GERALD McCLARD / Union-Tribune Works by Ron Tuatagaloa (left) Cheryl Kanekar and Michael Chen will be shown in the Asian Film Festival's “Reel in the Vote” program.

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Three brief documentaries by San Diego filmmakers – Michael Chen's “Absent Voices,” Cheryl Kanekar's “Banana Republic,” Ron Tuatagaloa's “The Greater Good: The Political Journey of Tom Hom” – consider this provocative dilemma: Why Asian-Americans don't vote.

They are some of Henri Matisse's most famous words. “What I dream of, is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter,” the iconic 20th-century painter wrote in 1908. He then compares a successful work of art to a good armchair.