{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2Fabe49fb2-1104-48c9-88ff-8ced6f8145a5","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"Season 8, Ep. 10: Hope Frozen","description":"We\u2019ve arrived at the last episode of Saturday School Season 8, which explored the history of Asian American sci-fi films! And we end this semester of boundary-pushing imagination with a\u2026 documentary! Pailin Wedel\u2019s \u201cHope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice\u201d from 2018, which is available to watch on Netflix.\n\n\u201cHope Frozen\u201d is about a Thai family who decide to have their two-year-old daughter Einz\u2019s body cryogenically preserved in Arizona after she dies of brain cancer. Arguably an Asian American immigration story? \n\nWhile to some, it may seem like they're embarking on a fringe pseudoscience -- or alternately, that they're forcing their daughter to be a time traveler -- the film is a quiet mediation on family, love and grief. It's a scientific quest passed along from father to son (who of course is named Matrix) to accelerate, perhaps even invent, the technology to give Einz a second chance at life. She is the youngest cryopreserved patient to date.\n\nOne of the reasons this season of sci-fi has been illuminating is because Asian American cinema often values authenticity, a natural reaction from a community that has seen their images distorted in Hollywood. But with recent films like \"Everything Everywhere All At Once\" and \"After Yang,\" there seems to be a hunger for Asian American stories that may seem impossible or dare to rewrite the future. \n\nIt\u2019s been 6 years since we started Saturday School: Sept 8, 2016 to be exact. The landscape of Asian American cinema has changed a lot since then. Thanks for listening, reading and joining us on this journey!","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/a0bcb5bc-1995-475e-963a-43dfd1cfa8a0/artworks-qyvftmdiitusv0ps-zoogwq-t3000x3000.jpg"}