I recently heard from Jonald Reyes, director of the indie documentary That Asian Thing. It's a film that explores the issue of "low Asian American influence" within mainstream America. Basically, it asks why are there so few Asian Americans in arts and entertainment. A question we ask frequently around here.

For the past few months, That Asian Thing as been part of an online film competition through the Independent Features Film Festival, where the top 21 films would participate in the festival and compete for viewer awards. Through a massive campaign of email, listserves and Facebook/MySpace hype, The film won entrance into the festival and will screen later this month, July 27, at the Tribeca Cinemas in New York. For tickets, go here.

I had the chance to take a look at the film, and to be honest, it's not very strong and needs some work. It's pretty rough. But it does raise some very interesting issues, and at the very least, it's a good conversation starter. Plus, it's obvious that Jonald has put a lot of his heart into this documentary. To learn more about That Asian Thing and the screening, go here.