Hmm, I figure I could be using this hour more productively, like writing the list serv letters to send out next week, filling out grant applications for more money, emailing Phil Yu to advertise our event, organizing sweatworkshops to make buttons, or even rebalancing our budget... but good lord, I'm so mentally exhausted. I didn't realize film festival was going to take over my life when it came time. We've been going along all year planning this event, but it's like reality took a dump on me and now I'm doing 50x more work than I've been doing all year and just within this week. >.< Ahh, I'm so thankful that Allison's co-director with me! It would have been too much for me without her... ;___; I feel like the tuition my parents are paying for this quarter is going towards stressing and planning this festival instead of attending all my classes... >.> Either way, I'm really pumped for the film festival to finally start! This week is hell in terms of publicizing the event, but I know that when we start the actual festival, it'll be fine. AHHH, I'M SO EXCITED! :D :D :D We really tried to branch out this year in terms of the ethnicities of the characters and/or directors; reaching out to the "minorities within the minority." We're still showing Chinese American, Korean American, and Vietnamese films, but this year we have a lot of short films representing the Hmong, Mongolian, South Asian, Malaysian, Singaporean, and LGBT communities. Out of all the minority films, I'm most excited about the LGBT short films because we have five! Five!!! That's five more than we had last year! Sadly, I've actually had Hmong and queer people express skepticism about what we're showing when I made presentations, but it's all true, baby! I'm also looking forward to showing the queer films because the director of three of two of those films, Boo Junfeng, addresses the issue of homophobia in the Singaporean army, which is like a double whammy for any queer Singaporean male. =/ But yessss, different perpectives! Come watch! You can check out our website, www.aaafilm.org, for more info. Here's the entire line-up of our film festival since the webmaster hasn't uploaded our booklet yet:
Asian American Association Film Festival Line-Up & Synopses
Opening Night May 5th – South Asian Spotlight: “A medley of films featuring South Asian actors & filmmakers.” Short Film: Guns www.vimeo.com/2692254 Director: Mel Melcer UK; 2008; 10 min. Synopsis: A British-Pakistani production assistant has to transport fake guns for a film shoot, but ends up getting stuck with them in a London suburb late at night. Short Film: Modern Day Arranged Marriage www.desipina.org/film Director: Rehana Mirza US; 2005; 5 min. Synopsis: Two young Indian Americans meet in a restaurant to interview each other. Is marriage on the menu, or just coffee? Feature Film: Kissing Cousins www.kissingcousinsmovie.com Director: Amyn Kaderali US; 2008; 99min. Synopsis: Amir is a “Termination Specialist” who is hired by clients to dump their significant others. His job leaves him as the last bachelor in his group of friends. After being accused of having “bad relationship karma,” he is ousted as the Best Man for his friend’s wedding. Now it is up to Amir and his beautiful English cousin, Zara, to hatch a plan to prove his friends wrong. Guest Speaker: Amyn Kaderali, Director Amyn Kaderali is the director of Kissing Cousins and the short film, Call Center. He also wrote the screenplays for the movies, Miles to Berkeley and Whatever It Takes. Amyn graduated from UCLA and received an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
May 7th – Child’s Play: “The loss of childhood and the desire for youth.” Short Film: S/he Director: Gina Pei Chi Chen Taiwan; 2007; 12 min. Synopsis: A twelve-year-old girl struggles to follow her expected gender and cultural roles while exploring an emerging masculine identity. Short: Hers at Last Director: Helen Lee Canada/S. Korea; 2008; 18 min. Synopsis: A pregnant Mongolian woman and a painter carry separate memories, but their lives are connected by a mysterious little girl on a scooter who inspires them to contemplate life’s possibilities. Feature: Owl and the Sparrow www.owlandthesparrow.com Director: Stephane Gauger Vietnam; 2007; 97 min. Synopsis: Thuy is a clever orphan who labors long hours in her uncle’s factory. Convinced that life has better things to offer, she runs away to Saigon where she meets Hai, a gentle and wise zookeeper with a broken heart, and Lan, a beautiful but lonely flight attendant. Thuy decides to play matchmaker for these two lonely hearts, hoping to create her own family, but she soon learns that matchmaking is more challenging than she thought.
May 8th - Family Games: “Because mothers always want ‘Family Night.’” Short: The Last Vacation Director: Jae-Ho Chang US; 2006; 10 min. Synopsis: Surrounded by a beautiful, yet cold and wintry landscape, a mother and son contemplate their last moments together. Short: The Chestnut Tree www.picnic-pictures.com/ Director: Lee Hyun-min US; 2007; 4 min. Synopsis: A young woman dreams about her childhood and being reunited with her mother underneath the chestnut tree. Feature: Ping Pong Playa www.pingpongplaya.com Director: Jessica Yu US; 2007; 96 min. Synopsis: Christopher “C-Dub” Wang is not at all interested in playing ping pong, preferring the basketball court to the pong table. However, when he is forced to take over his mother's job as a ping pong coach to a bunch of youngsters, hilarity ensues as Chris confronts his family’s passion and new found status as a role model to his students. Guest Speaker: Jimmy Tsai, Actor/Producer/Writer Jimmy is the actor, producer, and writer of Ping Pong Playa. He was also the producer of the documentary, Killing of a Chinese Fortune Cookie. He has been creating movie projects since his early teens, when the order of the day included everything from crime movie spoofs to commercials for the high school swim team. He is a graduate of the High School of Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas and UC Berkeley.
May 12 – Space & Desire: “Redefining and defying marriage, affairs, and the dynamics of interracial relationships.” Hmong Shorts Showcase // Abel Vang, Director www.myspace.com/abelvang Second Mother US; 2008; 3 min. Synopsis: A Hmong woman and her children experience discomfort when her husband brings home a new wife. The Wedding US; 2008; 3 min. Synopsis: A Hmong woman observes her young granddaughter donning traditional wedding clothes as she contemplates her difficult decision. -------- Music Video: Girls Like You Don’t Go For Guys Like Me charlesyi.com Director: Charles Yi Musician: Big Phony US; 2008; 5 min. Synopsis: A shy, Vietnamese American man is finally given a chance to make his move on the woman of his dreams in this cute and creative music video made entirely out of still photographs. Feature: Never Forever www.ginakim.com/neverforever.html Director: Gina Kim US/S. Korea; 2007; 102 min. Synopsis: When Sophie begins to see depression take hold of her Korean American husband, she decides that a baby is the best way to save their marriage. But when she learns that her husband is sterile, she secretly seeks the aid of an illegal Korean immigrant in an attempt to make her and her husband’s dream of a child come true. As her affair progresses, Sophie must reevaluate what she really wants and what will bring her the most happiness in life.
May 14th – Soul Searching: “Finding purpose and identity while breaking conventions.” Singaporean Shorts Showcase // Director, Boo Junfeng www.witheringtravis.com Homecoming (Keluar Baris) Singapore; 2008; 16 min. Synopsis: A young man must reconcile with reality when he returns home to Singapore after studying abroad in Spain to serve the compulsory two year military service. Katong Fugue Singapore; 2007; 10 min. Synopsis: A mother desperately tries to reach out to her son who leads a hidden life. -------- Short: One Night in LA www.tenbuckcut.com/Ray/ Directors: Ray Huang and Jon Maxwell US; 2009; 3 min. Synopsis: Stop-motion and high-speed photography create an impressionistic, mood piece set in the neon-filled atmosphere of Los Angeles. Feature: Option 3 www.option3movie.com Director: Richard Wong US; 2008; 72 min. Synopsis: Ken must run across San Francisco in an attempt to rescue his girlfriend, Jessica, after she is kidnapped. With her cell phone being the only trace of her left behind, Ken is sent on a reflective nightmare in search of his girl. A unique journey through the mind and heart from the director of Colma: The Musical.
Closing Night May 15th - “Love is love is not something else.” – “Love is love...and it hurts, but we still love.” Short: The Casuarina Cove (Tanjong Rhu) Directors: Boo Junfeng Singapore; 2008; 18 min. Synopsis: A former military officer seeks closure by making a documentary film after being arrested for trying to pick up another man in Tanjong Rhu, a popular cruising spot for Singapore’s gay men. Short: The Postcard Director: Josh Kim S. Korea; 2007; 14 min. Synopsis: A post office clerk mistakenly thinks that a customer is trying to get her attention by writing open love letters on the postcards he sends out. The question remains – are the postcards really for her? Feature: Sell Out! www.amokfilms.com Director: Yeo Joon Han Malaysia; 2008; 106 min. Synopsis: Sell Out! is a sharp satire of the doomed marriage between art and media disguised as a semi-romantic, semi-musical, semi-comical hodgepodge. The film follows Rafflesia Pong, a second-rate art show TV host, who willfully throws away her moral integrity in the search for success. She eventually crosses paths with Eric Tan, an honest and passionate inventor, who soon finds that integrity does not mesh well with business. | 
