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Banana Split

Kip Fulbeck

1991 00:37:30 United StatesEnglishColorMono

Description

Kip Fulbeck's landmark video, Banana Split, defined the genre of multiracial exploration in contemporary video, and established him as one of the premiere artists exploring Hapa and multracial identity. Completed while Fulbeck was still in graduate school, Banana Split screened throughout the U.S. and abroad, and is still used in hundreds of classes today. Fulbeck's brilliant storytelling takes the viewer from childhood fights to adult dilemmas, questions interracial dating patterns and media depictions of Asian men, and explores the idea of ethnic identity in a country which ignores multiraciality.

“Touches the raw nerves of Amerasian sensibility-the desire to embrace, yet question every cultural icon.”

—Chiori Santiago, “Don’t worry, be happa: Asian-American International Film Showcase examines hardships of Amerasians,” Oakland Tribune (8 March 1992)

"Gutsy, nasty, scary, funny... the odyssey of a young Chinese American man navigating through the crazy racial landscape of today's America."

--Eleanor Antin, Artist and Filmmaker

"[A] touching and fast-paced exploration of what it's like to grow up in a bi-racial family. Kip Fulbeck, by fearlessly and honestly tapping the ambiguities of his own Amerasian identity has produced a film that will profoke thoughtful discussions and may well bring tears to many eyes."

--Suchent Chan, Professor of Asian American Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

This title is also available on Kip Fulbeck Selected Videos: Volume One.

About Kip Fulbeck

Kip Fulbeck is a performance and video artist based in southern California. From a Cantonese, English, Irish, and Welsh background, he explores the Asian male experience through humorous and angry autobiographical stories. Fulbeck confronts media imagery of Asian men, interracial dating, and icons of race and sex in the United States, continually questioning where Hapas (people of mixed race with Asian or Pacific Islander ancestry) belong in a country that ignores multiraciality.