Overview

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival is a noncompetitive festival open to the public, being held at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theaters in San Francisco and at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley March 10 through 15.

The Festival has been sponsored by the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA) since 1983, which provides media fund grants programs, exhibitions, showcasing the best new Asian films, working with PBS and handles distribution. The Festival offers the opportunity for critics, scholars and serious film buffs to see new works and serves as a forum for filmmakers, producers, distributors and educators.

Included on the program are 96 films and videos, 28 features, 8 feature documentaries, 68 shorts, four panel discussions, 12 world Premiers and 15 U.S. premiers. Represented in the festival are the following countries: Canada (8); China (2); Hong Kong (5); India (3); Japan (3); Korea (3); Philippines (2); Singapore (2); Taiwan (4); Thailand (1); United Kingdom (6); and the United States (57).

World Premiers :
A Wok in Progress, Arnold Iger and Paul Kwan, US
Of Civil Wrongs and Rights:The Fred Korematsu Story, Eric Fournier, US

U.S. Premiers:
Bad Girls Trilogy, Yao-Ting Wen, Jing-Jie Lin, Ying-Yu Chan, Taiwan
Boys for Beauty, Mickey Chen, Taiwan
Connection by Fate, Wan Jen, Taiwan
Dreamtrips, Kal Ng, Canada/Hong Kong
First Love and Other Pains, Simon Chung, Hong Kong
M/Other, Nobuhiro Suwa, Japan
Rainbow Trout, Park Chong-won, Korea
Tel-Club, Murakami Kenji, Japan
Toro, Jose Javier Reyes, Philippines

The Festival kicks off with San Francisco Bay Area filmmaker Deann Borshay's personal documentary First Person Plural. Ms. Borshay lived in an orphanage in South Korea and at the age of nine, in 1966, boarded a plane to the United States all alone to be greeted by her Caucasian adoptive American parents. This was the destiny of many children from Korea after the war. Through disturbing dreams and flashbacks Deann, the former Kang Ok Jin, confronts her early years and remembers that she was actually switched for another child in the orphanage. Her journey weaves through inner struggles - juggling two cultures, two families and two countries. A gala reception follows the opening.

The final film of the Festival, Post Concussion was shot in the San Francisco area and is a comedy focusing on the invasion of lap top computers, cell phones on the dizzying world of business people.

Restless, directed and written by Jule Gilfillan is the first U.S.-China co-production and first English language film set in contemporary Beijing. The producer is Peter Shiao.

Queer Cinema reflects the diversity of the Asian Diaspora by showcasing several queer programs. Highlights are Flaming Boys in Floating Cities, which includes a documentary and a narrative providing intimate glimpses into the complex worlds of gay Taiwan and Hong Kong. Boys for Beauty is by gay rights activist Mickey Chen. It is the first documentary to have received a theatrical release in Taiwan and reflects the harsh realities of growing up queer in Asia. First Love and Other Pains by director Simon Chung explores the love and pain between a Hong Kong college student and his reluctant English teacher. She Makes Me Wanna are a series of shorts by female media makers.

Four Festival Seminars are scheduled for the weekend of March 11 and 12. The State of the Artists is moderated by Stephen Gong, NAATA Board of Directors and Associate Director Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. It's focus is on the growth of Asian American film/video and the impact on Asian American's self-identity; The Digital Future - Beyond Blair Witch with Anne Etheridge of Bay Area Video Coalition and Paul Lundahl of eMotion Studios. The focus is on the exciting new possibilities of story telling with enhanced options now available; Bright Lights, Dark City with award winning directors and actors relating their experiences in front of and behind the camera, and Asian American Film Festival Round Table, moderated by Brian Lau, Director of the Film Festival. The panel will discuss the national scope of Asian American cinema activities.

The 18th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival opened March 9 with San Francisco Bay Area filmmaker Deann Borshay's First Person Plural and closed March 16, 2000 with a sold out screening of Daniel Yoon's film Post Concussion. A set of bookends, both created by Korean American filmmakers.

Held at the multiplex Kabuki 8 Theatres in San Francisco¹s Japantown and at the Berkeley Film Archive, this year¹s Festival attracted some 15,000 filmgoers - up from 12, 500 in 1999. Twenty five of the sixty nine programs sold out. The importance of this festival to Asian Americans and Asian filmmakers is not to be underestimated. San Francisco is the perfect venue for a festival of this nature, as it is situated on the Pacific Rim and boasts a huge and diverse Asian population.

Among the guests were directors Park Chong-Won from Korea (Rainbow Trout), Jose Javier Reyes from the Phillipines (Toro) and Tony Bui, director of last year¹s opening film Three Seasons. Stars attending included Winai Kraibutr, lead actor of Nang Nak, a tragedy set in the rural Thailand in the 19th century. Actress Sandra Oh (Double Hapiness), Arliss, Last Night) and actress/editor Maysie Hoy along with Tony Bui served as panelists on "Bright Light, Dark City," sharing the triumphs and tribulation of their professional experiences. Representatives from the Hawaii international Film Festival and the Discovery Channel were among the other honored guests..

The Festival hosted over 100 filmakers, directors and programmers from around the world. Since this is a non-competitive film festival, no awards were given; however, several were already prize-winners. Two films from India had received major awards at Cannes 99: Marana Simhasanam (The Throne of Death) by Murali Nair, which won the Camera D¹Or, and Vanapastham, The Last Dance, which took the Certain Regard Prize. Thailand¹s Nang Nak garnered the Netpac at Rotterdam and Yesterday Children from the Philippines was an audience award winner and runner-up to American Beauty at last year¹s Toronto Film Festival. The opening night film, First Person Plural just won the Bay Area Documentary Golden Gate Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival.

The two world premiers were A Wok In Progress and Of Civil Wrongs And Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story, both from the United States. The latter was a high point of the festival. Fred Korematsu is a local civil rights leader who fought against the forced internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. He received standing ovations on two separate occasions and San Francisco Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr. declared March 13 Fred Korematsu Day at the world premiere.

Another standout film was The Dreamcatcher, a remarkable road movie by director Ed Radtke. Three community screenings brought artists, educators and over 300 young people together.

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival is produced and presented by the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA). NAATA¹s mission is to advance the ideals of cultural pluralism in the United States and to promote better understanding of Asian Pacific American experiences through film, video, radio and new technologies. A captivating and visually stunning short, Turbans by filmmaker Erika Surat Andersen based on her Grandmother Kartar Dhillon¹s recollection of being the first Sikh family living on the West Coast in the early 20th century, was funded by NAATA.

The San Francisco Internationl Asian American Film Festivals is presented each year in March from the second through third Thursday.

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Yvonne Walter