The continent’s biggest Asian and Asian American film festival, comprising more than 100 films and videos, opens tomorrow, March 11, in San Francisco.
Over 11 days, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) brings to Bay Area big screens world premieres, historical epics, spare documentaries, classics from the 1970s, historical epics, shorts (as brief as 2 minutes), dreamy allegories and more, from all over the globe.
“So what?” you cynics scoff, “Lots of film festivals do that.” But at what other festival will you find tales of inter-racial adoption from China and Korea, an Iranian-American director’s comedy about a half-Eskimo high-school girl who wants to be part of the in-crowd ("Dear Lemon Lima,"), a newly restored 1960 Korean psychological thriller ("The Housemaid") and a documentary about North Korea’s national women’s soccer team ("Hana, Dul, Sed…")?
SFIAAFF opens with “Today’s Special,” featuring a sous chef in a hoity Manhattan restaurant who has to take charge of his family’s dumpy Indian restaurant, and the oddball characters who change his life’s course. Aasif Mandvi, the "senior foreign-looking correspondent" on "The Daily Show," wrote the comedy and stars as the sous chef, and Indian cuisine diva Madhur Jaffrey plays his matchmaking mother.
The curtain closer in San Francisco on March 18--and the opener of the festival’s weekend in San Jose, March 19-21--is "Au Revoir Taipei," which centers on a madcap run through night-time Taipei by a love-struck youth and a cast of quirky characters. The debut feature by Bay Area-born writer-director Arvin Chen has Wim Wenders as one of its executive producers.
Other notables in the SFIAAFF line-up:
--Focus on Filipino and Fiipino American Cinema
The festival’s retrospective of the work of Lino Brocka, the Philippines’ pioneering and most famed filmmaker, comprises four of his best films. Brocka’s melodramas criticized Ferdinand Marcos, captured the dark and raw sides of Manila and portrayed the horror and misery of slums built atop mountains of garbage.
Also part of this focus is “Ninoy Aquino and the Rise of People Power,” a new documentary about the opposition leader, and a collection of classic Filipino-American shorts.
--Japan’s World War II occupation of China: “City of Life and Death,” by Chinese director Lu Chuan, depicts Japan’s 1937 massacre in and occupation of Nanking from the point of view of individuals, including collaborators, foreigners, a Japanese soldier and a Chinese soldier. “Lessons of the Blood” taps archival information and new interviews to reveal the truth about Japanese atrocities in China, including human experimentation and the use of biological weapons. This expose about Japan’s re-writing of history, which gets its world premiere at SFIAAFF, is not for the faint-hearted.
--“Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest”: An allegory about the disaffection of urban life in modern China, by leading Chinese contemporary artist Yang Fudong.
--“Tehran Without Permission”: A glimpse of simmering tensions in Tehran before last year’s explosive elections, shot with only a Nokia cell phone camera.
--Films Involving San Francisco
- “A Moment in Time”--Documentary tracing the history and significance of San Francisco Chinatown’s former movie theaters.
- "The Bonesetter’s Daughter: Making of an Opera"--Documentary-in-progress about the making of the opera, which is based on Amy Tan’s novel. The opera premiered at San Francisco Opera.
- "Aoki"--Profile of Japanese American Richard Aoki, a friend of Huey Newton and Bobby Seale’s and a founding member of the Black Panther Party. Aoki died last year.
- "Hold the Sun"--Magical-realism is used in this film about four separate women grappling with loneliness in San Francisco.
- “Manilatown Is In the Heart: Time Travel with Al Robles”--Tribute to Filipino activist and poet Al Robles, who died last year.
--3-D and Off-Screen
March 12, 13: Night-time parties with underground bands and DJs.March 13:
- Festival Forum--A bash at Japantown Peace Plaza with live musicians and other performers.
- Up Close & Personal with the Asian American Film Industry--An interactive workshop with filmmakers and producers.
- An Afternoon with Aasif Mandvi--The writer and star of “Today’s Special” talks about his career.
March 15: CAAM 30th Anniversary Gala. This year is the 30th anniversary of the film festival’s organizer, Center for Asian American Media. CAAM also funds films and has the country’s biggest distribution library of Asian American films. Gala tickets are $175.
28TH SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
DETAILS: March 11-18 at venues in San Francisco and Berkeley; March 19-21 at venues in San Jose and Berkeley.
For schedule and ticketing information, see www.asianamericanmedia.org.
