Ashima

This documentary is a must watch. Ashima is not only a childrens' heroine but also a role model of how we should see parenting and its impacts across generational commutation and transitioning immigrant heritage. The story is touching, engaging, and relate-able from every aspect. From start to end, the story is completely normalized as a pre-teen to early teen account of one of the best climbers, who grows up in accelerated fashion under a loving yet strict and commanding father/coach. They tackle a V14 bouldering problem together, and every step of the way they never seem like they will be able to succeed at the feat. Please watch!

The movie is about Ashima's amazing ability to climb. But I was interested in the father-daughter relationship. Many Asian Americans like myself will relate to how strict the father is. When I was a kid, I was so angry at my dad for being a hardass. I can see Ashima has elder parents. She's 13 in the doc. As a parent myself, I understand the father's strictness because he might feel he only has so much time to prepare Ashima for adulthood. That's why he's so hard on her. There are other reasons he pushes her to work hard, but I'm not going to get into them. I don't want to be authoritarian like my father or Ashima's father. How do I break my generational trauma? Anyway, those are the issues I thought about after watching the film. I'm glad I caught a morning screening at the Milwaukee Film Festival. Film editor Samuel J. Rong offered insight about the movie. That was super cool. To watch Ashima climb was an absolute joy.- Jenny Lee.