AAPI Documentary A-TOWN BOYZ From Tribeca Alum Eunice Lau Now Streaming On Amazon

A Town-Boyz, an official selection of the New York Asian Film Festival 2023 from acclaimed documentary filmmaker Eunice Lau, aims to address generational trauma within Asian families and hopes to combat the wave of anti AAPI sentiment in a post-COVID world.

Tribeca alum Eunice Lau's edgy and compelling documentary follows the narrative of rebellious sons of Asian immigrants seduced by gang life in the streets of Atlanta as they battle against racism and their parents' unrealistic expectations to be the "model minority". Set in the seedy underbelly of the Atlanta rap scene, the film was an official selection of the New York Asian Film Festival in 2023 and is now available on Amazon and Tubi.

A link to the official trailer is here.

"Eunice Lau's 'A-Town Boyz' offers a compelling journey into a unique chapter of the Asian-American experience. Its rich characters and captivating storytelling provide a glimpse into a rarely seen corner of life, which deeply resonated and moved me," says renowned filmmaker Josef Kubota Wladyka ("Tokyo Vice" /HBO TV series, "Narcos"/Netflix).

Home to about half a million Asian Americans, Atlanta has one of the largest Asian populations in the U.S. Following the 1965 Immigration Act when the restrictions on Asian immigration was relaxed, this wave of East Asian migrants, primarily from China, Japan and Korea, were typically from highly-educated socio-economic backgrounds.

The skills they brought as well as the economy of the time, allowed them to assimilate, and, in the process, affirm belief in the "American Dream" as fully realizable and possible. Then a second subsequent wave of Southeast Asian immigrants, primarily from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, followed in the mid to late 70s through 80s. Unlike the first wave of Asian immigrants, these new arrivals were often political or economic refugees seeking asylum from repressive regimes and were disproportionately from lower income and less educated households. Unskilled and poorly educated, they were ill-equipped to compete in the U.S. job market, that had by this time changed dramatically. Many manufacturing jobs had been lost and outsourced to developing countries.

In the face of the rapidly evaporating myth of the American Dream, the current generation of Asian American immigrants are confronted with the harsh economic realities in the U.S. that make it harder for less-educated, non-skilled BIPOC workers to find employment. The increased hardships led to a proliferation of Asian American gangs.

Lau spent almost a decade working the documentary which can now be streamed on Amazon here.