Sherry Cola, Randall Park, Justin H. Min and Ally Maki visit the IMDb Portrait Studio at Acura Festival Village at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22. Image source: Getty Images for IMDb / Corey Nickols

Last weekend was supposed to be full of happy festivities for those celebrating the Lunar new year. Instead, a shooting in Monterey Park, California – which left 10 people dead and 10 others injured – has piled tragedy and trauma on a community already reeling from a spike in anti-Asian violence in recent years.

On Sunday, after the announcement of the shooting, a group of actors and directors gathered in Park City, Utah, at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. They were there to talk about “Shortcomings”, a comedy drama directed by Randall Park. But the mood had changed in light of the mass shooting. At the start of the panel, hosted by the Sunrise Collective and Gold House, actor Daniel Dae Kim asked the crowd to observe a minute of silence for the lives lost.

Across the country, the Asian American community is in mourning, trying to navigate through another violent tragedy. Investigators are still looking for a motive behind the shooting, but it happened at a dance hall in a suburb of Los Angeles that is more than 65% Asian.

Cinema, however, can contribute to an ongoing healing process by amplifying Asian American voices and narratives, and “Shortcomings” is a prime example. Adapted from the graphic novel by Adrian Tomine, the film (which is also Park’s directorial debut) follows a Japanese-born man, Ben (Justin H. Min), who works at an art theater and Bay Area tryout and struggles when his girlfriend Miko (Ally Maki) decides to move to New York to pursue her own passions.

The film delves into the multiplicity of the Asian American experience with nuanced characters — and it features raw, flawed people who happen to be Asian.

“When I read ‘Gaps,’ I was so blown away at how ahead of its time it was. [graphic novel] came out in 2007, so when you watch the movie, you realize it’s so late. It’s so modern, yet timeless. I’m so glad we’re finally here,” Sherry Cola, who plays Ben’s queer friend Alice, said in the film on Sunday.

The cast of “Shortcomings” at the panel on January 22. Image source: Christine Chang

Although other Asian American films like “Crazy Rich Asians” and “better luck tomorrowwere part of the discussions during the production of “Shortcomings”, Park’s main intention was to create extremely human characters going through their individual struggles. They all grow and evolve, and learn to rely on each other to to support.

“The conversations in the film are real conversations that we have within our community and discussions that I have with my groups of friends. They are real, real things,” Park said during the panel discussion. “I didn’t want the characters or the movie to appeal to everyone. I wanted it to focus on the specifics of each character and their worlds.”

Hollywood films that depict underrepresented communities or communities of color often illustrate aspects of that culture that are unique, historically relevant, or educational. While these themes are certainly valuable, “Shortcomings” doesn’t focus directly on them. Instead, the fact that these characters are Asian is a vital backdrop, but not the whole point of the film.

“For Hollywood, intergenerational trauma and homecoming are interesting and important themes. But people don’t realize that individuals in ordinary life can be interesting to see on stage,” Min added during the panel. “[In ‘Shortcomings,’] it’s such a joy to have a very mundane look at the way we live and still be interesting.”

And as the public’s attention is focused on the tragedy in Monterey Park this week, this message is all the more important – as we learn more about the victims of the shooting, we must keep in mind the individuality of each person, their humanity. We need to keep talking about the stories that make us all unique.

“I think that speaking of [the movie,] it moves the culture and the community forward,” Cola said at the start of the panel, referring to the shoot. “I think showing grace and supporting each other is all we can do, you know?

Ultimately, Park emphasized that he wanted to create a straightforward narrative that reflected real-life experiences and perspectives within the Asian American community.

“I’ve always wanted to see a movie where Asian American characters hang out in restaurants, talk about complex things, and experience the stuff of life,” Park said. “[‘Shortcomings’] resonated with me because I saw myself a little bit in all the characters.”

Gaps premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on January 21.