazon of a Black woman and this petite Japanese girl and have Akira make this choice. Both Black and white people seeing the film [may say], “Man, you’re crazy if you do go with the sistah"... who was his equal in all these other ways. I wanted to exemplify [Daphne’s] beauty without objectifying it.
AJP: As far as your future plans, you wanted to do what?
JD: We’re trying to turn this film into a feature. We have a full-length script, we have several attachments, and we’ve raised half the money to explore this more. There’s a rabid audience of people who wants to see something different, and they’re not being served by the mainstream fare that Hollywood is offering. I’m hoping this film shows that there’s an audience for a different kind of Black film. I call it “Nappy House,” like “art house.” (Laughs) Everything doesn’t have to be a gangsta shoot-‘em-up or other films that [people] may be comfortable with, like the broad comedies.
AJP: In the elevator, we were talking about Something New, and saying that every person has a white person in their family…
JD: I enjoyed Something New. I didn’t see it at the theaters. I saw the ads for the film. It just seemed like they were dumping on the brothas, like they were all gay or whatever, so I stayed away.
Then I saw the film on DVD, and I thought it was a very wonderful film, but I thought a lot of Black guys were not going to take their partner to the movies at the end of the week with their hard-earned money to a film that, according to the commercials, seem like it was bashing them. So I think that Something New is a wonderful film [concerning] Black-white relationships, but we’re about to have a presidential candidate who’s mixed. My last name is “Doughrity’; [my family] just did its family history, and I have just as much Irish and Scottish in me as I do African, though I consider myself a Black person…
AJP: Right.
JD: But I think that, with this combination, it is something different. Why don’t Blacks and Asians get together? There’s no history of animosity like there is with Black and White, so I really wanted to explore that.
AJP: Okay. Thanks again for this on-the-go interview. I wish you luck, and we’ll definitely be keeping up with each other.
JD: Thank you. I appreciate the interview.
Photo credit: Akira's Hip Hop Shop Flickr Gallery
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