"Yellow fever"—the sexual and romantic preference of non-Asian men for Asian women—is a polarizing topic in mainstream culture; is it empowering or demeaning to feel desired based purely on how black your hair is, or how narrow your eyes are? San Francisco-based filmmaker Debbie Lum initially conceptualized her feature-length debut as an exposé about men like Steve, a gleeful sixty-year-old parking-garage attendant who has spent years corresponding with Asian women he’s met on the Internet. Lum’s plan changes, however, when Steve’s new online love, Sandy, a thirty-year-old from Huangshan, China, comes to California to marry him. The new couple quickly discovers that their Internet dreams of love and life may not actually pan out in reality, however, and as misunderstandings become rifts Lum becomes more than just an observational documentarian, but a confidante, counselor and translator.

A highly intimate documentary about an unconventional relationship, Seeking Asian Female uses the unique romance at its center to address larger issues such as the immigrant experience, cultural conflict, and what it means to love. Humanist and surprising, it showcases the mail-order bride as a strong-willed woman and the man stricken with yellow fever as the one with a heart full of love. Lum’s final words in the film echo the truest: "When it comes to relationships and documentaries, you have to have an open mind."