Presenters of the Asian American International Film Festival
Revisiting Early AAIFF Films and Their Modern Counterparts In curating this year's archival program, programmer Hai-Li Kong sought to explore the limitless possibilities of film as a medium, selecting works that push the boundaries of how film can be ...
Moral Grays In ‘Chaperone’ Interview sections were edited for clarity and concision. When a 17-year-old boy mistook director Zoë Eisenberg for a fellow high schooler and asked her out to a party, she replied incredulously, “I’m 30. I’m also married ...
The high stakes of Ashley Chea’s hoop dreams Through what was initially a project about the formation of Asian American basketball leagues, director Erica Tanamachi and producer Jenn Lee Smith found a contemporary story that they could intertwine with ...
KENJI TSUKAMOTO’S ‘ASHIMA’ AND HOLLY M. KAPLAN’S ‘SUNFLOWER GIRL’ As one might expect, all of our selections at the Asian-American International Film Festival cover a wide range of perspectives across various diaspora – from men and women, to the ver ...
A Korean-American teen’s coming of age “Why do you smoke?” Korean American teen, Hayoung, asks her father. He’s a man whose charisma seems to radiate effortlessly and, at times, makes him feel aloof. “It’s bad for you,” she adds, seamlessly switching from ...
Big Brother is Watching What must it be like, to live in constant fear of a government you escaped from but can never truly abandon? C35 Film’s Yi Chen explores that question in her latest film to grace the film festival circuit: “Dissidents.” Chen remar ...
An Immigrant’s Story Told Through Dance Even the editing feels like a slow and perfectly punctuated tango in Ryan Moore’s award-winning short film “When We Danced” (2023). The flow of the opening and the magnificent visuals move together gracefully, trans ...
A film by the community, for the community “I’m Not An Activist” takes an inside look at the Dragon Combat Club (DCC), “an NYC-based volunteer initiative for community self-defense.” The club was formed in 2020. They offer free, self-defense classes in N ...
A Personal Look Into Finding a Character’s Desires In many ways, filmmaking is a personal outlet for filmmakers. Since graduating from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Kathy Meng has aimed to tell stories through the medium that are personal and familiar. He ...