Tampa Bay area Asian American documentary premieres Saturday

Screengrab from Tian Liu's film "100 Stories, 100 Seconds."(Tian Liu / Courtesy)“What does America mean to you?”This is the question at the heart of filmmaker Tian Liu’s newest documentary, 100 Stories, 100 Seconds, which premiers Saturday as part of the Imagine Museum’s Asian Cinema and Cultural Experience. The film features 100 Asian Americans living in the Tampa Bay region who are each given 100 seconds to respond to this simple yet profound inquiry.Why such a short amount of time for such a dense question? Liu, who emigrated from China in her 20s to study film, explains the intentionality behind this decision:“One hundred seconds can’t tell a person’s life story, but it’s a good way to know somebody because I want to know the people around us in our neighborhoods. Everyone has a unique story, so I want to give them a chance to share it. It is not only an Asian story but also an American story.”The film, which clocks in at three hours, covers a lot of ground. It showcases Asian Ame