This year’s showcase gives 21-and-under filmmakers of Asian descent a chance to reach a wider audience. In the midst of exams and extracurriculars, it is a feat for any student to crank out a short film, let alone ones with high production value. The seve ...
Capturing the World’s ‘Forward Momentum’
In one part of the world, the country breaks into revolution. At the same time in another, a young woman gets elected as the first Asian American to hold her political title. Wherever something is happening, and whatever that something is, someone’s life ...
The ‘ABC from NYC’ for AAPI in the USA
‘Photographic Justice: A Corky Lee Story’ is about a man and the movement he pushed into the limelight Young Kwok Corky Lee, otherwise known as “Corky,” took photos that to this day, like the Brooklyn Bridge, connect two different societies. Born in 1947 ...
Exploring the World through ‘Fire & Water’
In this big, wide world, Asian diasporas experience change and introspection in all sorts of environments. Will it be in the water? In the heat of the sun? Or the shadow of a volcano? Wherever it is, and wherever they go, there is a story worth telling. ...
Linh Tran Got the Green Light
A remarkable debut by a new young filmmaker “I have no idea what I’m doing with my career,” Linh Tran candidly stated via phone interview. That uncertainty is confidently felt throughout her debut feature, “Waiting for the Light to Change.” Tran’s film, w ...
Migrant Massage Workers Make Their Own Narrative
‘Fly in Power’ is a call to action Content Warning: This article contains a brief mention of a suicide or murder. When Song Yang died in a police raid in 2017, she became a symbol of sex trafficking victims in the massage parlors of New York City. The do ...
Postscript: The Fall of the I-Hotel
Editor’s Note: “The Fall of the I-Hotel Postscript” originally screened at AAIFF85. It is a documentary that follows the San Francisco Filipino community’s resistance against the systemic destruction of Manilatown, including the forced eviction of 50 elde ...
‘Leading from the Front’ of Asian American Identity
The zeitgeist of Asians in the United States is defined by questions: How do we bear the sacrifices of our families who decided to stake our futures on this land? With whom do we connect as a nationality defined by the world’s ethnicities? And as we look ...
‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ and the importance of reinterpreting stories
This article contains spoilers. Every so often, Hollywood releases an all-female, or all-POC version of a classic story, like the 2016 version of “Ghostbusters” or the 2014 version of “About Last Night.” And when that happens, you can bet that there wi ...