Presenters of the Asian American International Film Festival
A new generation of filmmaking is coming out of Hong Kong. But can we watch it? Living between worlds When I was about eight years old, my mum and I went to a caa caan teng – the Cantonese name for a Hong Kong style diner – for a quick meal. These ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
When the American Dream is a Calvino dreamed by the whole world, respectively. In Mandarin, “Yi” means “one,” and “Nan” means “man.” “Many people think that my name has something to do with the one-child policy, but my mom said the name was given by a ...
A conversation between Celine Song and Jeff Yang On January 23rd, the Lila Acheson Wallace Auditorium at the Asia Society was packed with people who had come to hear a conversation between author Jeff Yang and director Celine Song. Just that morning, Song ...
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 ...