DALY CITY
News:
• 7.30: Nick Hartanto is a guest speaker at the Asian American Arts Alliance Film & Media Town Hall
• 8.02: World Premiere at Asian American International Film Festival
• 8.06: Featured on The Amp's 10 Short Films Exploring the AAPI Experience recommendations list
• 8.23: Indonesian Film Festival New York
• 10.11 & 10.12: Hawai'i International Film Festival
• 10.11: Los Angeles Indonesian Film Festival
• 10.12: Nominated for HIFF's Oscar qualifying Best Short Award
• 10.19: Nominated for the Oscar qualifying Best Short Narrative Award at Woodstock Film Festival
• 11.08: Daly City is screening in the Award Nominated Shorts Program at PAAFF
Synopsis:
“Daly City” is an autobiographical story that examines themes of exoticism, assimilation and the model minority myth, through a playful tale about an Indonesian boy and his mother who pretend that Chinese takeout is actually a traditional family dish at a potluck in order to impress the largely white church community. The boy’s mother teaches him how to maneuver, perform and captivate in order to gain acceptance. But later that night, after witnessing his father getting ridiculed by his co-workers, the boy learns that this behavior can come at a cost; you can end up losing your culture, your sense of worth and even your very name.
Director's Statement:
"Daly City," is an autobiographical story that draws from my experiences growing up as an Indonesian immigrant in the Bay Area. There is a sense of urgency for me to tell this story now. We are living in a moment of self-examination for the AAPI community, and in recent years there has been much discourse about the idea of the "model minority myth,” a seemingly positive but damaging stereotype that exotifies Asian immigrants and attempts to define our sense of worth.
While this issue has historically been addressed in documentaries, it's rarely explored in fiction. In telling this story as a narrative film, I want the viewer to draw their own conclusions about the cost of assimilation, as told through the perspective of a young Indonesian-American boy straddling both cultures. For me, this story is about inspiring a new generation of immigrants so that we can both understand our parents' sacrifices in becoming the model minority and also transcend them.
From churchgoers manning buffet tables to the used car lots my father worked at, it was important for me to shoot in Daly City, in locations where the story actually occurred, even casting roles with people who were there when it happened.
I grew up in the Daly City fog and have always wanted to use it as a cinematic landscape - street lights glowing in the night sky like dandelions and the warm orange light of a family's home contrasting the dark foggy night.
From the Chinese takeout the mother pawns off as Indonesian, to the leftover donuts the father saves for his son after work, "Daly City" uses food to add conflict, satire and poetry.
Biography:
Nick Hartanto is an Indonesian-American filmmaker based in New York. His short film, “The Dishwasher,” which he co-directed, was awarded a Special Jury Mention at Tribeca 2019 and was then acquired by HBO Max. His next film, “Atrophy,” a genre bending story about his mother’s fight to recover from a stroke, premiered at Fantasia 2021 and toured the genre festival circuit, winning Best Performance at Brooklyn Horror and North Bend Film Festivals. Also a skilled Cinematographer, he shot the Adult Swim series “Hot Package.“ His commercial clients include Condé Nast Traveler, Netflix, FiveThirtyEight and Wieden+Kennedy. He was recently a guest speaker at the Asian American Arts Alliance Film & Media Town Hall and is currently touring festivals with his new film, "Daly City,” which explores subject matter that recurs frequently within his work: food, exoticism and the immigrant experience.
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