Austin Asian American Film Festival
Submitted by Chale Nafus on October 10, 2008 - 1:29pm.
Screenings News
Three more days of the AAAFF.
Thursday night (10.09.08) I attended the opening night film for the Austin Asian American Film Festival: HOLLYWOOD CHINESE. Veteran documentary filmmaker Arthur Dong has created what I consider one of the finest social history films ever made. In his exploration of one-hundred years of Hollywood films with Chinese-American actors, he has uncovered so many unknown stories, many revealing unpleasant truths about American racism and some pleasant surprises about Chinese-American filmmakers creating their own stories on film as early as the 1910s. Archival footage of such stars as Anna May Wong and contemporary interviews with luminaries such as Nancy Kwan, Ang Lee, Justin Lin, Joan Chen, James Hong, and B.D. Wong make the documentary constantly engrossing and illuminating. The DVD will be released in a few weeks. I will post a link at that time.
In the meantime there are over 40 more feature films, documentaries, and shorts to be seen in the remaining 3 days of the Austin Asian American Film Festival. Check this website for information. Some that I hope to see:
BEHIND FORGOTTEN EYES
JOYFUL LIFE
LONG STORY SHORT (with special guests Jodi Long and Christine Choy)
LOVERS (Carl Zhang)
MAHJONG AND CHICKEN FEET
NO SMOKING (Anurag Kashyap, India)
PRETTY TO THINK SO (director Francis Hsueh in attendance)
ROYA AND OMID
SANTA MESA (Philippines)
STILL LIFE (Jia Zhang-Ke, director of THE WORLD and UNKNOWN PLEASURES, films previously shown by AFS)
VINCENT WHO?
WHO KILLED VINCENT CHIN?
WINGS OF DEFEAT (kamikaze pilots of WW 2)
WONDERFUL TOWN
Plus, a selection of wonderful short films and a great lineup of parties for badge-holders.
Congratulations to tireless festival director Masashi Niwano and his wonderful staff of hard-working volunteers, who are adding so much to the cultural richness of Austin.
