from kudzu
From Kudzu is a first-person, personal and historical documentary that traces the movement of Asians to the U.S. and the subsequent generations that carved new identities amongst a harsh landscape.
HOPE
MELANIE
NASH
A poetic and personal documentary, From Kudzu explores the identities of three Asian American filmmakers from the U.S. South.
Through a road trip tracing a plant’s rise and fall mitigated by the hand of the U.S. government, the filmmakers illustrate their placement, movement and history of their racial identities in proximity to kudzu.
Nash is a Filipino American from western North Carolina; Hope is a mixed Japanese American from central North Carolina; and Melanie is a Vietnamese American from northeast Florida. Yet the thing that drives us together to produce this film is our common differences (how we are othered in Asian American and Southern spaces) rather than our assumed shared identities.
What is kudzu?
Kudzu is a viney legume originating from East Asia introduced to the South for erosion control by the U.S. government. In the South, cotton was driving the economy. But because the crops weren't maintained well and consistently, cotton dried out in the South. In search of a replacement plant that could replicate the success of cotton, especially because of the climate in the south, the U.S. government landed on kudzu.
They paid farmers
$8 an acre to plant kudzu.
Growing at a “mile a minute,”
kudzu covers over 7.4 million
acres throughout the South.
During the road trip, we visit kudzu chefs, artists and rehabilitators, each with their own reclaimed relationships with the plant. Every interaction informs our own relationship with kudzu and our paralleled connection with our Asian American identity in the U.S. South.
We want to illustrate the Asian American existence in the South and legitimize ourselves in
the fabric of the region.
We are highlighting that the Asian American existence presents itself
beyond California or New York.
We exist in Appalachia, in the bible belt, and in the Gulf Coast. We have rich and powerful communities in these pockets of the South while
co-opting this perception of “Southern identity” and reclaiming
it for our survival.
What’s next?
From Kudzu is in production as of 2024.
We represent a new generation of cultural exchange between the U.S. and the countries from which our parents originated.
Our aim is to complete our story’s production in Asia, specifically in each of our origin countries of Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines. It’s essential that we investigate the origins of this vine in the soil where it has grown for millennium. Moreover, it’s a paramount emphasis in understanding our placement, identity and proximity to our histories in the
U.S. South.
We are currently raising funds to continue producing our story.
Interested in supporting our story?
Reach out to us at: fromkudzu@gmail.com.