This course explores cinema by or about peoples in the Asian diaspora. We will examine documentary, experimental, and commercial films, with a specific focus on (queer) sexuality in multiple locations including the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. Throughout the semester, we will develop a theory of diaspora historically and critically attuned to its evolution in Asian studies (East Asian and South Asia) as well as Asian American studies. In this regard, we will we pay particular attention to the relationship between political-economy (revolution, exile, migration, immigration, refuge, settlement, labor, colonialism, transnationalism, and globalization) and cultural identity (sexuality, race, class, family, and kinship). Some of the directors we will be studying include Vivek Bald, Deann Borshay-Liem, Stephen Frears, Richard Fung, Jia Zhangke, Clara Law, Ang Lee, Michael Magnaye, Deepa Mehta, Rea Tajiri, Wong Kar-wai, Alice Wu, and Edward Yang.