24TH SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL

The Nation’s Premier Showcase for Asian American and
Asian Cinema Wraps and Announces Award-Winners

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival concluded its 24th annual event with 127 films and videos from over 28 countries showcased over eleven days across three cities: San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose. The event drew an attendance of over 27,000, including over 200 filmmakers and industry guests from around the world. A record 49 of 91 screenings sold out.

Among the highlights from the Festival was the announcement of the winners of its second annual juried competitions and Comcast/AZN Audience Awards at the Closing Night Gala held on March 23 at San Francisco’s historic Palace of Fine Arts. The juried awards were presented in two categories—Narrative Competition and Documentary Competition—for feature-length films by or about Asian Americans or Asian Canadians. The Audience Awards, voted by Festival audiences, were presented in two categories as well—Narratives and Documentaries—and were open to all feature-length films.

The Best Narrative Feature Award went to PUNCHING AT THE SUN, first-time feature director Tanuj Chopra’s piercing look into the contemporary experience of South Asian American youth. PUNCHING AT THE SUN was the Opening Night film for the San Jose portion of the program. The Narrative Competition jury, comprised of senior editor and film critic for the Village Voice Dennis Lim, award-winning cinematographer Hiro Narita (FAREWELL TO MANZANAR) and Emmy-award-winning producer David Liu, also presented a Special Jury Award to Richard Wong’s COLMA: THE MUSICAL, an exuberant musical set in the suburban town of Colma. The film made its world premiere at the Festival.

The Best Documentary Feature Award was given to filmmakers Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim’s documentary ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story, about a thirteen-year-old Japanese girl abducted by North Korean spies in 1977. The Documentary Competition jury, comprised of veteran producer/director/writer/educator Felicia Lowe (CARVED IN SILENCE), co-director of California Newsreel Cornelius Moore, WGBH executive for FRONTLINE/WORLD Sharon Tiller, also gave a Special Jury Award to Cheuk Kwan’s CHINESE RESTAURANTS: LATIN PASSIONS, which made its North American Premiere at the festival.

The Comcast/AZN Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature was a tie between Ham Tran’s Closing Night film JOURNEY FROM THE FALL, which dramatizes the traumatic aftermath of the Vietnam War, and Deepa Mehta’s Centerpiece film WATER, the conclusion to her “Elemental Trilogy,” telling the story of widows in India. The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to David Grabias and Nicole Newnham’s SENTENCED HOME, the heart-breaking story of three Cambodian American men facing deportation back to Cambodia.

The biggest story of the Festival was the watershed of Asian American narrative features, of which there were twelve in competition—double that of any previous year. Audiences were abuzz with the quality and quantity of the films. “This was a historic, break-out year for Asian American cinema,” declared Festival Director Chi-hui Yang. “We saw record audiences at the Festival, and a momentum and excitement generated that will follow these films through their theatrical releases and continue to build audiences for Asian American cinema nation-wide.” In addition to award-winners PUNCHING AT THE SUN, COLMA: THE MUSICAL and JOURNEY FROM THE FALL, films like Eric Byler’s Opening Night film AMERICANese, Frank Lin’s AMERICAN FUSION, Julia Kwan’s EVE & THE FIRE HORSE and Georgia Lee’s RED DOORS garnered considerable attention, as did the world premieres of Abraham Lim’s THE ACHIEVERS and Vu T. Thu Ha’s KIEU.

AMERICANese, an adaptation of Shawn Wong’s groundbreaking novel American Knees, which depicted the long-marginalized love lives of Asian Americans, kicked off a focus on Asian American men on screen, featuring a Spotlight on James Shigeta, Hollywood’s first Asian American male actor to be groomed as a romantic lead. The Festival screened three classics from Shigeta’s career including Samuel Fuller’s THE CRIMSON KIMONO (1959), James Clavell’s WALK LIKE A DRAGON (1960) and Etienne Périer’s BRIDGE TO THE SUN (1961). The screening of THE CRIMSON KIMONO was followed by an on-stage conversation between Shigeta and award-winning filmmaker Arthur Dong, but not before a rousing standing ovation from the audience. San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s documentary THE SLANTED SCREEN explored the history of Asian American men on screen; the screening was followed by a panel discussion featuring stars Daniel Dae Kim (LOST) and Jason Scott Lee (DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY), two actors who have broken the mold to portray romantic lead roles in Hollywood.

James Shigeta, Daniel Dae Kim and Jason Scott Lee also headed a long list of stars appearing at the Festival that also included Joan Chen, Tamlyn Tomita, Esai Morales, Collin Chou, Kieu Chinh, Sab Shimono and Michelle Krusiec.

Films and filmmakers from Asia remained extremely popular at the Festival this year. The Festival held the North American Premiere of Han Jae-rim’s RULES OF DATING from South Korea. The Festival also hosted the U.S. Premieres of DREAMING LHASA from India/UK, with filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam in attendance, of Tizuka Yamasaki’s GAIJIN 2: LOVE ME AS I AM from Brazil, and of Nobuhiro Yamashita’s LINDA LINDA LINDA from Japan. Other popular international films included Wisit Sasanatieng’s CITIZEN DOG from Thailand, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s CAFÉ LUMIERE from Japan, Zhang Lu’s GRAIN IN EAR from South Korea/China, Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s MEMORIES IN THE MIST from India and Eric Khoo’s BE WITH ME from Singapore.

The Center for Asian American Media announced on Opening Night its new Executive Director, Stephen Gong, a founding member of the organization, a longtime board member and the former Associate Director of Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Former Executive Director Eddie Wong had stepped down in January.

The Center for Asian American Media (formerly NAATA) is a nonprofit media arts organization dedicated to: informing and educating the general public about the Asian American experience through film and public television; advocating for increasing the presence of Asian Americans and the accuracy of the portrayals of them in mainstream media; exhibiting Asian American films and videos on public television and during our annual San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival; funding Asian American projects and filmmakers; and distributing their work to schools, universities, libraries and community groups around the country.

The 24th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, presented by the Center for Asian American Media, formerly NAATA, is supported in part by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Asian Art Museum, Cathay Pacific Airways, Comcast, Consulate General of Canada, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, Koret Foundation, KQED, KTSF TV, Michelob Light (Official Beer Sponsor), National Endowment for the Arts, NOON, NBC 11, Oscar Printing, San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, San Jose Mercury News (Official Newspaper Sponsor), Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco, University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim and Master of Arts in Asia Pacific Studies, David and Aileen Wang Family Foundation, and Wells Fargo Foundation. The Center is supported with major funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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