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Filipino filmmakers roundtable

Written By: Saiya Floyd   It was hard for the panelists of the Filipino Filmmakers Roundtable at AAIFF43 to imagine such a gathering as little as five years ago. A common theme for the night was how far, and how quickly the Filipino filmmaking commun ...

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Chasing the American dream in ‘Take Out Girl’

Written By: Saiya Floyd   The first glimpse we get of Tera — the protagonist of “Take Out Girl” — is of the back of her head. More specifically, the baseball cap that says “Never Compromise.” And neither Tera or the movie does.  When we meet T ...

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Academic integrity versus ‘Stealing School’

Written By: Saiya Floyd On its surface, “Stealing School” is about the academic trial of an undergrad student accused of cheating on her final paper. But the film — writer/director Li Dong’s feature debut —  is made stronger by the various subplots ...

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How filmmakers are coping during COVID-19

Written By: Saiya Floyd   Earlier this summer, we spoke to three New York based artists on how they were handling the current pandemic. We spoke to Wynton Wong (interview on 5/13/20), Vera Chow (interview on 5/14/20), and Chithra Jeyaram (interview on 6/1 ...

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Farewell to ‘Fresh Off the Boat’

Written By: Saiya Floyd Looking back, the 2010s were a jolt of energy that catapulted Asian American media representation solidly into the mainstream. Of course there had been a few breakthrough stars before the 2010s, and a few movies and TV shows th ...

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A New York minute with Celia Au

Written By: Saiya Floyd The first thing that strikes you when you see Celia Au in person is that she’s cool. She strides into Housing Works Bookstore and Cafe in SoHo, in a mostly black ensemble (a requisite for any New Yorker), made unique with bold ...

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‘KD’ chases life after a brush with death

Written By: Saiya Floyd Imagine you’ve lived a long life as a loving father. You worked hard and did what you could to provide for your family. Then you fall into a coma for three months, and when you wake up, you hear your children planning to carry ...