Most people tend to associate B-boying (a.k.a. break-dancing) with African-American or Latino cultures. So how is it that a community of Hmong people found themselves smack in the middle of such a peripheral form of cultural expression?
Documentarian Christopher Woon will tell you how. After all, he has studied this subject for more than seven years, and his documentary “Among B-Boys” is proof that the act of B-boying has spilled over into many cultures and continues to have a strong influence on the lives of young people.
In 2004, Woon was a UCLA student who began working on a documentary short through the Asian American media arts center Visual Communications’ Armed with a Camera fellowship program. He had decided to focus on a dance crew in the California Central Valley known as the “Velocity Crew”.
Woon, a fifth generation Chinese American, was eager to begin his work. However, like any good filmmaker who is going to chronicle real life, he had to first win the trust of those people he intended to film. Being accepted by the Hmong people was his first step on his filmmaking journey.
The Hmong people in the United States have an interesting, and in some ways, a heartbreaking background. For centuries, the Hmong people lived a mostly agrarian life in the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. However, during and after the Vietnam War, many of the Hmong in Laos were aligned with the United States. As a result, our government accepted them into the U.S. as refugees.
With their newfound freedom, also came culture shock. Like the millions of immigrants who had come here before, the Hmong would be faced with many daunting issues. Would they be expected to jump into the “melting pot”? And at the same time, how much of their own heritage could or should be preserved?
As Woon would soon witness, many of the young Hmong were eager to embrace elements of popular U.S. culture, while many of their parents frowned upon their children’s new interests. Yet for the young people, Woon explained that b-boying would serve as a means “of asserting their own indentity, as well as, defining what it means to be Hmong.”
It didn't take long for the Hmong community to embrace Woon. So too, in the process of making his documentary short, he discovered that there was much more to the story he had started to tell. Thus, in 2006, he would receive another fellowship that would enable him to further develop his film into a full-length documentary.
Whereas in the early days, many of the b-boys in the Merced crew did get involved in gang activity, those that followed their older brothers onto the dance floor took a decidedly different approach. Woon’s film highlights some of the positive outcomes that these young people experienced as a result of b-boying.
During the course of his journey, Woon who directed and also edited the documentary, spent countless hours at work. What’s more, when some members of the Merced crew moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in search of a better financial future, Woon followed them halfway across the country.
Eventually, when it was time to begin editing, Woon’s feat was monumental. How do you take numerous hours of footage, acquired over a considerable amount of time, and cut it down to a film with a running time of fifty-eight minutes? Add to this, Woon’s commitment to telling a truly reflective story that portrays his subjects with the utmost genuineness, and it is not surprising that he sometimes became disheartened.
Interestingly, however, his subjects, whom Woon now considers his friends, were the ones who often urged him on. They told Woon, “What we’re doing is good. It’s a message to the Hmong Community.”
Woon, who’s been nominated for best director in the film festival, said the b-boys’ encouragement reminded him just how important the project was to him.
“(Their words) Renewed my dedication and helped me get to the finish line,” Woon said.
(The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival runs from April 28-May 7 at the Directors Guild of America, Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theatre, and CGV Cinemas, amongst other venues. “Among B-Boys” will be shown on Wednesday, May 4 at 9:15 p.m. at CGV Cinemas-Theater 1. The theater is located at 621 S. Western Avenue, Los Angeles 90005. Click here to purchase tickets.)
Comments