Cool Thing To Do Alert: The Austin Asian American Film Festival is Wilder Than You Think

Considering how busy we are in all of our lives and how many film screening opportunities there are going on all the time in Austin, we might occasionally overlook something pretty great. This is pretty great.

The Austin Asian American Film Festival (AAAFF) kicks off this Thursday at the Marchesa. Their programming team has assembled a really terrific lineup including the exceptional doc THE CHINESE MAYOR, the crazed, experimental (Christopher Doyle-shot) Philippine experimental feature RUINED HEART, THE KILLING FIELDS OF DR. HAING S. NGOR with director Arthur Dong in attendance, and, my favorite, the transgressive, reality-bending youthquake ATOMIC HEART from Iran, which definitely makes Tehran look like the strangest city on earth right now.

Along the way there is a K-Pop party, an AAAFF Comedy Night and more. There are badges and passes for sale on the AAAFF site and most events will have individual tickets for sale at the box office.

Also: AFS members can get $10 off badges and film passes to this year’s festival by using discount codes at checkout. Use “afspass10” for passes and “afsbadge10” for badges.