Rob Buscher

“If we are to successfully overcome these challenges and build a better America, we must first understand the history of racism in this country and how it continues to be perpetuated in order to ultimately disrupt these racialized propaganda narratives.” 

Rob Buscher, Board Chair of the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, is a film and media specialist, educator, arts administrator, and published author who has worked in non-profit arts organizations for over a decade. Robʼs expertise is Japanese and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Cinema, although he has worked as a professional film programmer, critic, and lecturer across a variety of fields. Some of his career highlights include growing the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival into an internationally recognized leader in the film festival circuit, developing the Japanese Cinema and Asian American Studies curriculum at Arcadia University, and co-founding Zipangu Fest - the United Kingdomʼs first Japanese Film Festival. Rob currently lectures at the University of Pennsylvania and is a contributing writer at Pacific Citizen. 

As a person of biracial Japanese American heritage who is deeply involved in his community, Rob also has an expertise in cultural sensitivity training, community organizing, and advocacy issues related to the AAPI community. He serves as President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the civil rights group Japanese American Citizens League and chairs the editorial board of Pacific Citizen, the organization’s national newspaper.   

As a filmmaker and curator, Rob sees art as an integral part of dismantling white supremacy. Rob chose a career in media after realizing that much of the racism he and his family experienced was directly related to WWII era anti-Japanese propaganda and subsequent anti-Asian stereotypes in American popular culture. He believes it is paramount for artists, educators, and activists to study and understand media in order to disrupt racialized narratives by creating positive and authentic portrayals of historically marginalized communities.

What big ideas have propelled your career?

“Growing up in a small town on the edge of rural/suburban Connecticut in the 1990s, my mixed race Japanese American family experienced a surprising amount of racism. I wondered why even fifty years after the end of WWII that there would be such intense hatred towards Japan and its American born descendants. Over time I came to realize that much of the racism we experienced was directly related to WWII era anti-Japanese propaganda, which had been perpetuated through news media and other facets of popular culture in the four decades between the war and my birth in the late 1980s.
These experiences inspired much of my work as a curator, writer, and educator as I have tried to provide a platform for Asian American creatives to challenge these negative stereotypes through positive and authentic portrayals of historically marginalized AAPI communities. However, after the 2016 election of Donald Trump and reemergence of xenophobic and racist bigotry within the realm of mainstream political discourse, it has become clear to me that this is not enough. If we are to successfully overcome these challenges and build a better America, we must first understand the history of racism in this country and how it continues to be perpetuated in order to ultimately disrupt these racialized propaganda narratives.
The vast majority of my work up to this point has been rooted in the need to eradicate racism from predominantly white institutions. To what extent that has been effective, I do not know, but it is a big idea that continues to drive the direction of my career.”

Where do art and your discipline meet?

“Art and my discipline are one and the same as a filmmaker and curator. I see art as an integral part of dismantling white supremacy, as it presents an opportunity for individuals to have difficult conversations about race, identity, and bias.
Cinema is particularly compelling in this respect, providing audiences with the opportunity to see the world through another person's eyes. Filmmakers can use this perspective to build empathy across communities, and challenge individuals to question preconceived notions they once held about communities they do not identify with. Of course, film also has the potential opposite effect, as it has often been used to divide societies based on the negative stereotyping of various minority groups.
That is why it is paramount for us as artists, educators, and activists to study and understand propaganda. By doing so we can identify negative propaganda in contemporary society, and find ways to create our own counter narratives using the same techniques that are being used against us.”

Biography:

Rob Buscher, Board Chair of the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival is a film and media specialist, educator, arts administrator, and published author who has worked in non-profit arts organizations for over a decade. As a person of biracial Japanese American heritage who is deeply involved in his community, Rob also has an expertise in cultural sensitivity training, community organizing, and advocacy issues related to the Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

Robʼs expertise is Japanese and AAPI Cinema although he has worked as a professional film programmer, critic, and lecturer across a variety of fields. Some of his career highlights include growing Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival into an internationally recognized leader in the film festival circuit, developing the Japanese Cinema and Asian American Studies curriculum at Arcadia University, and co-founding Zipangu Fest - the UKʼs first Japanese Film Festival. Rob currently lectures at University of Pennsylvania, and is a contributing writer at Pacific Citizen and Broad Street Review.

Rob serves as President of the Philadelphia Chapter of civil rights group Japanese American Citizens League and chairs the editorial board of Pacific Citizen, the organization’s national newspaper.